decoding downstream trends in stratigraphic grain size as a function of tectonic subsidence and sediment supply downstream grain size fining in stratigraphy is driven primarily by selective deposition of sediment and the long term efficiency of this process is determined by 1 the magnitude and characteristics of the input sediment supply 2 the spatial distribution of subsidence rate which creates accommodation for sediment preservation and 3 the dynamics of sediment transport and deposition a key challenge is to determine how these first two factors control the caliber and spatial distribution of deposits over time scales of 10 4 10 6 yr without incorporating sediment transport details that are largely unknowable for time averaged stratigraphy in the geological past we address this using grain size data collected from fluvial conglomerates in the eocene pobla basin spanish pyrenees a synorogenic basin where the timing of sediment deposition is well constrained the sediment budget is closed and good exposure enables time lines within stratigraphy to be picked out unambiguously for successive stratigraphic horizons downstream trends in grain size and composition are derived for basin filling sediment routing systems with length scales of 6 and 40 km respectively our data show that the rate of grain size fining varies over time and with system length and can be linked to changes in source area these results are contrasted with grain size data from the antist group a 60 km long oligocene system that mantles the southern pyrenees where very slow rates of grain size fining on the wedge top of this fold and thrust belt are observed we apply a self similarity based selective deposition model to quantify the competing controls of tectonic subsidence and sediment supply on derived grain size trends and model results are compared with independent constraints on the eocene oligocene evolution of the pyrenees our results suggest that it is now possible to invert time averaged grain size trends in stratigraphy to gain quantitative information on the geological boundary conditions governing the evolution of sedimentary basins

measuring alluvial fan sensitivity to past climate changes using a self similarity approach to grain size fining death valley california the effects of climate change on eroding landscapes and the terrestrial sedimentary record are poorly understood using mountain catchment alluvial fan systems as simple analogues for larger landscapes a wide range of theoretical studies numerical models and physical experiments have hypothesised that a change in precipitation rate could leave a characteristic signal in alluvial fan sediment flux grain size and down system fining rate however this hypothesis remains largely untested in real landscapes this study measures grain size fining rates from apex to toe on two alluvial fan systems in northern death valley california usa which each have well exposed modern and ca 70 ka surfaces and where the long term tectonic boundary conditions can be constrained between them these surfaces capture a well constrained temporal gradient in climate a grain size fining model is adapted based on self similarity and selective deposition for application to these alluvial fans this model is then integrated with cosmogenic nuclide constraints on catchment erosion rates and observed grain size fining data from two catchment fan systems to estimate the change in sediment flux from canyon to alluvial fan that occurred between mid glacial and modern interglacial conditions in a fan system with negligible sediment recycling an approximately 30 decrease in precipitation rate led to a 20 decrease in sediment flux and a clear increase in the down fan rate of fining supporting existing landscape evolution models consequently this study shows that small mountain catchments and their alluvial fan stratigraphy can be highly sensitive to orbital climate changes over 105 year timescales however in the second fan system it is observed that this sensitivity is completely lost when sediment is remobilised and recycled over a time period longer than the duration of the climatic perturbation these analyses offer a new approach to quantitatively reconstructing the effects of past climate changes on sedimentation using simple grain size data measured in the field this article is protected by copyright all rights reserved

three dimensional reservoir characterization and flow simulation of heterolithic tidal sandstones tidal sandstone reservoirs contain significant intervals of hydrocarbon bearing heterolithic facies characterized by the presence of tide generated sedimentary structures such as flaser wavy and lenticular bedding millimeter to centimeter sand mud alternations we have characterized the reservoir properties sandstone connectivity effective permeability and displacement efficiency of these facies using three dimensional 3 d models reconstructed directly from large rock specimens the models are significantly larger than a core plug but smaller than a typical reservoir model grid block we find that the key control on reservoir quality is the connectivity and continuity of the sandstone and mudstone layers if the sandstone layers form a connected network they are likely to be productive even at low values of net to gross about 0 30 5 this may explain why the productivity of low net to gross heterolithic tidal sandstones is commonly underestimated or overlooked connectivity is the dominant control on the transition between productive pay and nonproductive nonpay heterolithic facies however connectivity is difficult to characterize because core plugs sampled from the subsurface are too small to capture connectivity whereas two dimensional outcrop measurements can significantly underestimate the true 3 d value our results suggest that core plug measurements of permeability and displacement efficiency are unlikely to yield representative values at the scale of a reservoir model grid block because the connectivity and continuity of sandstone and mudstone layers varies significantly with length scale

numerical modelling of drainage basin evolution and three dimensional alluvial fan stratigraphy abstract a forward numerical model is presented to study the effects of bedrock erodability thrust displacement rate pulsating tectonic activity and sea level fluctuations on drainage basin morphology and stratigraphy of large alluvial fan systems a low value of the bedrock erodability coefficient k b 0 5 10 4 year 2 3 vs thrust rate 2 0 m ky is associated with a time lag between cessation of tectonic activity and maximum sedimentation rates observed on the alluvial fans applying higher k b values ranging between 1 0 and 8 0 10 4 year 2 3 results in higher sediment yields due to more rapid headward catchment erosion and elaborate sideways branching of drainage networks pulsating tectonic activity is reflected in a stratigraphic alternation of prograding and retrograding alluvial fan gravels during tectonic activity fan gravel fronts and coastlines retreat because catchment yields are insufficient to fill the accommodation space created by the flexural response due to thrust loading phases of tectonic quiescence and cessation of flexural subsidence are indicated by progradation of the gravel front depending on the position in the basin the lag time for arrival of the gravel associated with tectonic cessation is several tens to hundred thousands of years a combination of pulsed tectonic activity with sinuous sea level fluctuation leads to a more complex stratigraphic pattern in that case stratigraphic response to tectonic pulses is masked by a similar but higher order frequency stacking pattern especially in the more distal parts

