Fluvial archives of north and northwestern India as recorders of climatic signatures in the late Quaternary: review and assessment

The Indian sub-continent is characterized by extremely variable climatic regimes at present, and this strong climatic diversity is also reflected during late Quaternary and Holocene time scales. Fluvial archives across different morpho-climatic zones of India record variable response to monsoonal fluctuations through time as preserved in patterns of sedimentary sequences and characteristic facies. This study has compiled the fluvial records from north and northwestern India to synthesize the palaeoclimatic information available from this broad region and to assess the coherence or otherwise of these records across widely different morpho-climatic regimes. Rivers across different regions of India show widespread floodplain aggradation during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS)-5 but responded quite differently during MIS-4 e.g. degradation in the Ganga plains and aeolian deposition in the western part. Significant discontinuities were developed in the interfluves of the Ganga plains during MIS-3 and 2 whereas the western Indian rivers recorded variable response. The Holocene monsoonal fluctuations are manifested in widespread incision across western India and several events of valley filing in the Ganga plains.