Characteristics of Suspended Sediment and River Discharge During the Beginning of Snowmelt in Volcanically Active Mountainous Environments

Geomorphology 213 (2014) 266–276

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Geomorphology

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Characteristics of suspended sediment and river discharge during the beginning of snowmelt in volcanically active mountainous environments

Goro Mouri a,⁎, Faizah Che Ros b, Sergey Chalov c a Institute of Industrial Science (IIS), The University of Tokyo, 4-6-1, Meguro-ku, Komaba, Tokyo 153-8505, Japan b Department of Systems Innovation, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8656, Japan c Faculty of Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119992 Russia, Moscow, GSP-1, Vorob'evy Gory, MSU, Moscow, Russia article info abstract

Article history: To better understand instream suspended sediment delivery and transformation processes, we conducted field Received 20 November 2013 measurements and laboratory experiments to study the natural function of spatial and temporal variation, sed- Received in revised form 28 January 2014 iment particles, stable isotopes, particle size, and aspect ratio from tributary to mainstream flows of the Sukhaya Accepted 3 February 2014 Elizovskaya River catchment at the beginning of and during snowmelt. The Sukhaya Elizovskaya River is located Available online 10 February 2014 in the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia and is surrounded by active volcanic territory. The study area has a range of hydrological features that determine the extreme amounts of washed sediments. Sediment transported to the Keywords: fl River discharge river channels in volcanic mountainous terrain is believed to be strongly in uenced by climate conditions, partic- Sediment transport ularly when heavy precipitation and warmer climate trigger mudflows in association with the melting snow. The Snowmelt period high porosity of the channel bottom material also leads to interactions with the surface water, causing temporal Suspended sediment variability in the daily fluctuations in water and sediment flow. Field measurements revealed that suspended Volcanic environment sediment behaviour and fluxes decreased along the mainstream Sukhaya Elizovskaya River from inflows from a tributary catchment located in the volcanic mountain range. In laboratory experiments, water samples collected from tributaries were mixed with those from the mainstream flow of the Sukhaya Elizovskaya River to examine the cause of debris flow and characteristics of suspended sediment in the mainstream. These findings and the geological conditions of the tributary catchments studied led us to conclude that halloysite minerals likely com- prise the majority of suspended sediments and play a significant role in phosphate adsorption. The experimental results were upscaled and verified using field measurements. Our results indicate that the characteristics of suspended sediment and river discharge in the Sukhaya Elizovskaya River can be attributed primarily to the beginning of snowmelt in volcanic tributaries of the lahar valley, suggesting a significant hydrological contribution of volcanic catchments to instream suspended sediment transport. Daily fluctuations in discharge caused by snowmelt with debris flow were observed in this measurement period, in which suspended sediment concentration is ~10 mg/l during nonflooding periods and ~1400 mg/l when flooding occurs. The oxygen and hydrogen isotope measurements, when compared with Japan, indicated that the Kamchatka region water is relatively lightweight, incorporating the effects of topography; and the water from the beginning of the snowmelt is relatively lightweight when compared with water from the end of the snowmelt. The trend line of isotopes from the beginning of the snowmelt was defined by a slope of 6.88 (n =12;r2 = 0.97), significantly less than that of isotopes from the snowmelt (8.72). The sediment particles collected during the snowmelt were round in shape caused by the extreme flows and high discharge. The shape of the sediment particles collected at the beginning of the snowmelt, assumed to be fresh samples from the hillslope, was sharper caused by the relatively small discharge by moderate snowmelt. Finally, the relationship between river discharge and suspended sediment concentration was indicated. The results are compared with mountainous rivers of Japan and Malaysia. A new diagram is pro- posed to describe the relationship between suspended sediment concentration and river discharge. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).