numerical simulation of downstream fining by selective transport in gravel bed rivers model development and illustration a numerical model has been developed for the routing of gravel sized sediment along a river channel which is free to adjust both its long profile and surface texture hydraulic calculations use a step backwater approach and sediment transport is predicted with the method of parker 1990a which uses a low degree of size selectivity exchange of sediment between the surface and subsurface is described using the modified exner equation of parker and sutherland 1990 the model is applied to an idealized channel based on the highly concave allt dubhaig scotland in which fining by particle wear is minor the rapid downstream fining observed in this river is closely matched by model predictions after a time equivalent to 102 years under the present flow regime of the river the evolution of the fining pattern during the model run and associated changes in sediment transport and bed aggradation are described it is concluded that strong profile concavity can force rapid downstream fining even though bed load transport is only slightly size selective this run of the model serves as a basis for testing of the sensitivity of downstream fining to alternative choices of parameter values and boundary conditions which are summarized here and will be described in a subsequent paper

environmental signal propagation in sedimentary systems across timescales abstract earth surface processes operate across erosionally dominated landscapes and deliver sediment to depositional systems that can be preserved over a range of timescales the geomorphic and stratigraphic products of this source to sink sediment transfer record signals of external environmental forcings as well as internal or autogenic dynamics of the sedimentary system here we evaluate environmental signal propagation across sediment routing systems with emphasis on sediment supply qs as the carrier of up system forcings we review experimental numerical and natural examples of source to sink sediment routing and signal propagation during three timescales 1 historic which includes measurement and monitoring of events and processes of landscape change and deposition during decades to centuries 2 centuries to several millions of years referred to as intermediate timescale and 3 deep time we discuss issues related to autogenic dynamics of sediment transport transient storage and release that can introduce noise lags and or completely mask signals of external environmental forcings we provide a set of conceptual and practical tools for evaluating sediment supply within a source to sink context which can inform interpretations of signals from the sedimentary record these tools include stratigraphic and sediment routing system characterization sediment budgets geochronology detrital mineral analysis e g thermochronology comparative analog approaches and modeling techniques to measure calculate or estimate the magnitude and frequency of external forcings compared to the characteristic response time of the sediment routing systems

experimental study of abrasion and its role in producing downstream fining in gravel bed rivers abstract previous experimental studies on abrasion of gravel showed diminution rates much lower than those typical of gravel bed rivers this might be one reason many studies of downstream fining in rivers stress hydraulic sorting as the dominant fining mechanism previous experiments however did not replicate well the particle to particle impact between the bed load gravels and bed gravels in rivers on alluvial fans during floods the purpose of this study was to reexamine the effect of abrasion on downstream fining to determine if abrasion is responsible for longitudinal changes in gravel size in rivers on alluvial fans a rotating drum with three interior vanes was used to produce repeated collisions among test gravel particles in water the drum was only partially filled with water in order to simulate the impact velocity of particle collisions during a flood the test particles were slightly weathered andesite and chert taken from the bed of the watarase river japan experiments were conducted using three unisize grains l 7 0 128 mm to 6 5 91 mm m 5 5 45 mm to 5 0 32 mm s 4 0 16 mm to 3 5 11 mm and mixtures of two different sizes from the three size classes there are six principal results from the experiments 1 test gravel particles break frequently and decrease in weight rapidly 2 abrasion of chert produces mostly gravel while andesite produces mostly sand and silt 3 l size chert cobbles decrease in weight rapidly as a result of being broken into smaller pieces while andesite cobbles break so rarely that their weight decreases very slowly 4 s size andesite pebbles decrease in weight more rapidly than chert 5 abrasion depends strongly on the presence of different sizes because smaller fragments are crushed by larger gravel particles 6 diminution coefficients of andesite and chert obtained from the experiment are in the range of 10 3 10 1 km 1 diminution coefficients from this experiment are one to two orders of magnitude larger than those from previous experiments on abrasion this is mainly because of the larger impact velocities in this experiment diminution coefficients from the experiment are also consistent with those obtained from many japanese rivers on alluvial fans 10 2 10 1 km 1 this result suggests that downstream fining of river bed gravel on alluvial fans can be explained by abrasion

from grain size to tectonics 1 regional grain size trends in fluvial successions can reveal important information regarding the dynamics of sediment routing systems self similar solutions for down system grain size fining have recently been proposed to explore how key variables such as the spatial distribution of deposition sediment discharge and sediment supply characteristics control spatial distribution of grain size in fluvial successions over time scales of 104 106 years we explore the sensitivity of these solutions to changes in key variables and assess their applicability to ancient fluvial successions several sensitivity analyses are presented to investigate the relative control of the key model variables on the spatial pattern of down system grain size fining in fluvial successions sensitivity analyses demonstrate that 1 an increase in the initial value of sediment discharge to a basin causes a decrease in the rate of grain size fining in fluvial successions an effect that becomes nonlinear for large values of initial sediment discharge 2 a short wavelength high amplitude subsidence regime generates a greater rate of down system grain size fining and a long wavelength lower amplitude subsidence regime generates a lesser rate of down system grain size fining in fluvial successions and 3 an increase in the spread of grain sizes in the sediment supply generates a greater rate of down system grain size fining we apply this modeling technique to grain size data sets collected from two time surfaces within conglomerates of the upper eocene montsor fan succession of the pobla basin spanish pyrenees these data sets exhibit approximately self similar grain size distributions further the observed increase in down system grain size fining associated with smaller depositional system lengths provides support for the application of self similar solutions to fluvial successions by applying these solutions to carefully collected grain size data from fluvial successions we are able to relate explicitly the initial grain size supplied to the system the spatial distribution of subsidence and the sediment discharge into the basin to the rate of grain size fining in fluvial successions this method thus offers a powerful means of elucidating sediment routing system dynamics over time

