FLOOD and MEGAFLOOD PROCESSES and DEPOSITS: RECENT and ANCIENT EXAMPLES IFAA01 9/12/08 4:26 PM Page Ii IFAA01 9/12/08 4:26 PM Page Iii
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IFAA01 9/12/08 4:26 PM Page i FLOOD AND MEGAFLOOD PROCESSES AND DEPOSITS: RECENT AND ANCIENT EXAMPLES IFAA01 9/12/08 4:26 PM Page ii IFAA01 9/12/08 4:26 PM Page iii SPECIAL PUBLICATION NUMBER 32 OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF SEDIMENTOLOGISTS Flood and Megaflood Processes and Deposits: Recent and Ancient Examples EDITED BY I. PETER MARTINI, VICTOR R. BAKER AND GUILLERMINA GARZÓN IFAA01 9/12/08 4:26 PM Page iv © 2002 International Association of Sedimentologists distributors and published for them by Marston Book Services Ltd Blackwell Science Ltd PO Box 269 Editorial Offices: Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4YN Osney Mead, Oxford OX2 0EL (Orders: Tel: 01235 465500 25 John Street, London WC1N 2BS Fax: 01235 465555) 23 Ainslie Place, Edinburgh EH3 6AJ 350 Main Street, Malden The Americas MA 02148-5018, USA Blackwell Publishing 54 University Street, Carlton c/o AIDC Victoria 3053, Australia PO Box 20 10, rue Casimir Delavigne 50 Winter Sport Lane 75006 Paris, France Williston, VT 05495-0020 (Orders: Tel: 800 216 2522 Other Editorial Offices: Fax: 802 864 7626) Blackwell Wissenschafts-Verlag GmbH Kurfürstendamm 57 Australia 10707 Berlin, Germany Blackwell Science Pty Ltd 54 University Street Blackwell Science KK Carlton, Victoria 3053 MG Kodenmacho Building (Orders: Tel: 3 9347 0300 7–10 Kodenmacho Nihombashi Fax: 3 9347 5001) Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104, Japan Iowa State University Press A catalogue record for this title A Blackwell Science Company is available from the British Library 2121 S. State Avenue Ames, Iowa 50014-8300, USA ISBN 0-632-06404-8 The right of the Authors to be Library of Congress identified as the Authors of this Work Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Flood and megaflood processes and deposits: Patents Act 1988. recent and ancient examples/edited by I. Peter Martini, Victor R. Baker & Guillermina Garzón. All rights reserved. No part of p. cm. — this publication may be reproduced, (Special publication number 32 of stored in a retrieval system, or the International Association of Sedimentologists) transmitted, in any form or by any ISBN 0-632-06404-8 means, electronic, mechanical, 1. Floods. 2. Sedimentation and deposition. photocopying, recording or otherwise, I. Martini, I. P. (Ireneo Peter), 1935– II. Baker, Victor R. except as permitted by the UK III. Garzón, G. (Guillermina) Copyright, Designs and Patents Act IV. Special publication . of the International Association of 1988, without the prior permission Sedimentologists; no. 32. of the copyright owner. GB1399 .F54 2001 551.48′9adc21 First published 2002 2001035125 Set by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong Printed and bound in Great Britain For further information on by MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall Blackwell Science, visit our website: www.blackwell-science.com The Blackwell Science logo is a trade mark of Blackwell Science Ltd, registered at the United Kingdom Trade Marks Registry IFAA01 9/12/08 4:26 PM Page v Contents vii Preface Megafloods 3 High-energy megafloods: planetary settings and sedimentary dynamics V.R. Baker 17 Late Quaternary catastrophic flooding in the Altai Mountains of south–central Siberia: a synoptic overview and an introduction to flood deposit sedimentology P.A. Carling, A.D. Kirkbride, S. Parnachov, P.S. Borodavko and G.W. Berger 37 Great Holocene floods along Jökulsá á Fjöllum, north Iceland R.B. Waitt Glacial outwash floods 55 November 1996 jökulhlaup on Skeibarársandur outwash plain, Iceland Á. Snorrason, P. Jónsson, O. SigurBsson, S. Pálsson, S. Árnason , S. Víkingsson and I. Kaldal 67 The effects of glacier-outburst flood flow dynamics on ice-contact deposits: November 1996 jökulhlaup, Skeibarársandur, Iceland A.J. Russell and Ó. Knudsen 85 Formation of ice-block obstacle marks during the November 1996 glacier-outburst flood ( jökulhlaup), Skeibarársandur, southern Iceland H. Fay 99 A large-scale flood event in 1994 from the mid-Canterbury Plains, New Zealand, and implications for ancient fluvial deposits G.H. Browne Alluvial-fan floods 113 Alluvial-fan sedimentation from a glacial-outburst flood, Lone Pine, California, and contrasts with meteorological flood deposits T.C. Blair v IFAA01 9/12/08 4:26 PM Page vi vi Contents 141 Alluvial fans in the Italian Alps: sedimentary facies and processes A. Moscariello, L. Marchi, F. Maraga and G. Mortara 167 Analysis of terrestrial hyperconcentrated flows and their deposits M. Benvenuti and I.P. Martini 195 Catastrophic debris-flow deposits from an inferred landslide-dam failure, Eocene Berga Formation, eastern Pyrenees, Spain E. Saula, E.E. Mató and C. Puigdefàbregas Alluvial valley floods 213 Coarse-grained flood bars formed at the confluence of two subarctic rivers affected by hydroelectric dams, Ontario, Canada S.