Climatic and tectonic controls on deposition in the Heidelberg Basin, Upper Rhine graben, Germany

Abstract

The Upper Rhine Graben in Central Europe, and notably its depocentre in the Heidelberg Basin, is an archive of complex and long-lasting deposition throughout the Quaternary. A new drill core, 136 m long, from the southern Heidelberg Basin is investigated by characterising sedimentary facies, sediment provenance, as well as analysing the pollen and mollusc content. The chronological framework is based on post-infrared infrared-stimulated luminescence dating, and complemented with amino acid geochronology. The sediment sequence consists of fluvial, colluvial, and palustrine deposits that represent at least the last ∼500 ka, interrupted by some, major and minor, hiatuses. In the lower part, fluvial gravel and colluvial diamicts of a lateral alluvial fan into the Upper Rhine Graben prevail. The central part of the succession consists of a large-scale fining upward cycle that contains increasing amounts of material from the Alps delivered by the Rhine river. This sequence terminates with palustrine fines with rich mollusc and pollen assemblages that allow for a detailed reconstruction of environmental conditions. The results of pIRIR dating place the palustrine deposits in marine isotope stage 11. However, the pollen profile shares similarities with the Mannheim Interglacial that has previously been assigned to the Cromerian, a correlation that is supported by the amino acid geochronology, which poses a chronostratigraphical problem. In the upper part, Alpine sediments are progressively replaced by a new alluvial fan from the graben margin with striking variations in grain size. Overall, the diverse succession is the result of an interplay of tectonic activity and climatic factors. While subsidence triggers the generation of accommodation space and river deflection, pulses of coarse sediment are probably related to periglacial weathering, mass wasting and short-scale transport during cold periods.