statistical characterization of grain size distributions in sandy fluvial systems measured particle size distributions are commonly reduced to one characteristic value e g median grain diameter that is used in sediment transport modeling and other analyses these values are often interpolated from empirical distributions or from fitted distributions usually assuming that observed grain size populations are adequately represented by gaussian or normal distributions in order to investigate the implications of this approach we 1 statistically characterize grain size distributions in samples of bed material load suspended load and slackwater deposits from the sand bedded calamus north loup and niobrara rivers nebraska usa and 2 explore the potential impact of misfitting distributions on estimating percentile grain diameters although log normal distributions are commonly used to characterize complete grain size distributions in sedimentary systems in this study samples of transported sediment are best modeled with log hyperbolic distributions and slackwater deposits are best fitted by mixtures of distributions despite large overlaps in the grain sizes of bed material load and suspended load samples estimated parameters of fitted log hyperbolic distributions show consistent differences between these samples across all rivers samples of bed material load have higher modes and positive coarse grained asymmetry whereas suspended load samples have lower modes and weaker asymmetry because it is has a general form the log hyperbolic distribution should adequately characterize unimodal grain size samples because its parameters can yield both normal shaped distributions as well as asymmetric distributions in all three rivers slackwater deposits contain the entire range of grain sizes present in suspension as well as a significant component of very fine grained 0 02 mm material that is not present in suspended sediment samples this suggests some degree of fractionated deposition of suspended sediment in areas of near zero flow velocities ultimately fitting parametric grain size distributions to grain size data can be a useful way to find effective particle size values for use in sediment transport modeling and other studies however particularly with asymmetric grain size distributions fitting log normal distributions to data may result in errors of estimated percentile grain sizes which should be considered in studies relying on characteristic grain diameter values

estimation of grain size distributions and associated parameters from digital images of sediment abstract a new technique to estimate the grain size distribution gsd from a digital image of sediment is proposed advancing the applicability of a suite of sedimentary look up catalogue approaches originated by rubin rubin d m 2004 a simple autocorrelation algorithm for determining grain size from digital images of sediment journal of sedimentary research 74 1 160 165 the outputs of an automated procedure to estimate the gsd from digital images of sediment are examined with reference to the distributions obtained from both manually sieving the corresponding sediment samples and axial measurements made on the grains in the images measures of grain size obtained from the imaging procedure correlate very well with grain size measures derived from both the number frequency and mass frequency curve as expected the gsd obtained from the new automated approach based on kernel density compared better with point counts because of a shared two rather than three dimensionality the gsd shape is not always mimicked exactly however the percentiles obtained from the cumulative gsd compare well with those from sieved distributions which allow for the first time computation of graphical sorting and skewness from digital images of sediment which are accurate reflections of those measures obtained for point count and sieved samples the new approach allows for realistic gsds from which the residual can be computed thus a numerical criterion upon which the grain size distribution from an image can be accepted or rejected finally a method is presented whereby two dimensional autocorrelogram fields are derived from image power spectra ellipsoids are fitted to isolines of autocorrelation coefficients and from this the dominant axial lengths and orientation of these isolines which could facilitate computation of major and minor axis lengths of grains in sample images as well as their dominant orientation in turn this could allow for parameterisation of axial ratios for parameterisation of 2d shape such analysis is completely automated rapid and non intrusive

tectonic control on coarse grained foreland basin sequences an example from the cordilleran foreland basin utah newly released reflection seismic and borehole data combined with sedimentological provenance and biostratigraphic data from upper cretaceous paleocene strata in the proximal part of the cordilleran foreland basin system in utah establish the nature of tectonic controls on stratigraphic sequences in the proximal to distal foreland basin during campanian time coarse grained sand and gravel were derived from the internally shortening charleston nebo salient of the sevier thrust belt a rapid regional campanian progradational event in the distal foreland basin 200 km from the thrust belt in 8 m y can be tied directly to active thrust generated growth structures and an influx of quartzose detritus derived from the charleston nebo salient eustatic sea level variation exerted a minimal role in sequence progradation

the sis palaeovalley a record of proximal fluvial sedimentation and drainage basin development in response to pyrenean mountain building the sis conglomerate body represents the middle eocene to oligocene transfer zone trunk palaeovalley fill of the sis fluvial system a drainage system established within the pyrenees during late palaeocene times the spatial stability of the fluvial transfer zone active for at least 38 my and hence the longevity of its aggradational palaeovalley component 19 5 my was controlled by its location between long lived pre existing structures coarse grained fluvial facies dominate the palaeovalley fill with alluvial fan facies shed from its defining marginal structures the detailed sedimentology of very proximal fluvial facies deposited within the dominantly erosional realm of an active mountain belt has rarely been documented before because of their poor preservation potential the sis conglomerate body contains a robust internal stratigraphy with stratigraphic units defined by distinct bounding surfaces across which there are pronounced changes in facies and provenance these mark the reorganization of the headward portions of the sis fluvial system during the evolution of the pyrenean axial zone antiformal stack major changes in discharge resulted demonstrating the highly variable nature of even mountain belt scale fluvial systems when viewed on timescales of several to tens of millions of years provenance details indicate that initial unroofing of hercynian granitoids situated within the pyrenean axial zone occurred around 54 5 ma early ypresian immediately before the first significant exhumation event within the drainage basin of the sis fluvial system this is earlier than previously constrained by apatite fission track studies rock uplift accelerated in the lutetian and bartonian with the initial aggradation of the palaeovalley fill the cajigar and cornudella formations and sis one and two members this became marked in the priabonian sis three and four members with significant activity on local structures including the morreres backthrust an increase in basement derived clasts and a headwater decapitation event also indicate pronounced axial zone antiformal stack development at this time axial zone development intensified further in the oligocene with the deposition of the collegats formation and the switch in the main depositional loci of the system from the tremp graus thrust sheet top basin to the ebro basin to the south

