The trends of degradation and aggradation are measured in this study for the Lower Mississippi River. Historical riverbed elevation and stage data from the past hundred years were used from six gages in order to measure changes in riverbed gradation. It was found that using stage data to measure gradation changes is a superior method to using riverbed elevations, due to stage data’s reliability, length of record and daily measurements. Degradation in the Lower Mississippi River was seen during the

This study documents the stage adjustments in the Lower White River between 1931 and 2012 at four rated gaging stations along the trunk stem of the river. The study reach extends from Calico Rock, Arkansas, to the confluence of the White River with the Mississippi River north of Arkansas City, a distance of about 509 km. The specific gage approach was used to track hydrological response in the study reach. In order to approach spatial homogeneity across the four gaging locations along the study reach, input discharges were normalized to multiples of mean daily flow (MDF). Specific gage analysis tracks water surface elevation changes for fixed discharge conditions over time. Three discharges were analyzed at each station: low flow, mean flow, and high flow. The low flow specific gage trends are emphasized to highlight degradation and aggradation due to the sensitivity of specific stages at low flows to channel bed elevation changes. An `enhanced interpolation' technique was used to fill gaps in the specific stage time series in order to avoid errors derived from extrapolation of annual rating curves. The analysis shows decreasing trends in specific stage at Clarendon and DeValls Bluff at low flows, indicating net degradation. The gages at Newport and Calico Rock show increasing trends in specific stage over time at low flows, indicating aggradation downstream of Norfork and Bull Shoals reservoirs.

At the turn of the century, Kanab Creek incised 30-meters into its alluvium, leaving behind fluvial terraces and thick basin fill sediments exposed along arroyo walls. Research objectives were to determine the timing and causes of past valley-filling and arroyo-cutting episodes along a 20 km-long reach of Kanab Creek in southern Utah. Fluvial deposits were mapped at the 1:12,000 scale and sediments were described and dated using Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) and radiocarbon dating. The Kanab Creek valley can be divided into a narrow, upper terraced reach and a broad lower basin fill reach near Kanab, Utah. The most prominent terrace in the upper reach is Quaternary alluvial terrace 4 (Qat4), followed by Qat3, Qat2/3, and Qat2 map units. These are composed of tabular-bedded, fine-grained sand, silt, and clay layers. The Qat2/3 map unit is a both a fill and fill-cut terrace underlain by Qa4, Qa3, and Qa2 alluvium and is used when the Qat3 fill-cut (fill-strath) terrace can not be differentiated from the Qat2 fill terrace due to their similar geomorphic position. The Qat3 fill-cut terrace upstream correlates to ~8 meters of aggradation downstream. The youngest terrace, Qat1, is a minor terrace, composed of coarse-grained channel facies. More recent channel and floodplain deposits were deposited over the last century following arroyo cutting. OSL and radiocarbon results suggest at least four cycles of fluvial cutting and filling: >6-3.5ka (Qa4), ~3->1ka (Qa3), 0.7-0.12ka (Qa2), and post-1880 AD (Qa1). Correlation to regional climate records suggests major periods of aggradation correlate to regionally cooler and wetter climatic intervals. Periods of arroyo cutting occurred at >6ka, ~3ka, 1-0.7ka, and during historic arroyo cutting (1882-1914 AD), and correlate to regionally warmer, drier intervals. These periods of aggradation and incision are roughly contemporaneous with regional drainages, except for the large aggradation seen in Kanab Creek 6-3.5ka (Qa4). Analysis of terrace longitudinal profiles indicates Qat4 has the lowest concavity suggesting that Qat4 aggraded during a period of greater sediment supply and/or reduced flood regime. Although OSL samples exhibited some degree of incomplete zeroing, calculated ages using a minimum age model are consistent with radiocarbon results.