1. Introduction

Water resulting from precipitation on land, represented mainly by rain water, follows several paths before reaching oceans or seas or be- ⁎ Corresponding author. Tel.: +81 3 5452 6382. fore being recycled back to the atmosphere. Sediment transport de- E-mail address: [email protected] (G. Mouri). pends on a number of factors, the most important of which are the

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geomorph.2014.02.001 0169-555X/© 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/). G. Mouri et al. / Geomorphology 213 (2014) 266–276 267 amount of available water, precipitation (both average and peak), dis- also occurs in glacial rivers, which exhibit similar short-term fluctua- charge (volume and velocity), topographical and environmental fea- tions (Ballantyne and McCann, 1980). tures of the terrain, basin geology, magnitude of human impact, and The sediment load of rivers in volcanic regions forms under a variety amount of sediment or load that the river or stream can carry of geomorphologic and hydrological conditions (O'Connor et al., 2003; (Richmond et al., 2003; Delpla et al., 2009; Alexander et al., 2010; Noyesa et al., 2009) such as heavy rainfall, leakage from crater lakes, Syvitski, 2011; Mouri et al., 2013a,b,c, 2014). In a volcanic environment, melting snowfields and glaciers, or volcanic eruption. The total volume many of the drivers of sediment discharge (loss of surface materials by of the sediment load usually forms under the influence of strong fluctu- erosional forces) are significantly enhanced compared with other ations in water content, resulting in diurnal variations and even mountainous areas (Jing and Chen, 1983; Poesen and Hooke, 1997; intrahourly changes in water and sediment conditions, which can sig- Teramoto et al., 2005). Volcanically influenced sedimentary settings nificantly exceed intraannual fluctuations (Martin and Meybeck, 1979; are complex systems that reflect the addition of volcanic ejecta and Chalov, 2012; Mouri et al., 2012). their subsequent transport and deposition over a wide range of moun- During the period of high snowmelt in the spring, the rivers in the tainous environments (Fisher and Smith, 1991; McPhie et al., 1993; volcanic territories of Kamchatka are full flowing, actively contributing Mascarenhas-Pereira et al., 2006; Manville et al., 2009). to cumulative erosive changes in the terrain. The greatest material transport occurs during volcanic eruptions (Kuksina and Chalov, 1.1. Water streams in volcanic territory and the sediment loads 2012). The sediment of the rivers consists of dry boulder gravel and sand material and is characterised by lens bedding (Kuksina and In volcanic areas, especially on volcanic slopes, various types of Chalov, 2012). water streams are created. Lahars follow the paths of river valleys. A lahar is a mudflow resulting from the interaction between loose volca- 1.2. Channel processes nic rocks and water on the slopes of the volcanoes caused by snow and ice melt during eruptions and the breakthrough of crater lakes. Changes in the type of rivers cutting the slopes and foothill areas of These are mass wasting events that are triggered by a fluvial event. Dur- active volcanoes are associated with different types of river valleys ing these events, the snowmelt starts when the subsurface is still frozen, (Petry et al., 2007; Hamann et al., 2010; Verbist et al., 2010; Chalov triggering overland flow and landslides. Runoff helps determine the na- et al., 2013). Seasonal fluctuations in the water and sediment flow de- ture of lahars and the sediment yield of the river (Neall, 1976; Deike and termine the variability in the channel network. The susceptibility to Jones, 1980; Decaulne and Saemundsson, 2006; Fiorucci et al., 2011; eruption and the maximum flow of sediment in the middle of the rivers Iida et al., 2012). Permanent and temporary rivers (tributaries of the in volcanic areas (‘dry’ river beds) define a specific mode of vertical var- lahar valley) are water streams that originate on the slopes of the volca- iation. When the surface filtration flow predominantly consists of thick no but that are of a type that also occur in other types of mountains. The sedimentation, materials tend to accumulate on the surface. Under river beds are created by channel processes that do not differ from those these conditions, changing