Facies and depositional model of alluvial fan dominated by episodic flood events in arid conditions: An example from the Quaternary Poplar Fan,north-western China

Alluvial fans are usually constructed through episodic flood events. Despite the significance of these ephemeral floods on the morphodynamics of alluvial fans, depositional responses to the variations in flood conditions are still poorly documented. This greatly limits the ability to interpret ancient sedimentary successions of fans and the associated flood hydrodynamics. The Quaternary Poplar Fan from endorheic Heshituoluogai Basin provides an optimal case for addressing this issue. Based on the variations in facies associations and flood conditions, three depositional stages – namely; lobe building stage, channel building stage and the abandonment stage – are identified. During the lobe building stage the Poplar Fan is predominately constructed through incised channel flood, sheetflood and unconfined streamflood, with coeval development of distal surficial ephemeral ponds. The channel building stage is characterized by the development of gravelly braided rivers. However, only scour pool fill deposits are preferentially preserved in the Poplar Fan. During the abandonment stage, erosional lags and aeolian sands randomly occur throughout the fan, while gully deposits can only be found in the distal fan. The distinctive facies architecture of the Poplar Fan is likely to be the result of periodicity of climate fluctuations between wetter and drier conditions during the Late Pleistocene to Holocene. The ephemeral floods formed under wetter conditions usually show high discharge and sediment concentrations which facilitate the lobe building processes. During the drier periods, only gravelly braided rivers can be developed through ephemeral floods as the intensity and frequency in precipitation, discharge and sediment concentrations of the flood flows significantly decrease. The abandonment stage of the fan may occur between recurring flood episodes or during the driest periods. Furthermore, the long-term (10⁵ to 10⁶ year) geomorphic evolution of the Poplar Fan shows the influence of tectonic activities. The ongoing thrust uplift tectonic activities have caused destruction of the fan but can also facilitate the fan-head trench/incision of the fan, which in turn facilitate the progradation of the fan. This study proposes a new depositional model for alluvial fans constructed through episodic flood events, which shows the character of both sheet-flood dominated and stream-flow dominated end members of alluvial fans. These findings supplement the understanding of the variability of the alluvial fans and provide means to characterize rock record of alluvial fans and their associated flood and climate conditions.