Abstract
River blockage induced by tributary debris flow is a common hazardous chain in mountainous areas, which could pose a serious threat to human lives and infrastructures. Especially, the failures of landslide dams in tributaries will amplify the debris flow’s magnitude, which could increase the probability of river blockage. However, the dynamic process and criterion of the river blockage induced by such debris flow have not been well understood. Here, we modeled the entire process of river blockage induced by tributary debris flow through large-scale field experiments. The formation process of the river blockage can be outlined into four stages according to the dynamic characteristics at the junction: erosion and entrainment of the river, expansion of the debris flow deposits, damming of the main river, and the dam overflowing and breaching. The erosion rate of the main river and the momentum of debris flow dominate the first and latter processes of the river blockage respectively, and the shift is accompanied by the increasing momentum of the debris flow. Additionally, the erosion rate of the river and the momentum of the debris flow play differential importance in each type of river blockage. The river’s influence is significant for the formation of major blockage and partial blockage if the momentum of tributary debris flow is relatively small. Once the momentum of debris flow is high enough, dynamic characteristics of the tributary are vital for the type of blockage. Then, we established a criterion based on the process of erosion and deposition in the confluence zone. The criterion was verified by 5 river blockage events in the field. It is found that the coupling of the two indicators will improve the accuracy of identification of river blockage compared with existing criteria. In particular, it is possible to better distinguish the type of blockage. This study would advance the understanding of a debris flow dam’s formation, and it is meaningful for the early identification of river blockage.
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Data Availability
The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to acknowledge Chen Li, Xinliang Mu, Wanyu Jiang, Linxin Lin, Zengzu Chao, Wangcai Liu, Feiyu Qiao, and Jie Wu for their help with the field experiments. We would like to acknowledge Susie Goodall for her valuable suggestions to improve the quality of the paper.
Funding
This study was supported by the Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition and Research Program (STEP) (Grant No. 2021QZKK0201), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 42377193 and 42077230), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2017YFC1501005), Key Research and Development Program of Gansu Province (Grant No. 20YF8FA074), Important talent project of Gansu Province (Grant No. 2022RCXM033) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No. lzujbky-2021-6 and lzujbky-2021-ey05).
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Chen, G., Chong, Y., Meng, X. et al. Experimental field study on the formation process of debris flow dam at channel confluence: Implications for early identification of river blockage. Landslides 21, 1095–1108 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-023-02198-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-023-02198-1