A small-scale flood plain |
| |
Authors: | DENIS A HUGHES JOHN LEWIN† |
| |
Institution: | Hydrological Research Unit, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa;Geography Department, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, U.K. |
| |
Abstract: | A miniature, 9 m-wide floodplain, developed along a gravel-washing effluent stream, shows features such as levées, crevasse splays and floodbasins which compare with their larger-scale counterparts. For sediments deposited overbank, median size decreases exponentially with distance from the channel whilst sorting increases, with coarser sediment on the outside of a meander bend. Overbank flows are only a few grain diameters in depth near the channel. This study shows potentially useful systematic relationships in floodplain sediment textures, but it involves only one of a possible variety of floodplain types dominated by overbank sedimentation. This suggests that further exploration of overbank depositional processes is desirable as an aid to field interpretation. |
| |
Keywords: | |
|
|