Coastal marshes and wetlands are vital natural resources that offer habitats for plants and animals, serve as ecological filtration for soil and water pollutants, and act as protection for coastlines. Fishing, both commercial and sport, has a large economic impact in the study area – the Gulf Coast between Galveston Bay, TX and Oak Grove, LA. The objective of this research was to determine the contribution of Hurricane Ike storm surge sedimentation to long-term marsh aggradation in Texas and Louisiana coastal marshes. The research hypothesized that Hurricane Ike’s storm surge deposit would be equal to decades and possibly even a century’s worth of the average annual non-storm sedimentation. A quantitative field study was performed. The storm surge deposit was examined in a series of 15 transects covering approximately 180 km east of Hurricane Ike’s landfall. Nine of the 15 transects were re-surveyed a year after the initial measurement to assess preservation of the deposit. The results demonstrate that Hurricane Ike contributed between 10 to 135 years’ worth of sediment to coastal marshes along the coasts of Texas and Louisiana, and the sediment deposits have been preserved for over two years.

Widespread Lake Bonneville sediments have been modified by river aggradation and degradation associated with Holocene fluctuations in the Great Salt Lake. Exposures of exceptionally abundant and well-preserved molluscan deposits in the Bear River Valley, Utah, allow detailed paleoenvironmental reconstruction of Holocene environments. The exposed basal unit consists of largely unfossiliferous deltaic silts and clays deposited during Lake Bonneville time ( roughly 11,000 - 13,000 yr B. P.). An unconformity representing at least 2000 yr separates the deltaic material from overlying highly fossiliferous stream sands. Eight species of molluscs, comprising a single community, occupied this low energy stream environment at 7690 ± 270 14C yr B. P. A second unconformity separates these sands from a dark brown silt unit deposited by a river-associated environment, most likely an over-bank marsh, at 2420 ± 135 14C yr B. P. Nine species of molluscs, comprising 3 communities, were present in this environment. Analysis of size-frequency distributions, percentage of pelecypod valves, preservation, and orientation of the shells that were present in each environment suggests that the 7690 ± 270 14c yr B. P. fossil assemblage has been only slightly altered by biostratinomic processes. The younger assemblage has also been altered, with the size-frequency curves of the smallest gastropods displaying normal distributions. Geomorphic and stratigraphic data from the Malad River show that water levels in the Great Salt Lake twice rose and fell significantly during the Holocene epoch. The oldest rise, to an altitude of at least 1288 m, occurred before 7690 ± 270 yr B. P., perhaps in response to a worldwide period of climatic cooling. This high-stand was followed by a fall of lake level roughly corresponding to the classic Hypsithermal Interval, about 7000 - 5000 yr B. P. A second rise occurred by 2420 ± 135 yr B. P., when the Great Salt Lake rose to approximately 1286 m. During this second rise, the Malad River overflowed its levees and later, as the Great Salt Lake receded for a second time, the river was captured by a headward-cutting tributary of the Bear River. The regional distribution of the fossiliferous deposits was controlled by the time at which capture occurred. Capture of the Malad channel by the Bear River occurred after the last fossiliferous sediments were deposited; thus no fossils are found downstream from the point of capture.