or diverting the flow of surface runoff in of mountain rivers found in nonvolcanic areas (Mascarenhas-Pereira the absence of additional sources of solid material is difficult; thus, in et al., 2006; Petry et al., 2007; Ermakova, 2009; Veldkamp et al., 2012). this case, the erosion is quite significant (Lawler et al., 1992; Oguchi Water drainage in the rivers of volcanic territories can be described et al., 2001; Kuksina and Chalov, 2012). as episodic (Cilento, 1937). There are two key reasons for this. First, The speed of the entrenchment of dry rivers into soft volcanic sedi- the unconsolidated volcanic rocks that form the slope of the volcano ments is evidenced by the fact that the Sukhaya Khapitsa River whose val- have high water permeability. The groundwater level within active vol- ley in the upper and middle stream was filled to the edges with sediments cano territories is located very close to the surface, facilitating the ex- of the ignimbrites and agglomeration stream of the 1956 eruption of tremely fast flow of water into the underlying layers. The infiltration Bezymyanny volcano had already cut through this stratum by 1962 and rate of the river flow is determined by the features of the valley struc- continued to entrench into the underlying glacial deposits (Kraevaya, ture (Oguchi et al., 2001; Mouri et al., 2013a,b). The second reason for 1964). Thus, the maximum depth of its entrenchment over 6 years was sporadic water drainage from rivers in volcanic areas is associated ~35 m. Downstream, the entrenchment depth decreases with further wid- with the intermittent nature of their supply from precipitation, seasonal ening of the bed. The cross section of the valleys of dry rivers from the head melting of snowfields, and catastrophic melting of ice and snow during to the mouth undergoes significant changes. In the river head, as a rule, volcanic eruptions. Most of the year, especially in winter, many of these valleys have a V-shaped cross section. In the middle reach, owing to inten- rivers have no water. However, a dry river has full flow during spring sive underwashing of the soft stratum building up the edges, the valley as- snowmelt and during catastrophic melting of ice and snow during erup- sumes the shape of a canyon, which testifies to the increasing role of lateral tions, which results in most of the cumulative erosion experienced by erosion. In the lower reach, the valley profile flattens out. the slope terrain. Thus, the dry or full-flow state depends on daily fluc- The deformation of river beds in volcanic areas has a specificcharac- tuations and seasonal conditions, as well as the permeability of the ter- ter caused by the extremely uneven water flow. Water sources originate rain, contributing to pulsating flow conditions during heavy flows. on the volcano slopes, but flow within different types of mountain chan- The diurnal flow regime is completely determined by the melting of nels according to river mechanics, which are not different from those of glaciers and snowfields and is transformed by the infiltration of the run- braided rivers of nonvolcanic areas. Structures of focal branching of vol- off. In the period of increasing water fl ow, the rivers are actively being canic rivers are random and are completely modified by each flood. filtered into thick fluvial sediments and gradually filling the underflow Thus, from the daily fluctuations in the water flow, separate flows can path. The latter decreases infiltration and thus determines the increase be measured every 10 min (Yukiyoshi et al., 2005; Ermakova, 2009; in surface runoff. Aquifer filtering also contributes to the intraday cycli- Mouri et al., 2011b, 2013c,e,f). cal flow (Mouri et al., 2011c,d, 2013d; Kuksina and Chalov, 2012). The saturated sediment water flow of the rivers flowing from the 2. Study area description volcano is characterised by a mass-wave movement such as debris flow, which is associated with the features of the water flow in the chan- 2.1. Brief description of the study area nel. Mechanical changes in the mainstream such as the collapse of the foot of a glacier, the creation and eruption of temporary dams, and the The Kamchatka Peninsula is located in northeast Russia and is the river bed deformation allow water to seep into the loose volcanic strata; second largest peninsula in Russia (total area: 370,000 