Floodplain Width Adjustments in Response to Rapid Base Level Fall and Knickpoint Migration
Geomorphology has long been engaged in characterizing the form and understanding the evolution of floodplains. This study primarily examines floodplain width in four tributaries to the Minnesota River in southern Minnesota, namely the Maple, Le Sueur, and Blue Earth Rivers and Seven Mile Creek. The...
Main Author: | |
---|---|
Format: | Text |
Language: | unknown |
Published: |
Hosted by Utah State University Libraries
2011
|
Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/wats_facpub/143 |
id |
ftutahsudc:oai:digitalcommons.usu.edu:wats_facpub-1142 |
---|---|
record_format |
openpolar |
spelling |
ftutahsudc:oai:digitalcommons.usu.edu:wats_facpub-1142 2023-05-15T16:41:14+02:00 Floodplain Width Adjustments in Response to Rapid Base Level Fall and Knickpoint Migration Belmont, Patrick 2011-01-01T08:00:00Z https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/wats_facpub/143 unknown Hosted by Utah State University Libraries https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/wats_facpub/143 Copyright for this work is held by the author. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information contact the Institutional Repository Librarian at digitalcommons@usu.edu. PDM Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications Floodplain Width Adjustments in Response to Rapid Base Level Fall and Knickpoint Migration Environmental Sciences Fresh Water Studies Soil Science text 2011 ftutahsudc 2022-08-11T17:19:28Z Geomorphology has long been engaged in characterizing the form and understanding the evolution of floodplains. This study primarily examines floodplain width in four tributaries to the Minnesota River in southern Minnesota, namely the Maple, Le Sueur, and Blue Earth Rivers and Seven Mile Creek. The tributary systems are relatively young, having formed after retreat of the Wisconsinan ice sheet, and are rapidly evolving in response to a base level fall of nearly 70 m–13,400 YBP. As a result, the lower reaches of all four river channels are aggressively incising. This study applies a new, freely available, open-code plug-in for ArcGIS to measure floodplain width as a function of elevation above the geomorphic top of bank. Systematic changes are observed in all four systems. Above the steep, incising knickzone reaches of each of the tributaries, relatively wide, and mostly unconfined, floodplains are observed. Within the knickzone, floodplains progressively narrow to between 25–60% of their width above the knickzone, despite the fact that sediment loads increase significantly in the downstream direction. A power law relationship is consistently observed between floodplain width and the ratio of local channel slope to contributing drainage area to about the negative one-third power in all four rivers. This same power law relationship is observed for two other rivers that differ significantly from our study systems in climatic and tectonic environment as well as base level history. Text Ice Sheet Utah State University: DigitalCommons@USU |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Utah State University: DigitalCommons@USU |
op_collection_id |
ftutahsudc |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Floodplain Width Adjustments in Response to Rapid Base Level Fall and Knickpoint Migration Environmental Sciences Fresh Water Studies Soil Science |
spellingShingle |
Floodplain Width Adjustments in Response to Rapid Base Level Fall and Knickpoint Migration Environmental Sciences Fresh Water Studies Soil Science Belmont, Patrick Floodplain Width Adjustments in Response to Rapid Base Level Fall and Knickpoint Migration |
topic_facet |
Floodplain Width Adjustments in Response to Rapid Base Level Fall and Knickpoint Migration Environmental Sciences Fresh Water Studies Soil Science |
description |
Geomorphology has long been engaged in characterizing the form and understanding the evolution of floodplains. This study primarily examines floodplain width in four tributaries to the Minnesota River in southern Minnesota, namely the Maple, Le Sueur, and Blue Earth Rivers and Seven Mile Creek. The tributary systems are relatively young, having formed after retreat of the Wisconsinan ice sheet, and are rapidly evolving in response to a base level fall of nearly 70 m–13,400 YBP. As a result, the lower reaches of all four river channels are aggressively incising. This study applies a new, freely available, open-code plug-in for ArcGIS to measure floodplain width as a function of elevation above the geomorphic top of bank. Systematic changes are observed in all four systems. Above the steep, incising knickzone reaches of each of the tributaries, relatively wide, and mostly unconfined, floodplains are observed. Within the knickzone, floodplains progressively narrow to between 25–60% of their width above the knickzone, despite the fact that sediment loads increase significantly in the downstream direction. A power law relationship is consistently observed between floodplain width and the ratio of local channel slope to contributing drainage area to about the negative one-third power in all four rivers. This same power law relationship is observed for two other rivers that differ significantly from our study systems in climatic and tectonic environment as well as base level history. |
format |
Text |
author |
Belmont, Patrick |
author_facet |
Belmont, Patrick |
author_sort |
Belmont, Patrick |
title |
Floodplain Width Adjustments in Response to Rapid Base Level Fall and Knickpoint Migration |
title_short |
Floodplain Width Adjustments in Response to Rapid Base Level Fall and Knickpoint Migration |
title_full |
Floodplain Width Adjustments in Response to Rapid Base Level Fall and Knickpoint Migration |
title_fullStr |
Floodplain Width Adjustments in Response to Rapid Base Level Fall and Knickpoint Migration |
title_full_unstemmed |
Floodplain Width Adjustments in Response to Rapid Base Level Fall and Knickpoint Migration |
title_sort |
floodplain width adjustments in response to rapid base level fall and knickpoint migration |
publisher |
Hosted by Utah State University Libraries |
publishDate |
2011 |
url |
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/wats_facpub/143 |
genre |
Ice Sheet |
genre_facet |
Ice Sheet |
op_source |
Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications |
op_relation |
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/wats_facpub/143 |
op_rights |
Copyright for this work is held by the author. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user. For more information contact the Institutional Repository Librarian at digitalcommons@usu.edu. |
op_rightsnorm |
PDM |
_version_ |
1766031659972427776 |