| Abstract: |
The Lower Central Plain or Chao Phraya Plain, located in the upper Gulf of Thailand, has an average elevation of 2 m above the present mean sea level. It is a fault bounded basin developed in the Plio-Pleistocene epoch. Consequently, the basin has been filled with Quaternary sediment reaching a thickness of almost 2000 m, of which only the upper 300 m is known. The Pleistocene deposits of the Lower Central Plain represent a complex interplay of alluvial, fluvial and deltaic environments of the Chao Phraya River and its tributaries. The upper sequence of sand and stiff clay with iron-oxide concretions on the surface was deposited in a fluviatile environment subjected to a regressive period in the late Pleistocene. The term Chao Phraya delta is used to define the landform where the Chao Phraya River interacted with marine processes as the sea level changed during the Holocene transgression. These strata indicated that the Holocene sea reached its maximum height of 4 m above the present mean sea level around 6000 years B.P.
from then on sea level fluctuated until it reached its present level around 1500 years B.P. This complex sea level history has caused the progradation of tidal flat, and tide-dominated delta deposits, consisting of soft marine clay, that covered the Lower Central Plain to an average depth of 15 m in the Bangkok area. The soft marine clay or Bangkok clay is the most important unit in the stratigraphic sequence in terms of land subsidence in the Lower Central Plain. Evidence of coastal erosion is also considerable in the low tidal flat area on the west bank of the Chao Phraya River mouth and adjacent coast.
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