development and response of a coupled catchment fan system under changing tectonic and climatic forcing sediment fans are a potentially useful and underexploited recorder of earth s climatic and tectonic history but historical observations have led to conflicting views on the importance of tectonic climatic and lithologic variables in controlling fan morphology and deposition a one dimensional model of a sediment fan and its associated catchment is used to explore the sensitivity of such simple sediment routing systems to perturbations in fault slip and precipitation rates a transport limited catchment is coupled to a fan whose surface slope is set by the balance between catchment sediment efflux and the available tectonically generated basin accommodation rock uplift rate is spatially variable across the model space increasing the fault slip rate or decreasing the precipitation rate leads to an increase in fan slope temporary back stepping of the fan toe and a pronounced angular unconformity conversely a decrease in slip rate or an increase in precipitation rate results in a decrease in fan slope and progradation and eventual stabilization of the fan toe once perturbed the system evolves toward a new equilibrium state with time constants of 0 5 to 2 myr these response times are insensitive to slip rate but are strongly dependent on precipitation rate variations in fan slope are well described by a dimensionless parameter that expresses equilibrium slope as a function of slip rate precipitation rate system size and catchment lithology this parameter holds promise as a predictive tool in inverting the morphology of natural fans for environmental variables

fluvial archives a valuable record of vertical crustal deformation abstract the study of drainage network response to uplift is important not only for understanding river system dynamics and associated channel properties and fluvial landforms but also for identifying the nature of crustal deformation and its history in recent decades geomorphic analysis of rivers has proved powerful in elucidating the tectonic evolution of actively uplifting and eroding orogens here we review the main recent developments that have improved and expanded qualitative and quantitative information about vertical tectonic motions the effects of horizontal deformation are not addressed channel long profiles have received considerable attention in the literature and we briefly introduce basic aspects of the behaviour of bedrock rivers from field and numerical modelling perspectives before describing the various metrics that have been proposed to identify the information on crustal deformation contained within their steady state characteristics then we review the literature dealing with the transient response of rivers to tectonic perturbation through the production of knickpoints propagating through the drainage network inverse modelling of river profiles for uplift in time and space is also shown to be very effective in reconstructing regional tectonic histories finally we present a synthetic morphometric approach for deducing the tectonic record of fluvial landscapes as well as the erosional imprint of tectonic forcing sedimentary deposits such as fluvial terrace staircases are also considered as a classical component of tectonic geomorphology we show that these studies have recently benefited from rapid advances in dating techniques allowing more reliable reconstruction of incision histories and estimation of incision rates the combination of progress in the understanding of transient river profiles and larger more rigorous data sets of terrace ages has led to improved understanding of river erosion and the implications for terrace profile correlation i e extrapolation of local data to entire profiles finally planform changes in fluvial systems are considered at the channel scale in alluvial rivers and regional level in terms of drainage reorganisation examples are given of how numerical modelling can efficiently combine with topographic data to shed new light on the dis equilibrium state of drainage systems across regional drainage divides

alluvial cover dynamics in response to floods of various magnitudes the effect of the release of glaciogenic material in a swiss alpine catchment abstract fluvial incision into formerly glaciated landscapes is commonly affected by the release of glaciogenic sediments from the hillslopes via landsliding hillslope failure and debris flow activity these deposits typically comprise abundant block size clasts here we determine the ability of the fluvial processes to evacuate glacially derived sediments in an alpine hanging valley blanketed by 100 m thick glacial till we assess along stream profiles of basal shear stress during annual decadal and centennial floods by means of the hydrological model hec ras we use bed surface grain size data to i evaluate the shields stress profiles for these floods ii determine at which timescale the bed undergoes significant changes and to iii predict transport capacity patterns for each flood in addition we present digital photogrammetry based estimates of bed elevation changes over two selected time intervals that experienced low and high magnitude floods respectively the results indicate that floods with return periods of 10 years are capable of mobilizing the coarse fraction of the bed material thereby substantially altering the channel geometry the predicted near critical shields stress values for these floods in the area where the glacial deposits are thickest suggest a strong hillslope channel coupling which may have resulted in the formation of the knickzone observed in this sector however decadal to centennial floods are required to transport the material over long distances and scour the bed in the upper part of the inner gorge in addition the observed downstream trend from bed scouring to deposition in the inner gorge for these floods and the opposite trend for low magnitude floods suggest that these patterns are not directly controlled by downstream variations of transport capacity we propose that the supply of sediment through hillslope failure and bank collapse significantly contributes to the sediment flux for high magnitude floods we conclude that the morphology and the timescale of sediment transport in this glacially conditioned landscape have been substantially controlled by the hillslope derived supply of coarse grained material

oligocene miocene alluvial sedimentation in the northern ebro basin ne spain tectonic control and palaeogeographical evolution abstract the oligocene early miocene rocks cropping out in the northern ebro basin central sector comprise conglomerates at the margin of the basin gradually passing into sandstones and mudstones towards more central areas these rocks belong to the peraltilla and sarinena formations and originated in both small monogenic conglomerate alluvial fans that fed from the south pyrenean sierras directly and large polygenic conglomerate fans which drained more internal areas of the pyrenees their lithological textural and geometrical features in combination with sedimentary structures reveal the existence of several lithofacies associations whose lateral and vertical relationships and distribution throughout time have been used to establish the main features for each type of depositional system near the margin of the basin the tertiary series is folded and thrusted and several unconformities can be identified three tecto sedimentary units t3 to t5 have been characterised for the whole area at the margin they are bounded by angular or syntectonic unconformities in more central areas their correlative conformities can be registered as changes from coarsening to fining upward general trends or as sudden shifts in the vertical trend fining upward trends are related to onlaps and record the retrogradational stages of the alluvial fans in contrast coarsening upward trends record the progradation of the fans stratigraphic and sedimentological studies permit to establish the palaeogeographical evolution of the area during oligocene and early miocene times also it can be demonstrated that during periods of tectonic activity in the pyrenees the alluvial fans prograded whereas during the stages of relative tectonic inactivity the fans retrograded

