RIVERS' FEATURES ON ALLUVIAL FANS IN NORTHWEST CHINA

IINTRODUCTIONAlluvialfanisakindofsedimentogeniclandform,whichisdevelopedwhereriverflowsoutofmountain.Holdingapositionalongfootsofmostmountains,itconstittltestheimportantpartofthefluvialsedimentarysystem.Hooke(1967)describedtraditionalriverformonalluvialfans.Riversinciseandformdeepstableandunstablechannelsonupperpartsofalluvialfans.Andbelowtheintersectionpoints,riversflowoutofthevalleysinformofbraidedchannelanddepositsmallsecondaryajlluvialfansonthesurfaceofthefan.Lobeck(1939,fromRochocki…     

Sedimentary processes and facies of the waterlaid Anvil Spring Canyon alluvial fan, Death Valley, California

The Anvil Spring Canyon fan of the Panamint Range piedmont in central Death Valley was built entirely by water-flow processes, as revealed by an analysis of widespread 2- to 12-m-high stratigraphic cuts spanning the 9·7 km radial length of this 2·5–5·0° sloping fan. Two facies deposited from fan sheetfloods dominate the fan from apex to toe. The main one (60–95% of cuts) consists of sandy, granular, fine to medium pebble gravel that regularly and sharply alternates with cobbly coarse to very coarse pebble gravel in planar couplets 5–25 cm thick oriented parallel to the fan surface. The other facies (0–25% of cuts) comprises 10- to 60-cm-thick, wedge-planar and wedge-trough beds of pebbly sand and sandy pebble gravel in backsets sloping 3–28°. Both facies are interpreted as resulting from rare, sediment-charged flash floods from the catchment, and were deposited by supercritical standing waves of expanding sheetfloods on the fan. Standing waves were repeatedly initiated, enlarged, migrated, and then terminated either by gradually rejoining the flood or by more violent breakage and washout. The frequent autocyclic growth and destruction of standing waves during an individual sheetflood resulted in the deposition of multiple coarse and fine couplet and backset sequences 50–250 cm thick across the active depositional lobe of the fan. Erosional intensity during washout of the standing wave determined whether early-phase backset-bed deposits or washout-phase sheetflood couplet deposits were selectively preserved in a given cycle. Two minor facies are also found in the Anvil fan. Pebble–cobble gravel lags (0–20% of cuts) are present above erosional scours into the sheetflood couplet and backset deposits. They consist of coarse gravel concentrated through fine-fraction winnowing of the host sheetflood facies by sediment-deficient water flows. This reworking occurred during recessional flood stage or from non-catastrophic discharge during the long intervals between major flash floods. This facies is common at the surface, giving rise to a ‘braided-stream’ appearance. However, it is stratigraphically limited, present as thin, continuous to discontinuous beds or lenses that bound 50- to 250-cm-thick sheetflood sequences. The other minor facies of the Anvil fan consists of clast-supported and imbricated, thickly stratified, pebbly, cobbly, boulder gravel present in narrow, radially aligned ribbons nested within sheetflood deposits. This facies is interpreted as representing deposition in the incised channel of the fan, a subenvironment characterized by greater flow competence resulting from maintained depth from channel-wall confinement, and by more frequent water flows and winnowing events caused by its direct connection with the catchment feeder channel.     

Cause of dominance by sheetflood vs. debris-flow processes on two adjoining alluvial fans, Death Valley, California

Two large, adjoining alluvial fans of the Panamint Range piedmont, Death Valley, California, are composed of different facies assemblages deposited by contrasting sedimentary processes. The Anvil Spring fan was built solely by water-flow processes (incised-channel floods and sheetfloods), whereas the neighbouring Warm Spring fan has been constructed principally by debris flows. The boundary between these fans delineates a sharp provincial piedmont contact between sheetflood-dominated fans to the south and debris-flow-dominated fans to the north. Factors such as climate, catchment area, fan area, catchment relief, aspect, vegetation types and density, and neotectonic setting are essentially identical for these two fans. The key difference between them is that their catchments are underlain by dissimilar bedrock types, which weather to yield distinctive sediment suites. Weathering of the granite and andesite of the Anvil fan catchment produces significant volumes of medium to very coarse sand, granules, pebbles, cobbles and boulders, but minimal silt and clay. In contrast, the shale, quartzite and dolomite that dominate bedrock in the Warm Spring catchment weather to yield a wide suite of sedimentary particles spanning from clay to boulders. The abundance of mud, and the unsorted character of the yielded sediment, cause precipitation-induced slope failures in the Warm Spring catchment to transform readily into debris flows. This propensity is due to the low permeability of the colluvial sediment, which causes added water to become trapped quickly and pore pressure to rise rapidly, promoting transformations to debris flows. In contrast, the limited volume of sediment finer than medium sand yielded from the Anvil fan catchment causes the colluvium to have high permeability. This factor prevents the transformation of wet colluvium to a debris flow during hydrologically triggered slope failures, instead maintaining sediment transport as entrained bed load or suspended load in a water flow.     