km2;length: the output of this water downstream leads to abrupt changes in the 1500 km). The peninsula is connected to the mainland by the narrow water flow downstream and upstream. This kind of pulsating flow Kamchatka isthmus of the Parapolsky dale. Kamchatka is a young 268 G. Mouri et al. / Geomorphology 213 (2014) 266–276 geosynclinal area in terms of plate tectonics, currently undergoing the parts of the water catchment area. Water regime and channel manage- active tectonic processes of modern and contemporary volcanism. East ment depend not only on the sources of nourishment but also on the Kamchatka is located in a zone of active engagement between the Eur- shape of the river valley, discharge, and sediment incorporated by the asia and Pacific lithospheric plates, where the Pacificplateissubducted snowmelt. The upper parts of the valleys of no-flow sections of rivers beneath the Eurasia plate, with the oceanic plates sinking beneath the are located on the most steep-dipping slopes of volcanoes, but caused island arcs. The rest of the peninsula reflects a more ancient stage of by yet insufficient water content, a clearly defined channel is absent. geological development, with a crust thickness of ~30 km. The Sukhaya Starting from elevations of about 1500 m, no-flow sections of rivers, as Elizovskaya River flows through the active Kamchatka–Avachinskaya arule,flow within well-formed V-shaped valleys. group of volcanoes, as shown in Fig. 1.Thisgroupofvolcanoesissituat- ed in the southeast region of the peninsula and is referred to as the East- 2.2. Gauging site ern volcanic area. The Sukhaya Elizovskaya River flows from the snowfields located on Three gauging stations were set up for this study, as shown in Fig. 1. the western slope of Avachinskaya volcano. The soil of the Sukhaya Sediment transport was determined by the diurnal, hourly, and daily Elizovskaya River has a nonuniform distribution and can be classified fluctuations in water flow (Kuksina and Chalov, 2012). For this study, as fibrous and ashy. The main type of soil is layered volcanic ash and two sets of data were gathered corresponding to two different years primitive soils from young volcanic-sedimentary deposits that have and two different times of the year. high porosity. The rivers flow along the valley lahar beds (Fig. 2,indicat- During the observation period, the constant water flow stopped at ed by a thick blue line). The nature of this flow is largely determined by night in the upstream zone of the lahar valley owing to water filtration. its tributaries, which are water streams originating from the slopes of On sunny days, the length of the surface stream grew downstream volcanoes and fed by melting snow and glaciers (Fig. 2, thin light-blue along the river valley, with increasing water loss from the snowfields. lines). Maximal water losses of the snowfields at the foot of Koryaksky and The length of the Sukhaya Elizovskaya River is 20 km, and it has a Avachinsky volcanoes (with a daily temperature of 30 °C) were usually catchment area of 73.6 km2. This river has 10 permanent tributaries; observed around 18:00; this is reflected in the maximum value of the however, owing to their small size, these tributaries remain unnamed. middle-gauge discharge record, as shown in Fig. 3 (Chalov et al., The total length of the Sukhaya Elizovskaya River drainage network is 2013). Figs. 4–6 show the situation during both measurement periods 53 km. The density of the river network is 0.73 km−2. Fig. 2 shows for stations I, II, and III. that all of the major tributaries flow into the upper part of the basin. The second observation period occurred from 15 to 28 June 2013 (at These temporary and permanent streams are supplied mainly by melt- the beginning of the snowmelt period). During this period, all river ing snow from the Avachinskaya volcano peak. Given that the runoff of channels were covered by snow except for the left tributary from the the Sukhaya Elizovskaya River is largely determined by the runoff of its snow field at station II, as shown in Figs. 4–6. Based on this situation, tributaries, geomorphological perspective is quite interesting to see the the data for Station II were used to assess the relationship between dynamics of the snowfields, which are located in the high mountain river discharge and suspended sediment. Station II consisted of two