subsidence control on river morphology and grain size in the ganga plain the ganga plain represents a large proportion of the current foreland basin to the himalaya the himalayan sourced waters irrigate the plain via major river networks that support approximately 10 percent of the global population however some of these rivers are also the source of devastating floods the tendency for some of these rivers to flood is directly linked to their large scale morphology in general the rivers that drain the east ganga plain have channels that are perched at a higher elevation relative to their floodplain leading to more frequent channel avulsion and flooding in contrast those further west have channels that are incised into the floodplain and are historically less prone to flooding understanding the controls on these contrasting river forms is fundamental to determining the sensitivity of these systems to projected climate change and the growing water resource demands across the plain here we present a new basin scale approach to quantifying floodplain and channel topography that identifies areas where channels are super elevated or entrenched relative to their adjacent floodplain we explore the probable controls on these observations through an analysis of basin subsidence rates sediment grain size data and sediment supply from the main river systems that traverse the plain yamuna ganga karnali gandak and kosi rivers subsidence rates are approximated by combining basement profiles derived from seismic data with known convergence velocities results suggest a more slowly subsiding basin in the west than the east grain size fining rates are also used as a proxy for relative subsidence rates along the strike of the basin the results also indicate higher fining rates and hence subsidence rates for given sediment supply in the east by integrating these observations we propose that higher subsidence rates are responsible for a deeper basin in the east with perched low gradient river systems that are relatively insensitive to climatically driven changes in base level in contrast the lower subsidence rates in the west are associated with a higher elevation basin topography and entrenched river systems recording climatically induced lowering of river base levels during the holocene

identifying the controls over downstream fining of river gravels abstract a wide range of rates of downstream fining in gravel bed rivers has been reported as a consequence explanations of the phenomenon range from those that consider only abrasion to others that consider only selective sediment transport this apparent confusion results in part from inconsistent definitions of downstream fining analysis of results from a small gravel bed stream is used to show how the method of sediment sampling and the percentile used to characterize fining rates can affect the results when fining is adequately defined a theoretical relationship between fining rate and drainage basin area is derived from established alluvial fan relations this relationship is remarkably consistent with a range of studies by numerous authors using often different methods such results suggest that fining is achieved through the mechanism of selective transport but that the overall control on fining patterns is the volume of sediment supplied from within the drainage basin as such the rate of size decline in sedimentary deposits such as river terraces has the potential to be used to infer past changes in climate tectonics and or relative base level models of this are presented and these are shown to be broadly consistent with observations made in an ancient sandstone body full use of changing rates of fining as paleo environmental indicators requires further work on the rate of adjustment of fining profiles with respect to the rates of change in the forcing environmental conditions

new constraints on sediment flux dependent river incision implications for extracting tectonic signals from river profiles we present new field data from rivers draining across active normal faults that incise across the same lithology at the fault have been subjected to similar climatic regimes and tectonic settings and were perturbed by a well documented increase in fault slip rate ca 1 ma in spite of these similarities the rivers exhibit markedly different long profiles and patterns of catchment incision we use channel slope and hydraulic geometry data for each river to calculate bed shear stresses b and show that there is no simple relationship between peak b and the relative uplift rates across the faults u which differ by a factor of four the long term average sediment supply to each channel q s estimated from time averaged catchment erosion rates can explain the b versus u data if bedload modulates bedrock incision rate e in a strongly nonlinear way together these field data allow us for the first time to evaluate theoretical predictions of the role of sediment on river profile evolution and to quantify the magnitude of the effect in natural systems

how plausible are high frequency sediment supply driven cycles in the stratigraphic record abstract this paper is an attempt to quantify the plausible time scales of clastic sediment supply variations at the entrance of sedimentary basins our approach is based on the sedimentary system concept which simplifies natural systems by dividing them into three zones of dominant processes the erosion the transfer and the sedimentation subsystems we examine recent results from geomorphology which show that frequent climate changes can induce high frequency sediment flux variations at the outlet of the source area we put forward the crucial role of the transfer subsystem which conveys sediment from the erosion zone to the basin by applying a diffusive model to a number of worldwide rivers we extend from large 1000 km to intermediate 300 km rivers the previous finding that the transfer subsystem acts as a buffer for short periods sediment pulses tens to hundreds of kiloyears this implies that high frequency stratigraphic cycles in clastic accumulations fed by large drainage systems are unlikely to reflect sediment supply cycles of tens to hundreds of thousands of years of periodicities

transferable wavelet method for grain size distribution from images of sediment surfaces and thin sections and other natural granular patterns in images of sedimentary or granular material or simulations of binary two phase granular media in which the individual grains are resolved the complete size distribution of apparent grain axes is well approximated by the global power spectral density function derived using a morlet wavelet this approach overcomes many limitations of previous automated methods for estimating the grain size distribution from images all of which rely on either identification and segmentation of individual grains calibration and or relatively large sample sizes the new method presented here is tested using i various types of simulations of two phase media with a size distribution with and without preferred orientation ii 300 sample images drawn from 46 populations of sands and gravels from around the world displaying a wide variability in origin biogenic and mineralogical size surface texture and shape iii petrographic thin section samples from nine populations of sedimentary rock iv high resolution scans of marine sediment cores and v non sedimentary natural granular patterns including sea ice and patterned ground the grain size distribution obtained is equivalent to the distribution of apparent intermediate grain diameters grid by number style for images containing sufficient well resolved grains root mean square errors are within tens of percent for percentiles across the entire grain size distribution as such this method is the first of its type which is completely transferable unmodified without calibration for both consolidated and unconsolidated sediment isotropic and anisotropic two phase media and even non sedimentary granular patterns the success of the wavelet approach is due in part to it quantifying both spectral and spatial information from the sediment image simultaneously something which no previously developed technique is able to do

a new middle to late eocene continental chronostratigraphy from ne spain abstract the calibration of the european paleogene mammal biochronology with the international reference geochronological scale is unconstrained due to the lack of direct marine continental correlations and insufficient robust magnetostratigraphic data for mammal fossil bearing sequences the currently accepted european continental biochronology argues for a correlation of the paleogene mp14 to mp16 mammal reference levels with the bartonian stage and of the mp17 to mp20 levels with the priabonian however new magnetostratigraphic data of the continental sediments of the south central pyrenees substantially challenge this chronology our new results from the la pobla de segur basin and sierra de sis have been integrated into the framework of previous marine continental stratigraphic correlations and magnetostratigraphic data of the south central pyrenees in this new chronology mp14 and mp15 reference levels correspond to the lutetian whereas mp16 and early mp17 correlate with the early bartonian this calibration represents a significant revision of currently accepted marine continental correlations in europe but is not in conflict with the available biostratigraphic data of the south pyrenean ebro foreland basin and other western european reference basins

