Trunk river and tributary interactions recorded in the Pleistocene–Holocene stratigraphy of the Po Plain (northern Italy)

Tributary rivers can contribute significantly to alluvial-plain construction by supplying large volumes of clastic material. Their relation to the main axial river strongly influences sediment deposition and preservation. The Po Plain is fed by the Po River and a dense network of transverse tributaries draining the nearby Alpine and Apennine chains. Stratigraphic, sedimentological, petrographic and geochemical analyses on 38 cores permitted detailed differentiation of Po and Apennine sedimentary units. Po River deposits are vertically stacked channel-belt sand bodies with high contents of quartz–feldspar and metamorphic rock fragments, combined with high chromium levels. These sand bodies, 20 to 30 km wide, are replaced southward by finer-grained deposits that represent the distal Apennine tributary-rivers system. Apennine sands, confined in narrow ribbons, show lower quartz–feldspar contents, abundant sedimentary lithics and lower chromium levels. In the last 870 kyr, the boundary between the Po and the Apennine sediment delivery systems shifted along a north–south axis in response to distinct controlling factors. A 20 km northward shift of the Po channel belt, possibly related to a tectonic event, is recorded across a regional unconformity dating to the Marine Isotope Stage 12/11 transition. High sediment supply rates during glacial-lowstand periods widened the Po channel belt southward towards the Apennine domain for a few kilometres. The Last Glacial Maximum channel-belt sand body, 30 km wide and 40 m thick, progressively narrowed northward after the glacial culmination. During the Holocene, channel patterns became avulsive and distributive. Narrow channel belts (<3 km) formed along the Po River branches, and abundant swamp and poorly drained-floodplain muds were preserved in interfluvial areas. Activation and deactivation of the Po branches resulted in sharp narrowing and widening of the area available for Apennine-rivers sedimentation. This work provides insights into tributary-trunk river relations which control grain-size distribution and compositional characters of subsurface deposits.