Fig. 1. Location of Sukhaya Elizovskaya River. Data are from THEOS satellite imagery. G. Mouri et al. / Geomorphology 213 (2014) 266–276 269

Fig. 2. Sukhaya Elizovskaya River and its river ﬂow/runoff. Data are from THEOS satellite imagery and Chalov et al. (2013).

channels: the mainstream channel and the left tributary from the snow- 3. Methodology field channel. During the snowmelt period in 2012, both obvious streams had occasional discharges. However, in 2013 at the beginning 3.1. Suspended sediment of the snowmelt period, only the left tributary from the snowfield channel had a discharge; the main channel was covered by snow, as shown The volcanogenic strata that form the slopes and piedmonts of the in Fig. 6. The difference in the sediment particle size is shown in Fig. 7. volcanoes are highly erodible, which determines the specific features The sediment particles in 2012 were round in shape caused by the ex- of entry of the material into the rivers and the material transport. To treme flows and high discharge relative to the flows measured in 2013. successfully carry out this study, data on suspended sediment

Fig. 3. Diurnal water level ﬂuctuations of the Sukhaya Elizovskaya River at three different locations measured 28 July–5August2013. 270 G. Mouri et al. / Geomorphology 213 (2014) 266–276

Fig. 4. Station I: (A) 28 July–5 August 2012; (B) 15–28 June 2013.

concentration and stream discharge were collected from the gauging random, and it transforms after the passing of the next flood. As a result station. The first data were recorded from 28 July to 5 August 2012 (dur- of diurnal fluctuations in the water runoff in a braided river, the lives of ing the snowmelt period). Among the diverse environmental conditions individual river arms are measured in tens of minutes. In the Sukhaya of the Russian Federation, it is in the Kamchatka Peninsula where rivers Avachinskaya River, 20 km from the river head, when the water dis- with such hydrological regimes can be found. Observations on the charge changes from 0.0 m3/s (no runoff) to 0.2 m3/s, the number of Sukhaya Elizovskaya River in the summer of 2012 and comparison of arms in the valley cross section reaches seven. The intense transforma- the data obtained with the results of the expeditions in the previous tion in the degree of branching of volcanic river channels is years showed that the water flow was dependent on the weather con- characterised by a completely different timescale (days or even hours) ditions, the nature of the underlying terrain, and the type and source than that in other types of river channels. These specificfeaturesmake of nourishment. Thus, three types of variability in the runoff of the it possible to characterise the channels of volcanic rivers as unstable. Sukhaya Elizovskaya River can be distinguished: diurnal, hourly, and To analyse the data, we used the sediment rating curve developed by daily. During this period, we observed a tenfold increase in sediment Van Rijn (1984), which takes into account the discharge-dependent transport along the mountain channels, and an increase of up to 1000- variation in suspended sediment concentration. The sediment rating fold in the lahar channel. The short-term fluctuations in the measure- curve uses the power method to regress stream discharge against ments were attributed to damming of the river by collapsed ice, dam suspended sediment, resulting in a log–log plot of the exponential rela- bursting, or filtration of the surface water. The shape of the sediment tionship given below: particles collected in 2013, assumed to be fresh samples from along ¼ b ð Þ the various types of hillslopes near station II, was sharper caused by Q s aQ w 1 the relatively small discharge by moderate snowmelt. Seasonal fluctua- 3 −1 tions in the water and sediment runoff determine the annual variability where Qs is the suspended sediment in m s , Qw is the stream dis- of the channel network pattern. High susceptibility to washing-out, con- charge in m3 s−1, a is the y-intercept, and b is the slope of the plot. current with maximum sediment runoff within the middle part of the rivers in the volcanic areas, determines the specific character of the re- 3.2. Isotopes gime of vertical deformations. During the period of prevailing surface runoff seepage into the sediment stratum, accumulation of the material Isotopes are variants of a particular chemical element, having the entering from the top develops. In this case, the spatial arrangement of same number of protons (i.e., atomic number) but a different number the accumulation zone changes within the river boundaries depending of neutrons. The use of stable oxygen and hydrogen isotopes as tracers on the travel of the waves of surface runoff. In this case, erosion prevails in hydrologic studies is based on naturally occurring variations in the in the long term. Deformations of the river channels in the volcanic relative abundance of two rare heavy isotopic species of water areas will be of a specific character owing to extremely irregular water (H1H2O16 and H1H2O18), relative to the common light isotopic species runoff. The structure of midstream branches of volcanic rivers is (H1H1O16), arising from phase changes and mixing as water passes

Fig. 5. Station II: (A) 28 July–5 August 2012; (B) 15–28 June 2013. G. Mouri et al. / Geomorphology 213 (2014) 266–276 271