-J. Mosher and I.P. Martini 233 Comparison of the flood response of a braided and a meandering river, conditioned by anthropogenic and climatic changes G. Garzón and A. Alonso 251 Effects of land-use and precipitation changes on floodplain sedimentation in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Geul River, The Netherlands) M.H. Stam 269 Use of remote sensing in monitoring river floods and their effects on the landscape L. Halounová Special cases 283 Sedimentary traces as indicator of temporary ice-marginal channels in the Westphalian Bight, Germany J. Herget 291 Outlet glaciers of the Pleistocene (LGM) south Tibetan ice sheet between Cho Oyu and Shisha Pangma as potential sources of former megafloods M. Kuhle 303 Index IFAA01 9/12/08 4:26 PM Page vii Preface This special publication consists of 17 papers, some in distal reaches of a subarctic river, to the effects of delivered at the homonymous symposium held during changing climate and human interference on rivers in the IAS 15th International Sedimentological Con- Spain and The Netherlands. Another paper presents a gress in southern Spain in 1998, and others submitted remote sensing method for monitoring floods and specifically for this publication. The goal of the sym- their effect, utilizing images taken either during the posium and of this publication is the understanding of flood itself and/or soon after. large floods and their impact on the Earth’s surface. 5 Finally the special cases section may at first appear a The major objectives are: bit odd for a sedimentological publication, because sedi- 1 to take a second look at what constitutes a megaflood ments per se are not described. However, one paper that the principle of uniformitarianism is at some loss deals with potential reasons for a scanty sedimentary to explain; record in an area where it ought to have been abund- 2 try to determine what could happen in such large ant. This is explained not so much by erosion but by floods by analysing those that occur in front of the uneven sedimentation of floods in ephemeral streams glaciers, in alluvial-fans and in alluvial valleys. that may have developed in front of an unstable In so doing, the products of such floods are presented Pleistocene glacier terminus in Germany. The second in terms of sedimentary deposits, erosional features paper presents a good description of an area of the and damage to human activities. For convenience, Himalayas in front of the Tibetan plateau where melt- the papers are included under the headings of (1) water and monsoon-rain floods have occurred and are megafloods, (2) glacial outwash floods, (3) alluvial-fan recorded in some deposits, but, perhaps more novel, floods, (4) alluvial valley floods and (5) special cases. also where megafloods are likely to have occurred dur- 1 The megaflood section includes a general perspect- ing deglaciation, and have eroded high-altitude regions ive paper followed by two others dealing with the and covered the lower lands with thick deposits. account and the effects of megafloods, one in Siberia The editors would like to thank the many reviewers of where the record is primarily a sedimentary one con- the papers. In most cases, their efforts went beyond the sisting mainly of very large (100 m high) side-valley normal task of trying to improve the various contribu- bars, and one in northern Iceland where the record is tions. We thank the authors themselves who, most of primarily the downcutting of a deep narrow gorge. the time, graciously accepted and responded positively 2 The glacial outwash floods section contains three to the criticisms of the reviewers and the picky editors. papers analysing the events and the deposits of the The final reading by Guy Plint helped considerably in 1996 large meltwater flood in southern Iceland in removing the last inconsistencies, particularly from some detail. A similar event and related deposits have the figures. This project has taken a long time to com- been recorded from the South Island of New Zealand plete, some authors having their papers finalized in the and they are reported here in a fourth paper. first year, some last week. This, however, is the nature 3 Alluvial-fan floods are analysed in the third sec- of special publications. We hope that this collection of tion, first in two papers dealing with recent cases papers serves not only as a record of what has been in California and the Italian Alps: the events are done and thought, but also as a source of ideas on how described and the resulting depositional facies are and where to work to advance sedimentology and the presented. Two other papers dealing with ancient field of environmental science. There is indeed a great deposits in Italy and Spain take the opposite potential for sedimentological contribution to the safe approach: from analysis of depositional facies, the settlement of troubled lands. possible flood and sedimentary gravity-flow events have been reconstructed. Both approaches—study of I.P. MARTINI the recent and of the ancient—have intrinsic validity University of Guelph, Canada and also are valuable in assessing risk and hazards of V.R.