ANCIENT DRAINAGE SYSTEM OF THE YELLOW RIVER ON NORTH CHINA PLAIN

A study of several NE_SW-trending sand belts buried 20~35m underground in North China Plain from geophysical and drilling and experimental data has been carried out for a rational exploitation and utilization of ground water. These sand belts are of alluvial facies,representing ancient stream channels of the Yellow River. From their distributions,heavy mineral associations,and scale,and fossil contents and ¹⁴C dating they are known to have formed during the period spanning Late lce Age to Early Holocene. They cut into the interglacial brown clay and indicates that the Yellow River might have passed through the Sanmen Gorge in the Late lce Age and left some traces of Bohai Sea on the continental shelf.