Fig. 6. Station III: (A) 28 July–5 August 2012; (B) 15–28 June 2013. through the hydrologic cycle (Gibson et al., 1993). Isotopic composition containing loose bed materials. In contrast, the left tributary bed con- is expressed in terms of the isotopic ratios D/H and O18/O16 relative to a sists of gravel and boulders (Mao and Surian, 2010; Chalov et al., mean ocean water standard: 2013). For the left tributary in 2013, the relationship between suspended sediment and river discharge was stable caused by the low hi † sediment concentration; the water was notably limpid. The diurnal re- δ ¼ R=R −1 1000 ð2Þ gime of the runoff is completely determined by the melting of snow fields and glaciers that feed the rivers, and the regime transforms caused R† is the ratio in (standard mean ocean water) (SMOW) as defined rel- by the runoff seepage. During the increased runoff periods, water flows ative to the National Bureau of Standards isotopic water standard (Craig, along the river channels actively seeping into the stratum of the channel 1961). deposits and gradually filling the underflow streams owing to high po- The oxygen and hydrogen isotope compositions of precipitation and rosity, high infiltration, and recharged aquifers. The last reduces seepage surface waters in simple catchments typically define two distinct linear and thus causes an increase in the surface runoff. Clearance of the un- trends in δO versus δ space (Craig, 1961). Water that has not undergone derground horizons causes another increase in seepage, which results evaporation (most underground water) generally has a slope of ~8. A in an increase in the diurnal periodicity of the runoff (Huggenberger slope of b8 (often ranging from 4 to 6) is common for meteoric waters et al., 1994; Kuksina and Chalov, 2012). The sediment-laden water that have undergone evaporation, which includes water from lakes, riv- stream of rivers flowing from volcanoes is characterised by the jam- ers, and ice melt; note that all of the water sources mentioned originat- and-wave behaviour of their movement, which is also characteristic of ed indirectly from precipitation. From the obtained water samples, the water entry into the channels. Mechanical transformations in the hydrogen and oxygen isotopic ratios were measured by mass spectrom- channel (caving of the glacier cover, formation of temporary dams, de- etry (Delta-plus, Thermoelecton Co., Ltd., USA) at the Institute of Indus- struction of temporary dams, channel deformations) as well as seepage trial Science, University of Tokyo (Craig, 1961; Dansgaard, 1964; Fritz of water into the soft volcanic rocks lead to impulsive changes in the and Fontes, 1980; Mouri et al., 2011a). water flow both upward and downward. This type of pulsing runoff also occurs in glacial streams, where short-term discharge fluctuations 4. Results and discussion occur practically for the same reasons. Diurnal and daily fluctuations in the runoff are largely conditioned by the volume of inflow from the Three exponential graphs of suspended sediment (m3 s−1) and river snowfields located on the slopes of volcanoes, as well as by atmospheric discharge were plotted for each period, as shown in Fig. 8.Forthemain precipitation. In this case, seepage of the surface runoff into the ignim- channel in 2012, the graph shows huge variation in the suspended sed- brite stratum influences the flood wave routing, and the uneven entry iment, and the discharge was ~10–30 m3 s−1 in the main channel. A plot of water owing to melting snowfields causes frequent drying up of the of the trend line indicated that the slope was ~4.2, whereas for the left rivers. tributary during the same period, the slope was only 0.25, and the dis- Figs. 9 and 10 show the difference in suspended sediment between charge varied. The mainstream bed is a thick fluvial sediment bed 2012 (during the snowmelt period) and 2013 (when the snow was

Fig. 7. Sediment particles: (A) 2012; (B) 2013. 272 G. Mouri et al. / Geomorphology 213 (2014) 266–276