Comment on “Luminescence chronology of the Sankosh river terraces in the Assam–Buthan foothills of the Himalayas: Implications to climate and tectonics” by Quaternary Geochronology 72, 101364

In a study of which the main objective was to assess the impact of climate change and tectonics on the formation of river terraces along the Sankosh River, the eastern foreland of the Himalayas, the authors obtained geochrono-logical data using luminescence technique. Four strath river terraces (T4–T1) were distinguished within the valley bottom, and alluvial sediments from three terraces (T4, T2 and T1) were dated to the age range from 143 to 14 ka. The alluvial mantels of river terraces were then linked to the scheme of glacial-interglacial cycle. The paper, however, suffers from few inconsistent and missing information, and the assessment on the landscape evolution of the river valley is incomprehensive. The authors relied on feldspars and therefore the IRSL method was used, but “OSL ages” are discussed at the end. They state that (i) tectonics creates space for sediment accommodation and (ii) the luminescence ages flank deposition and incision phases. Despite the fact that the statements are questionable, the ways these happen are not elucidated within the paper. Due to the lack of geochronological data for T3 terrace, its formation is very enigmatic. It is even more mysterious in the light of the data for the other terraces, but the authors made no attempt to explain this riddle. However, that certain inability of reconstructing the history of T3 would shed a shadow on the robustness of the ages obtained.     

Cosmogenic nuclide burial dating of an alluvial conglomerate sequence: An example from the Hexi Corridor,NE Tibetan Plateau

The thick alluvial conglomerate sequences around the Tibetan Plateau have been notoriously difficult to date. Here we use the cosmogenic nuclide burial dating method to date the Yumen and Jiuquan formations, a ∼900 m thick fanglomerate found in the Hexi Corridor, the foredeep of the Qilian Shan, and exposed in the Laojunmiao anticline. We date 16 sites with simple burial dating and 2 sites with isochron burial dating, and use these dates to reinterpret the magnetostratigraphy of the section. We suggest that the bottom of the Yumen Formation, defined by a progressive unconformity, is around 5 My. Taking this timing as the initiation of anticline growth, the long-term crustal shortening rate at the ramp zone in western Qilian Shan is about 0.72 mm/yr, consistent with those obtained from middle and eastern Qilian Shan. The boundary between the Yumen and Jiuquan Formations is near ∼1.2 My. Three other angular unconformities are dated to ∼2.6–3.1, ∼2.2–2.5, and ∼1.2–1.7 My, respectively. Burial dating offers a robust chronology for these deposits, and when combined with paleomagnetic stratigraphy offers much tighter precision.     

Mediating stream baseflow response to climate change: The role of basin storage

Inter‐basin differences in streamflow response to changes in regional hydroclimatology may reflect variations in storage characteristics that control the retention and release of water inputs. These aspects of storage could mediate a basin's sensitivity to climate change. The hypothesis that temporal trends in stream baseflow exhibit a more muted reaction to changes in precipitation and evapotranspiration for basins with greater storage was tested on the Oak Ridges Moraine (ORM) in Southern Ontario, Canada. Long‐term (>25 years) baseflow trends for 16 basins were compared to corresponding trends in precipitation amount and type and in potential evapotranspiration as well as shorter trends in groundwater levels for monitoring wells on the ORM. Inter‐basin differences in storage properties were characterized using physiographic, hydrogeologic, land use/land cover, and streamflow metrics. The latter included the slope of the basin's flow duration curve and basin dynamic storage. Most basins showed temporal increases in baseflow, consistent with limited evidence of increases and decreases in regional precipitation and snowfall: precipitation ratio, respectively, and recent increases in groundwater recharge along the crest of the ORM. Baseflow trend magnitude was uncorrelated to basin physiographic, hydrogeologic, land use/land cover, or flow duration curve characteristics. However, it was positively related to a basin's dynamic storage, particularly for basins with limited coverage of open water and wetlands. The dynamic storage approach assumes that a basin behaves as a first‐order dynamical system, and extensive open water and wetland areas in a basin may invalidate this assumption. Previous work suggested that smaller dynamic storage was linked to greater damping of temporal variations in water inputs and reduced interannual variability in streamflow regime. Storage and release of water inputs to a basin may assist in mediating baseflow response to temporal changes in regional hydroclimatology and may partly account for inter‐basin differences in that response. Such storage characteristics should be considered when forecasting the impacts of climate change on regional streamflow.     