syntectonic burial and post tectonic exhumation of the southern pyrenees foreland fold thrust belt in the oligocene to earliest miocene the entire southern pyrenean foreland fold and thrust belt was backfilled and buried in up to 3 km of syntectonic continental conglomerates from the range9s own erosional debris then starting in the mid to late miocene the pyrenees were exhumed by erosional excavation to their present relief a model is proposed for this unusual development whereby late eocene oligocene tectonic uplift of the margins of the ebro basin raised local base level and blocked normal dispersal of erosional debris to adjacent oceans thus causing the basin to fill then backfill northwards across the entire southern flank of the pyrenees subsequent miocene rifting of the catalan mediterranean margin and the messinian salinity crisis lowered base level allowing the ebro river to cut headward capture the ebro basin and re excavate the pyrenees

selective sorting and abrasion of river gravel i theory most gravel rivers show a tendency for characteristic grain size to decrease in the downstream direction over scales of tens or hundreds of kilometers it has been surmised that this downstream fining is due to some combination of selective sorting by which finer grains are preferentially transported downstream and abrasion by which individual particles are reduced in size here a framework for the simultaneous treatment of both phenomena is developed the analysis is restricted to bed load transport of gravel only abrasion due to binary collisions between moving bed load and stationary bed particles is considered the formulation includes the possibility of differential basin uplift and subsidence due to tectonism and mixtures of rock types with differing coefficients of abrasion the formulation of selective sorting is based on the concept of hiding as applied to a surface based bed load transport relation abrasion is first treated in terms of a lagrangian formulation for individual grains and t

origin of the highly elevated pyrenean peneplain 1 peneplanation of mountain ranges is generally considered the result of long term erosional processes that smooth relief and lower elevation near sea level therefore peneplain remnants at high elevation in mountain ranges are used to infer posttectonic surface uplift such an interpretation has been proposed for the pyrenees where high elevation low relief erosional surfaces rose up to more than 2000 m because the pyrenean foreland basins are filled with very thick continental deposits which have buried the early jagged landscape we challenge this hypothesis by pointing out that relief applanation does not necessarily require elevation lowering we propose an alternative interpretation in which piedmont aggradation of detrital sediment that comes from erosion of the high chain induces the rise of the base level of the range therefore reducing strongly the erosive efficiency of the drainage system and resulting in the progressive smoothing of the relief such a process allows a high elevation low relief erosional surface to develop at the scale of the range in the pyrenees occurrence of high elevation low relief erosional surface remnants does not imply a posttectonic uplift but is instead due to the dissection of the initial miocene high elevation low relief surface by the recent drainage system the erosive activity of which has been enhanced by global climate change from the late pliocene onward

provenance of oligocene miocene alluvial and fluvial fans of the northern ebro basin ne spain an xrd petrographic and sem study abstract this paper combines stratigraphic and sedimentological data with xrd petrographic and sem techniques in order to investigate the fluvial and alluvial fans that were developed during the oligocene and the lower miocene in the central area of the northern ebro basin spain and their respective source areas the proximal sectors of the coeval depositional systems can be separated on the basis of lithofacies criteria conglomerate features reveal that the source areas for the alluvial fans were limited to the south pyrenean sierras whereas those of the fluvial fans included more northern pyrenean areas such as the axial zone or the clastic tremp graus basin far from the basin margin the distal alluvial facies interdigitate with the middle distal fluvial deposits in these areas only detailed mineralogical and petrographic analysis of the rocks can determine their origin thus the methods used have allowed us to differentiate between authigenic and detrital phases on the basis of these observations three different types of coarse sandstone petrofacies have been distinguished 1 carbonate rich sandstone 2 high quartz sandstone and 3 high lithic fragment sandstone rich in shale and feldspars grains the first corresponds to the alluvial samples and corroborates the south pyrenean sierras as alluvial fans source area the high quartz and the high lithic fragment sandstone correspond to the fluvial samples and evidence that the drainage basin of the fluvial fans included the clastic tremp graus basin and the axial zone the high lithic fragment petrofacies is representative of the most ancient fluvial rocks whereas the high quartz sandstone corresponds to the recent and nonconforming fluvial rocks this change in the fluvial petrofacies allows us to recognise the changing importance of each region as a source area of the fluvial fans over time which can be correlated with pyrenean tectonic activity during the oligocene

the nature and controls on downstream fining within sedimentary links abstract at scales of 100 to 102 km grain size change in gravelly alluvial systems is characterized by punctuated downstream fining significant lateral sediment inputs define a sequence of sedimentary links within which fluvial processes produce fining trends using a new set of surface grain size data eighteen such links along two canadian gravel bed rivers are examined negative exponential functions are found to be most appropriate for describing within link grain size changes development of a pragmatic means of predicting grain size is then pursued by searching for a means to relate model diminution coefficients to link attributes consideration of lithologically differentiated fining trends indicates that lithology plays an insignificant role in controlling fining rate examination of within link longitudinal profiles indicates a reasonable relation between fining rate and the rate of change of channel slope the predictive value of this relation is limited by the regional nature of the data upon which it is based and the relative difficulty of obtaining accurate gradient information however as previously noted for alluvial fans although for different reasons channel gradient is correlated with link length and a reasonable predictive tool is apparent in a relation between link length and diminution rate the validity of the derived relation cannot be tested for want of a suitable data set several lines of evidence indicate that abrasion is unimportant as a fining mechanism on these rivers and it is argued that this may be typical of sedimentary links fining rate must then be a function of the efficiency with which sorting processes operate and it is suggested that this efficiency is dependent on aggradation rates associated with the lateral sediment influxes at the head and terminus of individual links

