RESEARCH PAPER
An assessment of oxbow lakes and their potential in reconstructing past river discharge: Implication to reconstruct past climate in Southern West Bengal
 
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1
Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata, India
 
2
Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata, India
 
3
Department of Neotectonics and Thermochronology, Institute of Rock Structure and Mechanics, Czech Republic
 
4
Geochronology and AMS Group, Inter University Acceleration Center, India
 
5
Department of Geology, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Avadh University, India
 
 
Submission date: 2023-09-25
 
 
Acceptance date: 2024-08-19
 
 
Online publication date: 2024-08-26
 
 
Publication date: 2024-08-26
 
 
Corresponding author
Manoj Kumar Jaiswal   

Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) Kolkata, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, 741246, Mohanpur, District- Nadia, India
 
 
Geochronometria 2024;51(1)
 
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ABSTRACT
For modern fluvial systems, stage height, velocity, and cross-section help estimate a river’s discharge. However, understanding the amount and fluctuations of past discharges remains a challenge. The dimen-sions of the meander loops/oxbow lakes are directly proportional to the river’s discharge and the sedi-ment load type. Central West Bengal, India, has a complex network of numerous oxbow lakes as a rem-nant of the river Hooghly, a major distributary of the River Ganga. The present work revisits Schumm’s classic work to estimate river discharges from the meander loops and explores a potential proxy for es-timating past discharges. Thus, it is extended to reconstruct past climate using grain size data, facies analysis, and the dimension of the meander loops coupled with the luminescence chronology of oxbow lakes. The study reveals that the region received good rainfall during reported periods of intense mon-soon, and the increased discharge at different time intervals has given rise to numerous oxbow lakes. The discharge values have shown considerable fluctuations, rising to 15 to 20 times the current value and very few anomalously high, even up to 250 to 300 times, left unrecorded from other archives. The study shows the preservation of systematic growth of discharges and the meander loops with climate re-vealing events with anomalously high (and so highly disastrous) discharges at the scale of tens of thou-sands of years, usually missed from other archives. Results from Ichhamati and Hooghly River meander loops in West Bengal, India, indicate a manifold increase of discharges from the current during 1–1.5 ka (known as the Medieval Warm Period); around 2.2 ka and around 3.9 ka with low or gaps of enhanced monsoon, e.g., Little Ice Age and during 2.5–3.5 ka. This is an effort to show the potential of past mean-der loops to be explored well for comprehensive records.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I want to extend my kind gratitude to UGC for the finan-cial assistance that made it easy to carry out this study; the authors are also grateful to the IISER Kolkata for providing all the necessities regarding field arrangement and lab accessibility.
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