Floodplain evolution in a small, tectonically active basin of northern California

Constantine, José Antonio ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0243-3662, Pasternack, Gregory B. and Johnson, Michael L. 2003. Floodplain evolution in a small, tectonically active basin of northern California. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 28 (8) , pp. 869-888. 10.1002/esp.510

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Abstract

Sediment cores were collected along floodplains in the Navarro River basin of coastal northern California to examine the controls on floodplain evolution in a tectonically active setting. Sedimentary strata were subsampled for organic content, bulk density, and grain size measurements. Organic samples were analysed for 14C age, which yielded net-averaged sedimentation rates for all cores. Overbank deposition rates decreased at all study sites through time and declined in the downstream direction. The ability of intermediary-order streams to store sediment in floodplains decreased the ability of highest-order streams to record sediment-pulse events. The effects of anthropogenic disturbance, primarily logging, on long-term overbank deposition rates were minimal. Climatic variability, by affecting sediment loading in the channel network, is the principal control on floodplain evolution through the Holocene. A hypothetical model is proposed to explain overbank deposition rates in the Navarro basin, which may be extrapolated to the northern-coastal California region during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. The complexities observed in sediment storage and routing in this study imply that caution should be made when extrapolating sediment-yield measurements obtained at river mouths or coastal shelves to geomorphic events within small, tectonically active basins.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Earth and Environmental Sciences
Subjects:	Q Science > QE Geology
Uncontrolled Keywords:	overbank deposition; floodplain stratigraphy; climate change; land-use change; Navarro
Publisher:	Wiley-Blackwell
ISSN:	0197-9337
Last Modified:	18 Oct 2022 12:40
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/10921

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