An Alpine Fault Earthquake has the potential to cause significant disruption across the Southern Alps of the South Island New Zealand. In particular, South Island river systems may be chronically disturbed by the addition of large volumes of sediment sourced from coseismic landsliding. The Taramakau River is no exception to this; located north of Otira, in the South Island of New Zealand, it is exposed to natural hazards resulting from an earthquake on the Alpine Fault, the trace of which crosses the river within the study reach. The effects of an Alpine Fault Earthquake (AFE) have been extensively studied, however, little attention has been paid to the effects of such an event on the Taramakau River as addressed herein. Three research methods were utilised to better understand the implications of an Alpine Fault Earthquake on the Taramakau River: (1) hydraulic and landslide data analyses, (2) aerial photograph interpretation and (3) micro-scale modelling. Data provided by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research were reworked, establishing relationships between hydraulic parameters for the Taramakau River. Estimates of landslide volume were compared with data from the Poerua landslide dam, a historic New Zealand natural event, to indicate how landslide sediment may be reworked through the Taramakau valley. Aerial photographs were compared with current satellite images of the area, highlighting trends of avulsion and areas at risk of flooding. Micro-scale model experiments indicated how a braided fluvial system may respond to dextral strike-slip and thrust displacement and an increase in sediment load from coseismic landslides. An Alpine Fault Earthquake will generate a maximum credible volume of approximately 3.0 x 108 m3 of landslide material in the Taramakau catchment. Approximately 15% of this volume will be deposited on the Taramakau study area floodplain within nine years of the next Alpine Fault Earthquake. This amounts to 4.4 x 107 m3 of sediment input, causing an average of 0.5 m of aggradation across the river floodplains within the study area. An average aggradation of 0.5 m will likely increase the stream height of a one-in-100 year flood with a flow rate of 3200 m3/s from seven metres to 7.5 m overtopping the road and rail bridges that cross the Taramakau River within the study area – if they have survived the earthquake. Since 1943 the Taramakau River has shifted 500 m away from State Highway 73 near Inchbonnie, moving 430 m closer to the road and rail. Paleo channels recognised across the land surrounding Inchbonnie between the Taramakau River and Lake Brunner may be reoccupied after an earthquake on the Alpine Fault. Micro-scale modelling showed that the dominant response to dextral strike-slip and increased ‘landslide’ sediment addition was up- and downstream aggradation separated by a localised zone of degradation over the fault trace. Following an Alpine Fault Earthquake the Taramakau River will be disturbed by the initial surface rupture along the fault trace, closely followed by coseismic landsliding. Landslide material will migrate down the Taramakau valley and onto the floodplain. Aggradation will raise the elevation of the river bed promoting channel avulsion with consequent flooding and sediment deposition particularly on low lying farmland near Inchbonnie. To manage the damage of these hazards, systematically raising the low lying sections of road and rail may be implemented, strengthening (or pre-planning the replacement of) the bridges is recommended and actively involving the community in critical decision making should minimise the risks of AFE induced fluvial hazards. The response of the Taramakau River relative to an Alpine Fault Earthquake might be worse, or less severe or significantly different in some way, to that assumed herein.

The aim of this research is to assess hazards and risks associated with flooding in the city of Juárez, northern México, where there is a flood threat from active alluvial fans from mountains to the southwest and from the Rio Grande (Bravo River) to the northwest forming the northeast border of the city. Aims of this Ph.D. were addressed processing a digital elevation model (DEM) of the study area in a GIS platform to define the several alluvial fans, and thus to examine their history and palaeohydrology. Three OSL dates in the youngest parts of the fans show ages ranging from 74 - 31 ka. However, the fans were subsequently incised, broadly correlating with later Pleistocene to Holocene processes upstream, published in literature, in New México. These changes are not obviously linked to glacial-interglacial cycles, and there is indication of local controls of interplay of climate and topography, for which this work is a preliminary study. The flood threat to Juárez was addressed by using a classification of the uneven topography of the eroded alluvial fans, plus the Bravo River flood plain, into basins and subbasins. Field and laboratory work was used to define litho-facies of soils and rocks, location of structures such as, topographic and hydrologic apex and drainage system in the fans. The data were then used in association with published information on the parameters of the basins and sub-basins provided in published documents from the Mexican authorities to make flood models of the area, using standard models of HEC-HMS and HEC-RAS methods widely applied in semi-arid regions. The result was estimation of the ability of existing flood defences to resist high-flow floods that may be expected in upcoming decades. The modelling predicts that only a small number of the existing defences will hold in a catastrophic 1:100-year flood, and that substantial parts of the city are in considerable danger. Such results are important in relation to the expanded and dense population in Juárez, which is concentrated mostly on the most active part of the flooding system, the Colorado Fan, which is the subject of a focussed secondary study of vulnerability mapping. The map reveals that areas of the city of low socioeconomic development are under the greatest threat. Therefore there is a need for reconsideration of the city's flood planning, and remediation, plus the application of enforcements of areas which should not be built on, because of the threats.

