Holocene versus modern catchment erosion rates at 300 MW Baspa II hydroelectric power plant (India, NW Himalaya)
- Author(s)
- Erich Draganits, Susanne Gier, Christa Hofmann, Christoph Janda, Bodo Bookhagen, Bernhard Grasemann
- Abstract
300MW Baspa II is India's largest private hydroelectric facility, located at the Baspa River which is an important left-hand tributary to the Sutlej River in the NW Himalaya (India). In this valley the Sangla palaeo-lake has been dammed around 8200yr BP behind a rock-avalanche dam and Baspa II is located exactly on top of this palaeo-lake. This special location represents a very rare possibility to evaluate the short-term, river load and hydrological parameters measured during the planning and operational stages of Baspa II with the long-term parameters gained from the palaeo-lake sediments from the catchment. Sedimentological and geomorphological investigations of the lacustrine sediments have been used to reconstruct environmental changes during >2500years of its existence. The Mid-Holocene erosion rates of the Baspa catchment estimated from the volume and duration of deposition of the exposed lake sediments are at 0.7-1.0mmyr
-1, almost identical with the modern erosion rates calculated from river gauge data from Baspa II. Several charcoal layers and charcoal pieces from the uppermost palaeo-lake levels around 5000calyr BP might be related to woodland clearance and they possibly represent one of the oldest evidences for human presence in the Baspa Valley during Neolithic time.
- Organisation(s)
- Department of Geology, Department of Prehistoric and Historical Archaeology, Department of Palaeontology
- External organisation(s)
- Geologische Bundesanstalt, University of California, Santa Barbara
- Journal
- Journal of Asian Earth Sciences
- Volume
- 90
- Pages
- 157-172
- No. of pages
- 16
- ISSN
- 1367-9120
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jseaes.2014.04.016
- Publication date
- 04-2014
- Peer reviewed
- Yes
- Austrian Fields of Science 2012
- 105117 Palaeobotany, 105101 General geology, 601021 Prehistory, 105404 Geomorphology
- Keywords
- ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Earth-Surface Processes, Geology
- Portal url
- https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/en/publications/681bc909-3ad3-4403-8ad6-b4bc0a38b978