Fig. 8. Suspended sediment versus river discharge at station II for both periods. just starting to melt). The difference between the two scenarios is quite the significant daily fluctuation or sharp peak value at the beginning clear. In 2012, the suspended sediment varied from ~50 to 1500 mg L−1; of the snowmelt period does not appear. Thus, the runoff regime of pe- whereas in 2013, it varied from 3 to 6 mg L−1. The main character- riodic rivers depends greatly on the season and on weather conditions, istic feature of the water course of rivers in volcanic areas is that they are and their water content can vary regularly within a 24-hour period. The episodic. First, this is caused by the very high permeability of soft volca- runoff regime of these rivers can be described as pulsing (Oguchi et al., nic rocks, which build up the volcano slopes. For this reason, the level of 2001; Reid et al., 2007). groundwater within the areas of active volcanism is very shallow, which Fig. 11 shows the temporal variations in the two stable isotopes, δO leads to extremely fast seepage of water into the underlying layers. The and δD, for the Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia, and measurements obtain- stream flow seepage conditions are determined by the structure of the ed from Japan. Plots of both water samples from the Sukhaya stream valleys. Second, this is also caused by climatic conditions such Elizovskaya River (r2 = 0.987 for both years) were adjusted for compar- as the episodic character of recharge from precipitation, seasonal melt- ison with the Japanese local meteoric water line (r2 =0.94)wherethe ing of snowfields, and catastrophic melting of ice and snow during vol- water is lighter than at lower latitudes (SAHRA, 2005; McGuire et al., canic eruptions. Therefore, for most of the year, especially in winter, the 2008). The difference between the measurements for 2012 and 2013 channels of most rivers are dry. The periodic rivers are most affluent has to do with the source of the water samples. In 2012 (the snowmelt during the spring snowmelt. In spring, as well as during catastrophic period), the source was the river and its surroundings, from which the melting of ice and snow during volcanic eruptions, the periodic rivers samples became enriched with heavy isotope compositions (slope: do their main erosive and accumulative work. In the elementary 8.7) as the water seeped through the samples. In 2013 (at the beginning sense, suspended sediment concentration and discharge are stable and of the snowmelt period), sublimation of the ice removed the material

Fig. 9. Diurnal cycle of suspended sediment in 2012. G. Mouri et al. / Geomorphology 213 (2014) 266–276 273

Fig. 10. Diurnal cycle of suspended sediment in 2013. layer by layer; therefore, this process should not change the isotopic Fig. 12 shows the properties of the suspended sediments at station II composition of the remaining snowpack, unlike the situation in an (middle stream for 2012 and 2013). During both periods, the data were evaporating water body in which the effect of surface fractionation obtained at specific times during the day (10:00, 12:00, and 18:00), i.e., propagates into the residual liquid by mixing (Gat, 1996; Aćimović- when maximal water losses were usually observed. Starting from the Pavlovic et al., 2011). Comparison with oxygen and hydrogen isotope top left figure, the cumulative (Q) versus aspect ratio (b/l)ofsediment measurements from Japan indicated that water from the Kamchatka re- particles shows that the aspect ratios for the 2012 data and for the gion was relatively lightweight, incorporating the effects of topography. 18:00 measurement of the 2013 data were even higher with small accu- Also, the water from the beginning of the snowmelt period (2013) was mulation, whereas the data corresponding to the 10:00 and 12:00 mea- relatively lightweight when compared with water from the end of the surements in the 2013 data needed more accumulation to reach the snowmelt period. Because the amount of snowmelt water was small, same aspect ratio as the rest. For the sediment accumulation versus it was considerably depleted of hydrogen and oxygen stable isotopes size distribution, the figure shows variations in the size distribution in (Kendall and Jeffrey, 1998; Mouri et al., 2011a) compared with the the 2012 data (during the snowmelt period) with greater accumulation; 2012 measurements, which were taken during snowmelt. The linear whereas for the 2013 data (at the beginning of the snowmelt period), trend of isotopes from the beginning of the snowmelt period was de- the size distribution variation was not significant under high accumula- fined by a slope of 6.88 (n =12;r2 =0.97),whichissignificantly less tion conditions owing to the snow. These results are similar to those than that of the isotopes from during snowmelt (8.72). During the found for frequency distribution versus particle size. For the 2013 snowmelt period, samples were enriched with heavy isotopic composi- data, a higher number of particles having a small size (0.01–0.2 mm) tions owing to climate conditions and debris flow. were recorded; whereas for 2012, the smallest particles recorded

