The Great Red River Raft and its Sedimentological Implications - Reconstructing Human-Landscape Interactions: Interpreting Desert and Fluvial Environments - page 37

Fig. 1 Red River location (Foster et al. 1987 , USACE)

might have existed in Southern Asia and Australia, but have not been documented
and do not approach the Great Red River Raft in size or duration.
Theories on how this Raft developed include seasonal climatic patterns, cata-
strophic flooding, climatic change, and prehistoric human activities. It is believed
that the initial formation of the raft was probably triggered by a combination of
catastrophic flooding as the Red River was going through some major geomorphic
threshold, like the last major avulsion through Moncla Gap (Fig. 2 ). The shifting
geomorphic conditions in conjunction with extensive precipitation (i.e. a pluvial),