The river terraces are sedimentary stepped deposits attached to the courses of the rivers. They are the result of alternating periods of erosion and deposits of rivers, generally associated with changes in the level of the river base, climatic pulsations, or tectonic movements. The Royal Irrigation Canal of Montcada traverses these environments in its first stretch, between the weir and the rest of the municipality of Paterna.

The Royal Irrigation Canal of Montcada runs, through its initial stretch, in parallel to the Túria River. The river flows boxed in between the lower slopes of the Quart and the Miocene elevations of the Fountain of the Vase and forms a narrow valley that widens, slowly, downstream.
A transversal cross section reveals a stepped profile. These are the terraces that the river has built in successive stages during the Quaternary, which, in alternating between the erosive and depository behaviors of the sediments, the river fills or settles the valley with sediment.
The geomorphologist Pilar Carmona studied, three decades ago, these terraces, cartographically charted the sedimentary deposits and built its chronological sequence, placing it in relation to other materials in the alluvial plain of the Túria.
The oldest terrace levels can be found immediately upstream from the weir and are associated with the last glacial period. The terraces further downstream, the ones irrigated by the Community of Montcada, between the weir and Paterna, correspond to the most recent past, and, are even considered active, since they are still subjected to the effects of the floods on the river.

MEDIEVAL PERIOD
(Al-Andalus) [711-1238]

MEDIEVAL PERIOD
(Kingdom of València) [1239-1453]

MODERN PERIOD [1454-1789]

CONTEMPORARY PERIOD [1790-2012]