Fig. 11. Deuterium and oxygen values of river water samples from the Sukhaya Elizovskaya River for 2012 and 2013 and Japanese local meteoric water, expressed as per millage enrich- ments relative to (standard mean ocean water) (SMOW). 274 G. Mouri et al. / Geomorphology 213 (2014) 266–276

Fig. 12. Sediment particle properties obtained from station II from the 2012 and 2013 measurements. were 0.1–0.45 mm in size. At the beginning of the snowmelt period (i.e., place from upstream to downstream, bringing multiple-sized particles the 2013 measurements), almost all of the river channels upstream downstream. were covered by snow; hence, only a small amount of particles was To compare our results regarding the relationship between moved. For the 2012 measurements, obtained during the snowmelt pe- suspended sediment and river discharge for volcanic mountainous re- riod, the water ﬂow increased; therefore, the sediment transport took gions with those obtained from other mountainous areas, such as

Fig. 13. Restructured suspended sediment vs. river discharge obtained by integrating the Sukhaya Elizovskaya River, Saru River, Kurobe River, and Lebir River. G. Mouri et al. / Geomorphology 213 (2014) 266–276 275 those in Japan and Malaysia, we referenced a famous chart titled anonymous reviewers and the editors of Geomorphology, whose com- Suspended Sediment vs. River Discharge for Major Rivers in Japan ob- ments greatly improved the quality of this manuscript. tained from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transportation of Japan (Oguchi et al., 2001; Mouri et al., 2011c); this diagram was restructured for the comparison, as shown in Fig. 13. Two rivers in References Japan, the Saru and Kurobe Rivers, and the Lebir River (a tributary of Aćimović-Pavlovic, Z., Andrić, L., Milosˇević, V., Milićević, S., 2011. Refractory coating the Kelantan River) located in northeast Malaysia were included in based on cordierite for application in new evaporate pattern casting process. this analysis. Fig. 13 provides a comparison among the rivers in the Ceram. Int. 37, 99–104. Kamchatka Peninsula, Japan, and Malaysia. The relationship between Alexander, J., Barclay, J., Sušnik, J., Loughlin, S.C., Herd, R.A., Darnell, A., Crosweller, S., 2010. Sediment-charged flash floods on Montserrat: the influence of synchronous suspended sediment and river discharge for the Kurobe River, located tephra fall and varying extent of vegetation damage. J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res. in the mountainous extremes on the median tectonic line of Japan, 194, 127–138. shows a very high concentration of suspended sediment, dependent Ballantyne, C.K., McCann, S.B., 1980. Short-lived damming of a high-Arctic ice-marginal – on a potential for high sediment yield. The sediment concentration stream, Ellesmere Islan N.W.T., Canada. J. Glaciol. 25, 487 491. Chalov, S., 2012. Annual Report of Field Work 2012 (Suhaya Elizovskya, Avacha Basin). shown for the Kurobe River is similar to that exhibited by rivers in Kam- Department of Geography Annals, Lomonosov Moscow State University (in Russian chatka during the snowmelt period (August 2012). The Saru River has with English abstract.). the same pattern as the Shinano River, which is located in a snowy re- Chalov, S., Belozerova, E., Shkolny, D., Romanchenko, A., Piotrovsky, A., Mouri, G., 2013. fi fl Sediment transfer in the extreme volcanic environment (case study of the Kamchatka gion. During periods in which the signi cant oods did not appear, peninsula). The 12th International Symposium on River Sedimentation. World Asso- the sediment concentration is similar to that in Kamchatka at the begin- ciation for Sedimentation and Erosion Research, Kyoto, Japan, p. 71. ning of the snowmelt period. For the Lebir River in Malaysia, the rela- Cilento, Sir R., 1937. 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