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

Full text not available from this repository.

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:	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

Citation Data

Cited 7 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item