The Scarpe plain is a depression in the Eocene marine sands between the Pevele and Ostrevant regions. A "high plain" is distinguished northwards from a "low plain" southwards. The infilling is mainly sandy (with a peaty part in the low plain). Numerous micro-topographies are scattered throughout the plain. The small water courses which drain the plain are not proportionate to its size. The laying of a gas pipeline across the plain was preceded by archaeological borings. We present the stratigraphy as a long cross-section and propose an evolution scenario for the plain since the Weichselian Upper Pleniglacial. The sedimentation consists mainly of sandy beds alternating with loamy laminae. This alluvial sheet, present everywhere in the plain, was deposited under strongly contrasted hydrological conditions during the Weichselian Upper Pleniglacial (OSL dates about 34,21 and 21 ka). It may be correlated to the northern sand belt Older coversand I. Repeated avulsions of wide yet shallow channels have left deflection marks in the micro-topography. The high plain is comparable to flat and broad alluvial fans emanating from the Pévèle.At the end of the Weichselian Upper Pleniglacial, under a dryer climate, small elongated dunes (sand or sand alternating with loess) formed in the center of the plain or alongside the Pévèle border (OSL dates about 19 and 15 ka). This phase is at least partly contemporary with the Beuningen gravel bed. An ultimate deflation phase is imputed to the Younger Dryas. This last aeolian deposit is even fainter and looks like a thin yet continuous sheet restricted to a large southern part of the plain. Slightly scoured Late Glacial and Holocene streams can be found in the last state of Pleniglacial channels (C14 dates since 12 345 BP). The former main Pleniglacial channels may thus constitute the overbank channel of the faint Late Glacial and Holocene channels. During the Holocene, the water table rose and consecutively the peat spread in the lower areas of the plain. The widely spread yet often thin peat gradually takes over and blurs the Pleistocene topography. We have crossed three Late Glacial-Holocene channel systems (two Scarpe minor channels and an affluent). Two of them are detailed. The Vred meander bears traces of archaeological remains (a Bronze Age bridge-like structure from around 1000-800 AD) and of anthropic piracy in the upstream "Satis" during the Early Middle Ages (calcareous tufa loam flood deposits).
