# The river Dniester valley: a long record of late-Cenozoic fluvial evolution within the Eastern Carpathian foreland and East European Platform margin

## TL;DR

This paper studies the long-term evolution of the Dniester River valley, showing how tectonic and environmental changes shaped its fluvial systems over millions of years.

## Contribution

The study introduces a combined lithofacies–architecture–morphological approach to better understand the valley's evolution.

## Key findings

- The Dniester valley's evolution spans from the late Miocene to the Quaternary, influenced by tectonic and environmental changes.
- Tectonic factors like flexural deformation and uplift were decisive in shaping the valley's fluvial systems.
- The valley's four plain reaches show distinct features from different evolutionary stages.

## Abstract

The Dniester valley is a spectacular example of a degrading bedrock fluvial system at the contact between the East European platform and the Carpathian orogen. This study is based upon a combined lithofacies–architecture–morphological study. The complex approach replaces an erstwhile conventional pure geomorphological one, eliminating the shortcomings and inaccuracies, providing a more justified stratigraphy and extended version of the valley evolution. The history of the valley and associated fluvial systems (alluvial fans, delta, coastal alluvial plains) occurred at the end of the Miocene and continued through the Pliocene-Quaternary (11–12 Myr). It unfolded against the background of the retreat of the Eastern Paratethys sea, including the ‘foreland’ and ‘cratonic’ periods and their seven stages. The spatial organization of the river’s drainage networks, sedimentary environments, fluvial styles and landforms changed gradually during these intervals and experienced rapid reorganization when they were replaced. All this left characteristic features within the valley’s four established plain reaches. The tectonic control on these changes through flexural deformation and accelerated uplift/tilt within the platform was decisive while the impact of climatic changes remained problematic. The issues of the river terraces correlation, base-level oscillations, influence of the rock’s erodibility and non-fluvial processes are also considered.