abrupt landscape change post 6 ma on the central great plains usa the principal control on landscape evolution in the central great plains of the united states over the past 10 m y is a contentious subject new sedimentary data collected from late miocene ogallala group and pliocene broadwater formation of the nebraskan great plains demonstrates a twofold increase in the median grain size from 20 mm to 40 mm exported from the rocky mountains across the miocene pliocene boundary paleoslope reconstructions derived from these data support the tilting of the miocene ogallala group after 6 ma but demonstrate that the transport slope of the lower part of the unconformably overlying pliocene succession is identical to the present day slope these data allow us to constrain the timing of differential uplift in the great plains to between 6 and 3 7 m y the wavelength and short duration of this tilting are best explained by the initiation of localized dynamic topography our results also suggest a threefold to fourfold increase in specific stream power at this time meaning that pliocene rivers draining the central rockies were considerably more competent than their miocene predecessors incision during this period was not continuous a significant episode of aggradation from 3 7 to 2 5 ma is best explained by high rates of sediment supply relating to the warm wet mid pliocene climate optimum the modern pattern of incision on the great plains occurred from 2 5 ma and not from the end of the miocene as is sometimes supposed reflecting the onset of major northern hemisphere glaciation

similarity solutions for fluvial sediment fining by selective deposition 1 current models for downstream sediment sorting by selective deposition generally perform well at describing observed sorting data however since most were developed initially for application to modern rivers they are typically formulated in terms of hydraulic and bed surface variables that are not readily measurable in the sedimentary record moreover their algebraic complexity obscures some of the underlying simplicity of the segregation process here we show how a pair of hydraulically based sorting models developed by parker et al can be reformulated with minimal loss of accuracy in terms of the size distribution of the supplied sediment and the downstream depositional mass balance by invoking constant dimensionless shear stress within either the gravel or sand regimes reach scale short term details of hydraulics and sediment transport are summarized via a pair of dimensionless relative mobility functions one for gravel and one for sand our approach yields simplified similarity solutions in which the long term longitudinal grain size distribution of the substrate and the relative mobility functions can be collapsed into self similar forms in which only local mean and standard deviation of sizes in transport are used as scaling parameters the formulation we propose offers a simple means to explore the impact of controlling variables on fining profiles and can be easily incorporated in long term basin scale numerical stratigraphic models avoiding the necessity of modeling the details of hydraulics and sediment transport the model involves a minimum number of physically based parameters the numerical values of which can be determined from the spatial distribution of rate of deposition dimensionless shear stress and the coefficient of variation of the supply gravel or sand size distributions

fracture zones in the north atlantic from combined geosat and seasat data we present a new tectonic fabric map of the northern and central north atlantic ocean floor from 10 s to 66 n based on combined geosat and seasat altimetry data short wavelength vertical gravity along track was derived by hilbert transforming and high pass filtering geosat and seasat deflection of the vertical profiles the along track gravity data were used in conjunction with magnetic anomaly data to locate a large number of fracture zones as well as extinct spreading ridges and v shaped structures we traced many fracture zones more continuously and closer to adjacent continental margins than was previously possible we also mapped a number of unnamed fracture zones and fracture zone segments many of which were previously uncharted we have evaluated the agreement between the mapped fracture zones and synthetic flow lines as predicted from recent plate models for the opening of the north central north and south atlantic most fracture zones in this area correlate quite well with synthetic flow lines supporting the proposition that geosat seasat altimetry data serve as a useful tool to map fracture zones where insufficient bathymetric data are available many fracture zones including some small offset fracture zones in the central north atlantic have been stable and follow tectonic flow lines for tens of millions of years however many other fracture zones do not reflect a railroad track pattern of plate motions the geometry of many small and medium offset fracture zones indicates that the ridge axis discontinuities that produce them can migrate along the ridge causing off axis traces that deviate from tectonic flow lines velocity space diagrams constructed using a recent relative and absolute present day plate motion model indicate that some low angle v shaped troughs and ridges are likely formed by migration of the plate boundary relative to a mesospheric reference frame other low angle v shaped structures reflect slow migrations oscillations of small offset ridge axis discontinuities that are distinct from both tectonic flow lines and v shapes reflecting absolute plate motions high angle v shaped structures are the result of fast migrating ridge axis discontinuities propagating rifts

alluvial fans formed by channelized fluvial and sheet flow i theory alluvial fans and fan deltas are of three basic types those built up primarily by the action of constantly avulsing river and stream channels those constructed by sheet flows and those resulting from the successive deposition of debris flows the present analysis is directed toward the first two types a mechanistic formulation of flow and sediment transport through river channels is combined with a simple quantification of the overall effect of frequent avulsion to derive relations describing the temporal and spatial evolution of mean i e averaged over many avulsions bed slope and elevation in an axially symmetric fan an example of a fan formed predominantly by the deposition of sand is compared to a similar one formed predominantly by the deposition of gravel in each example the case of channelized flow is compared to the case of sheet flow the model is applied to the tailings basin of a mine in the companion paper

na doppler temperature lidar initial mesopause region observations and comparison with the urbana medium frequency radar meteoric ablation in the upper atmosphere is the source of a dense layer of atomic na between about 80 and 105 km altitude peak densities are typically several thousand atoms cm3 and the total abundance varies seasonally at mid latitudes with the maximum in winter the na layer is a sensitive tracer of the thermal and density structure of this region of the atmosphere and can be probed with exceptional accuracy and resolution using resonance fluorescence lidar techniques we report the first observations of vertically resolved na density temperature and wind profiles in the mesopause region using a new four frequency doppler temperature lidar the initial zonal wind and temperature observations were obtained with a resolution of 30 min and 1 5 km and rms accuracies of 12 m s and 2 k these measurements were conducted simultaneously with the medium frequency mf radar at the urbana atmospheric observatory 40 n 88 w during the night of march 14 15 1991 the mean temperature profile exhibits a well defined mesopause at 95 5 km with a temperature of 181 k the mean zonal wind profile exhibits a strong 58 m s westward jet at 97 km which appears to be related to the mesopause during the 6 hour and 45 min observation period the na doppler winds averaged between 88 and 98 km exhibit the same general trends as the mf radar apparent and true winds in this same region however the lidar and radar velocity estimates differ by as much as 40 m s at some times during the night

