- From Megachad to Microchad - environmental changes during the
Holocene (2000) - The investigations carried out within the
project in NE-Nigeria since 1989 have been focussing on the late
Pleistocene and Holocene landscape development of the south
eastern Chad basin. Areas of interest include palaeodune fields,
clay plains and former beach ridge systems of Lake Chad.
Transgressions and regressions of Lake Chad played an important
role in the younger landscape history of NE-Nigeria and have
also caused great environmental changes. The term „Megachad“ is
well known and describes an enormous lake with an extension
comparable with the Caspian Sea of today. The term „Microchad“
stands for the other recent extreme in terms of the lake
dimensions varying during the times. Environmental changes in
the surroundings of Lake Chad are closely connected with
transgressions and regressions of the lake. These lake level
changes can be climatically induced as well as non-climatically,
due to human impact. Nearly all land un