Characteristics and implications of some Loch Lomond Stadial moraine ridges and later landforms,eastern Lake District,northern England

Moraine ridges and mounds of inferred Loch Lomond Stadial (LLS) age have been mapped at three sites (Fordingdale, Swindale and Wet Sleddale) in part of the eastern Lake District, northern England, and indicate glaciers were more widespread than envisaged by Sissons (1980, Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh: Earth Sciences, Vol. 71, pp. 13–27). The moraines delimit closely the downslope/downvalley limits of the former glaciers but there is no geomorphological evidence with which to define their upslope/upvalley margins. The former glaciers are considered to have been nourished within the confines of their individual valley, cirque and hillside embayment respectively, rather than being outlet glaciers of plateau icefields. Estimated equilibrium line altitudes (ELAs) are within the range of values determined previously for LLS glaciers in the Lake District and do not necessitate revision of established palaeoclimatic parameters. Individual ELAs were probably influenced by local factors; all three former glaciers had accumulation-area aspects between north and east, limiting the impact of direct solar radiation during the ablation season, and were adjacent to extensive areas of high ground to the west and/or south that would have facilitated transfer of snow to their surfaces by winds from those directions. In Fordingdale, three essentially contemporaneous depositional landforms occur upslope of the moraines and are considered to represent hillslope adjustments following wastage of glacier ice from the site. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Provenance discrimination of fine sediments by mid-infrared spectroscopy: Calibration and application to fluvial palaeo-environmental reconstruction

Determining sediment provenance allows a better understanding of fluvial palaeo-dynamics, and identifying involved watersheds, at broad spatio-temporal scales. Conventional approaches for source identification are usually based on the physical, mineralogical, geochemical, magnetic or isotopic properties of sediments. Rapid, non-destructive and, in well-established contexts, highly accurate, mid-infrared spectroscopy is an alternative method for investigating sediment sources. The present research objectives are: (i) to use the mid-infrared spectroscopy method to discriminate the provenance of fine sediments, by applying discriminant analysis on a large set of reference samples from three different watersheds in the Upper Rhine area (associated with the Rhine, Ill and Vosges tributaries); (ii) to clarify whether the provenance spectra signatures are influenced by riverine depositional contexts (bars versus banks) and, to some extent, by grain size and/or high organic matter content; and (iii) to apply the mid-infrared spectroscopy – discriminant analysis method to a study of fluvial palaeo-dynamics and determine the provenance of palaeo-channel infillings. Three main sedimentary sources, divided into eight sub-categories, have been characterized by 196 modern reference samples from 78 collecting sites. Discriminant analysis displayed a strong separating power by classifying correctly the origin of samples without any inter-group overlap, independently from the geomorphological context (bar or bank) and associated slight changes in organic matter contents or grain size. Mid-infrared spectroscopy – discriminant analysis investigations of the palaeo-channel infill, complemented by radiocarbon dates and mineralogical data, allowed reconstructing general trends for the local morpho-sedimentary dynamics over the last ca 12 millennia.     

Estuarine biofilm patterns: Modern analogues for Precambrian self-organization

This field and laboratory study examines whether regularly patterned biofilms on present-day intertidal flats are equivalent to microbially induced bedforms found in geological records dating back to the onset of life on Earth. Algal mats of filamentous Vaucheria species, functionally similar to microbial biofilms, cover the topographic highs of regularly spaced ridge–runnel bedforms. As regular patterning is typically associated with self-organization processes, indicators of self-organization are tested and found to support this hypothesis. The measurements suggest that biofilm-induced sediment trapping and biostabilization enhance bedform relief, strength and multi-year persistence. This demonstrates the importance of primitive organisms for sedimentary landscape development. Algal-covered ridges consist of wavy-crinkly laminated sedimentary deposits that resemble the layered structure of fossil stromatolites and microbially induced sedimentary structures. In addition to layering, both the morphological pattern and the suggested formation mechanism of the recent bedforms are strikingly similar to microbialite strata found in rock records from the Precambrian onwards. This implies that self-organization was an important morphological process in times when biofilms were the predominant sessile ecosystem. These findings furthermore emphasize that self-organization dynamics, such as critical transitions invoking ecosystem emergence or collapse, might have been captured in fossil microbialites, influencing their laminae. This notion may be important for paleoenvironmental reconstructions based on such strata. © 2019 The Authors. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd     

辐射沙脊主要水道的演变特征及其水动力机制研究

近四十年来的水下地形资料对比显示：南黄海辐射沙洲区水道普遍存在逐渐向南偏移的趋势（西洋主槽冲深、南延,南翼烂沙洋水道、小庙洪水道向南逼进）。有关辐射沙洲整体南移的原因及机理虽有诸多猜想,但至今没有统一可靠的认识,这种趋势性过程的驱动力成为辐射沙洲区海岸冲淤动态研究及港口建设过程中亟待解决的问题。在恢复黄河北归以来苏北黄河三角洲海岸不同发育阶段的岸线位置和水下地形的基础之上,通过所建立的潮波数学模型,研究了在苏北黄河三角洲不同演变阶段南黄海潮波系统的特征及水动力变化。研究表明,随着岸线后退和水下三角洲的夷平,辐射沙洲地区潮差不断增大;水动力不断加强,而且加强的区域逐渐向南偏移,这种大范围区域性水动力主轴的向南偏移就有可能是导致辐射沙洲整体南移的主导因素之一。