Climatic imprints in Quaternary valley fill deposits of the middle Teesta valley, Sikkim Himalaya

Abstract

Quaternary alluvial sediments occur as distinct terrace and fan deposits in the middle Teesta valley in the belt between the Main Central Thrust and the Main Boundary Thrust in the Sikkim Himalaya. These sequences are characterized by lithofacies deposited by braided river channels, debris flows and hyperconcentrated flows. The channel flow deposits constitute relatively well sorted, well imbricated and clast-supported gravels with coarse to medium sand matrix. Mostly poorly sorted, weakly imbricated to disorganized matrix supported pebble to boulder gravels with silty sand represent debris flow deposits. Hyperconcentrated flow deposits consist of clast-supported, poorly developed sorted polymodal gravel facies with poorly developed imbricated fabric, and generally occupy the lower parts of the terrace and fan sequences. The alternation from hyperconcentrated flow to channel flow deposits is predominant in the sequence, and is possibly the response to different climate modes. The high discharge and supply of sediments as well as the dispersal and deposition of these materials in the trunk stream is attributed to millennial-multimillennial climatic perturbations during the Quaternary. Climate change has a dominant role in the valley aggradation and incision cycle.