Abstract
Alluvial fans have no overall specific definable texture. Their clast size ranges from boulders to clay and shows a characteristic rapid downcurrent decrease in size. Close similarity in sediment texture from fan head to toe implies that no significant transport-related processes have taken place. Sorting improves down-fan but often remains moderate or still very poor. Normal grading results from a gradual decrease in the sediment supply or from waning flow velocities following floods. Inverse grading is often observed with stratigraphic thickening and corresponds to a prograding gravel front. The overall thickness of stratigraphic fans units ranges from several meters to a great thickness of a few kilometers. The thickest part of a fan usually leans against the mountain front.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Blair TC (1999) Sedimentary processes and facies of the waterlaid Anvil Spring Canyon alluvial fan, Death Valley, California. Sedimentology 46:913–940
Blair TC (2000) Sedimentology and progressive tectonic unconformities of the sheetflood-dominated Hell’s Gate alluvial fan, Death Valley California. Sediment Geol 132:233–262
Dec T (1992) Textural characteristics and interpretation of second-cycle, debris-flow-dominated alluvial fans (Devonian of Northern Scotland). Sediment Geol 77:269–296
Hornung J, Pflanz D, Hechler A, Beer A, Hinderer M, Maisch M, Bieg U (2010) 3-D architecture, depositional patterns and climate triggered sediment fluxes of an alpine alluvial fan (Samedan, Switzerland). Geomorphology 115:202–214
Horton BK, DeCelles PG (2001) Modern and ancient fluvial megafans in the foreland basin system of the central Andes, southern Bolivia: implications for drainage network evolution in foldthrust belts. Basin Res 13(1):43–63
Kumar R, Suresh-Satish N, Sangode J, Kumaravel V (2007) Evolution of the quaternary alluvial fan system in the Himalayan foreland basin: implications for tectonic and climatic decoupling. Quat Int 159:6–20
Mack GH, Leeder MR (1999) Climatic and tectonic controls on alluvial-fan and axial fluvial sedimentation in the Plio-Pleistocene Palomas half graben, southern Rio Grande rift. J Sediment Res 69:635–652
Miall AD (1978) Lithofacies types and vertical profiles models in braided river deposits: a summary. In: Miall AD (ed) Fluvial sedimentology. Can Soc Petrol Geol Mem 5: 597–604
Miller KL, Reitz MD, Jerolmack DJ (2014) Generalized sorting profile of alluvial fans. Geophys Res Lett 41:7191–7199. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GL060991
Paola C, Hellert PL, Angevinet CL (1992) The large-scale dynamics of grain size variation in alluvial basins 1: theory. Basin Res 4:73–90
Schumm SA (1993) River response to base level change: implications for sequence stratigraphy. J Geol 10:279–294
Stock JD (2013) Waters divided: a history of alluvial fan research and a view of its future. In: Shroder JF, Wohl E (eds) Treatise on geomorphology, Fluvial Geomorphology, vol 9. Academic, San Diego, pp 413–458
Stock JD, Schmidt KM, Miller DM (2007) