Abstract
BRUNO DIETRICH, of Potsdam, has made ageographical study of the Moselle valley (“Morphologie des Moselgebietes zwischen Trier und Alf,” Verhandl. des naturhist. Vereins der preuss. Rheinlande, 1911, for 1910, p. 83). Basing his description on the geological structure and history of the district, he shows how the valley has been cut in a pre-Miocene surface of denudation. The meanders that arose on this fairly even surface are now traced as winding ravines (p. 120), owing to the elevation of the country and the consequent lowering of the base-level of the Moselle. The tributaries of the left bank, however, are held to have been incapable of forming such large meanders as are now seen in the forms of their ravines. At present they wander somewhat aimlessly in the flat land of their floors, now cutting back one valley-wall, now the other. Their valley-flats (Talauen) are attributed to lateral erosion at a time when the land remained stationary for a time (p. 130), and we gather that these flats have become perpetuated during the general lowering of the valley-floors. For those who do not know the details of the ground, the argument seems to require further development, since it may be urged that the large meanders arose when the tributaries received much more water from the drainage of the plateau, while the Talauen represent the natural consequence of the diminution in volume of the streams. The “misfit” of a small meandering streamlet in a widely meandering valley reminds us of the conditions of the Altmühl valley, near Eichstätt, which is believed at one time to have held the Danube. An interesting account is given (p. 164) of the changes that have taken place where the Moselle traverses the sunken area of Wittlich. This depression is attributed to Middle Cainozoic earth-movements, and its form has become moulded by the Moselle and its tributaries, which have removed an immense amount of the yielding Permian strata and have left courses illustrating dry loopsand river-capture.
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C., G. Rivers, Glaciers, and the Ice-Age . Nature 90, 444–446 (1912). https://doi.org/10.1038/090444b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/090444b0