Arroyos are entrenched channels characterized by near-vertical walls of alluvium and flat channel bottoms. Historic channel entrenchment in the southwest United States during the late AD 1800s and early 1900s has stimulated extensive research on these dynamic fluvial systems. The near-synchronous episodes of arroyo entrenchment and aggradation in Kanab Creek and other drainages in southern Utah during the last ~1 Ka has led many researches to argue that hydroclimatic forcings drive arroyo processes. These hypotheses remain largely untested, and there remains considerable uncertainty regarding the timing of these events and the specific mechanisms responsible for arroyo formations. Previous work established an alluvial chronology for the kanab canyon reach of Kanab creek, but it remained unclear if arroyo events in this reach were continuous with those downstream or synchronous with events in the disconnected arroyo in the upper basin. Using deailed sedimentologic and stratigraphic descriptions coupled with AMS radiocarbon and optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating, a new chronostratigraphic record of arroyo entrenchment and aggradation for kanab creek is produced in this study. Results suggest at least five periods of fluvial aggradation and episodic arroyo entrenchment during the middle-to late-Holocene, with aggradation occuring from ~6.2 to 3.67 ka (Qfl), ~3.2 to 2.5 ka (Qf2), ~2.2 to `.45 ka (Qf3), 1.4 to 0.8 ka (Qf4), and 0.75 to 0.14 ka (Qf5). This record is compared to regional alluvial and paleoclimate records to explore potential allogenic and autogenic forcing mechanisms. Rapid transitions from exceptional drought to pluvial periods are quasi-synchronous with regional arroyo entrenchment over the last ~1.5 Ka, but the lack of clear correlations amongst the regional alluvial records and between paleoclimate records beyond 1.5 Ka suggests that internal geomorphic thresholds are important controls on the timing of entrenchment in individual catchments. Previous research on arroyo dynamics has largely focused on the timing of entrenchment. The few studies that have investigated the processes related to aggradation have used historic observations, and not the stratigraphic record of arroyo deposits. In this study, the alluvial records from three reaches of Kanab Creek are combined to test models of the processes and geometric patterns of paleoarroyo aggradation. Results indicate that aggradation initially propagates upstream and then transitions to synchronous vertical aggradation along the entire channel profile as arroyos approach complete filling.

No description available.

Sediment delivery to a basin exerts a first-order control over sedimentation, and therefore study of sedimentary rocks can reveal information about the nature of sediment delivery in the past. This dissertation examines several aspects of this problem using experimental, outcrop, and subsurface data. Flume experiments were undertaken to test the combined effects of autogenic alluvial aggradation and forced regression on the development of fluviodeltaic stratigraphy. Alluvial aggradation occurred in response to steady relative sea-level fall, and eventually consumed the entire sediment budget as the river lengthened in response to forced regression. The Campanian Lower Castlegate Sandstone (Utah) was studied as a potential ancient analog resulting from similar autogenic behaviors as observed in the experiments. Extensive measurement of grain-size distributions and paleo-flow depths from outcrop were utilized to explore downstream changes in paleo-hydraulics of the ancient fluvial systems in the Lower Castlegate in response to extensive alluvial aggradation and consequent loss of sediment from transport. An interesting finding was the stratigraphic signature of backwater hydraulic conditions in the distal reaches of the Lower Castlegate paleo-rivers. Finally, a simple and novel inversion scheme was developed for estimating paleo-sediment flux from ancient shelf-margin successions. An advantage of the methodology is that it allows for both spatial and temporal reconstruction of paleo-sediment flux patterns. The inversion scheme was applied to shelf-margin successions in the Washakie-Sand Wash Basin of Wyoming, the New Jersey Atlantic margin, the North Slope of Alaska, and the Zambezi margin of East Africa using published subsurface datasets. The Neogene passive margins within the studied datasets were found to consistently deposit around one-third of their total sediment budget on the shelf-margin topset, and bypass two-thirds of their budget beyond the shelf edge. The implications of this finding on the flux of terrestrial-derived particulate organic carbon (POC) from rivers to the ocean were explored, and a long-term average flux of POC to deepwater storage was estimated. The sediment-flux inversion scheme was also applied to derive input parameters for stratigraphic modeling of the Ebro margin. The modeling results indicate that the autostratigraphic behavior of the margin may have been previously underestimated. / text