asymmetric growth of the pyrenees revealed through measurement and modeling of orogenic fluxes orogenic asymmetry is ubiquitous in terms of topography structure and metamorphism but the relative influences of climate and tectonics in determining such asymmetry remain contentious this study demonstrates that for the case of the european pyrenees orogenic asymmetry is not defined by inherited structural asymmetry nor by orographic asymmetry of precipitation but is the simple consequence of the inherent tectonic growth of a doubly vergent orogen the pyrenees record approximately 60 myr of upper crustal accretion erosion and sedimentation that developed from late cretaceous to early miocene times approximately 165 km of plate convergence was accommodated by four phases of orogenic growth that can be summarized in terms of their generic orogenic development as follows 1 early inversion of passive margin extensional faults initiating the pro wedge 2 growth by a combination of frontal accretion and underplating to the pro wedge symmetrical and steady record of erosion and foreland basin sedimentation 3 cessation of pro wedge frontal accretion with propagation of the retro wedge deformation front 4 accelerated growth of pro wedge antiformal stack induced by underplating accelerated erosion over antiformal stack and increase in sediment discharge to pro foreland basin stabilization of outer pro wedge by sediment blanketing discrete element model experiments are used to explore the natural tendency of the system towards asymmetry model output demonstrates that during active frontal accretion to the pro wedge of an orogen the maxima in erosional denudation is offset towards the pro wedge relative to the maximum depths of exhumation this asymmetry is fundamentally driven by the progressive reduction in advection velocities of material within the orogen from the pro wedge into the retro wedge hence for an efficient erosional regime a dynamic coupling between erosion and structural uplift of the pro wedge will reduce activity of the retro wedge and hence drive asymmetry in terms of low temperature thermochronometry erosion and sedimentation the models also demonstrate the tendency for pro wedge growth through frontal accretion to slow however the cessation of frontal accretion as recorded by the south pyrenean thrust belt phases 3 and 4 requires additional forcing it is proposed that the thick wedge top sedimentation recorded at this time increased taper angles and hence stabilized the wedge accretionary influx into the orogen at this time was accomplished through underplating these processes governing asymmetry do not require a spatially variable climate or a laterally heterogeneous underthrust plate

venus tectonics initial analysis from magellan radar imaging and altimetry data from the magellan mission have revealed a diversity of deformational features at a variety of spatial scales on the venus surface the plains record a superposition of different episodes of deformation and volcanism strain is both areally distributed and concentrated into zones of extension and shortening the common coherence of strain patterns over hundreds of kilometers implies that many features in the plains reflect a crustal response to mantle dynamic processes ridge belts and mountain belts represent successive degrees of lithospheric shortening and crustal thickening the mountain belts also show widespread evidence for extension and collapse both during and following crustal compression venus displays two geometrical patterns of concentrated lithospheric extension quasi circular coronae and broad rises with linear rift zones both are sites of significant volcanism no long large offset strike slip faults have been observed although limited local horizontal shear is accommodated across many zones of crustal shortening in general tectonic features on venus are unlike those in earth s oceanic regions in that strain typically is distributed across broad zones that are one to a few hundred kilometers wide and separated by stronger and less deformed blocks hundreds of kilometers in width as in actively deforming continental regions on earth

lithological controls on hillslope sediment supply insights from landslide activity and grain size distributions the volumes rates and grain size distributions of sediment supplied from hillslopes represent the initial input of sediment delivered from upland areas and propagated through sediment routing systems moreover hillslope sediment supply has a significant impact on landscape response time to tectonic and climatic perturbations however there are very few detailed field studies characterising hillslope sediment supply as a function of lithology and delivery process here we present new empirical data from tectonically active areas in southern italy that quantifies how lithology and rock strength control the landslide fluxes and grain size distributions supplied from hillslopes landslides are the major source of hillslope sediment supply in this area and our inventory of 2800 landslides reveals that landslide sediment flux is dominated by small shallow landslides we find that lithology and rock strength modulate the abundance of steep slopes and landslides and the distribution of landslide sizes outcrop scale rock strength also controls the grain sizes supplied by bedrock weathering and influences the degree of coarsening of landslide supply with respect to weathering supply finally we show that hillslope sediment supply largely determines the grain sizes of fluvial export from catchments and that catchments with greater long term landslide rates deliver coarser material therefore our results demonstrate a dual control of lithology on hillslope sediment supply by modulating both the sediment fluxes from landslides and the grain sizes supplied by hillslopes to the fluvial system

lateral sediment sources and knickzones as controls on spatio temporal variations of sediment transport in an alpine river modern mixed alluvial bedrock channels in mountainous areas provide natural laboratories for understanding the time scales at which coarse grained material has been entrained and transported from their sources to the adjacent sedimentary sink where these deposits are preserved as conglomerates this article assesses the shear stress conditions needed for the entrainment of the coarse bed particles in the glogn river that drains the 400 km2 val lumnezia basin eastern swiss alps in addition quantitative data are presented on sediment transport patterns in this stream the longitudinal stream profile of this river is characterized by three ca 500 m long knickzones where channel gradients range from 0 02 to 0 2 m m 1 and where the valley bottom confined into a 10 m wide gorge downstream of these knickzones the stream is flat with gradients 0 01 m m 1 and widths 30 m measurements of the grain size distribution along the trunk stream yield a mean d84 value of ca 270 mm whereas the mean d50 is ca 100 mm the consequences of the channel morphology and the grain size distribution for the time scales of sediment transport were explored by using a one dimensional step backwater hydraulic model hydrologic engineering centre river analysis system the results reveal that along the entire trunk stream a two to 10 year return period flood event is capable of mobilizing both the d50 and d84 fractions where the shields stress exceeds the critical shields stress for the initiation of particle motion these return periods however varied substantially depending on the channel geometry and the pebble boulder size distribution of the supplied material accordingly the stream exhibits a highly dynamic boulder cover behaviour it is likely that these time scales might also have been at work when coarse grained conglomerates were constructed in the geological past