DESERT FLASH FLOOD SERIES - SLACKWATER DEPOSITS AND FLOODOUTS IN NAMIBIA: THEIR SIGNIFICANCE FOR PALAEOCLIMATIC AND ENVIRONMENTAL RECONSTRUCTIONS IN THE ANTHROPOCENE

Progress towards a better understanding of the dynamics and deposits of Namib Desert ephemeral rivers demands an interdisciplinary approach to a large number of unresolved problems. Although many advances have been made within recent years in interpreting deposits of ephemeral desert rivers with respect to their palaeoenvironmental and palaeohydrologic information, many key issues remain to be addressed. In particular, work on fine-grained valley-fills (so called silts) has led to differing interpretations of their depositional environment, including river-end, palaeoflood and floodout deposits. Here, we present them within the concept of a hierarchical dynamic stratigraphy to investigate the relationships between heterogeneous deposits of ephemeral desert streams, using the desert flash flood series model, helping us to understand and interpret deposits of ephemeral desert streams palaeoenvironmentally.