The campine plateau

Abstract

Once occupied by shallow and wide braided channels of the Meuse and Rhine rivers around the Early to Middle Pleistocene transition, transporting and depositing debris from southern origin, the Campine Plateau became a positive relief as the combined result of uplift, the protective role of the sedimentary cover, and presumably also base level fluctuations. The escarpments bordering the Campine Plateau are tectonic or erosional in origin, showing characteristics of both a fault footwall in a graben system, a fluvial terrace, and a pediment. The intensive post-depositional evolution is attested by numerous traces of chemical and physical weathering during (warm) interglacials and glacials respectively. The unique interplay between tectonics, climate, and geomorphological processes led to the preservation of economically valuable natural resources, such as gravel, construction sand, and glass sand. Conversely, their extraction opened new windows onto the geological and geomorphological evolution of the Campine Plateau adding to the geoheritage potential of the first Belgian national park, the National Park Hoge Kempen. In this chapter, the origin and evolution of this particular landscape is explained and illustrated by several remarkable geomorphological highlights.