Morphology and History of Development of the Moscow River Valley in the Late Glacial and Holocene

The morphology of the floodplain–channel complex of the Moscow River and its development history before the beginning of intensive human intervention in its functioning are considered. The Moscow River valley reflects the lithological structure of the river basin in its various parts, as well as the relationship with the morphostructural plan of the upper and lower parts of the basin. According to the general morphology and floodplain–channel complex, the entire river valley can be divided into several morphologically homogeneous sections: Mozhaisk and Tuchkovo areas in the upper reaches, Zvenigorod–Moscow in the middle reaches, and an area with different widths of floodplains in the lower reaches. Each area is dominated by its own relief of floodplain–channel complexes: large macromeanders, the embedded nonfloodplain part, again macromeanders, and a set of different forms of floodplain relief in the alternating valley narrowing and widening in the lower area. The Late Glacial and Holocene history of the river was reconstructed based on the floodplain relief features in different parts of the valley and based on earlier studies. The radiocarbon dating of floodplain (oxbow) deposits recovered from different morphological sections of the floodplain–channel complexes of the river helped to reconstruct the natural development stages of the river valley during these periods: high water content and runoff coefficient in the Late Glacial, low water content in the early Holocene, floodplain rivers with many channels in the Late Holocene, and the current stage of active interaction of the natural and anthropogenic valley- and riverbed-forming processes. It is obvious that the first three stages ultimately served as a natural basis which over the past hundreds of years has been actively influenced by human activity. Meanwhile, traces of micromeanders found in the floodplain only in the lower reaches, marking a certain stage at the beginning of the sub-Atlantic period of the Holocene, have not yet been explained in the evolutionary series of the valley, floodplain, and riverbed of the Moscow River.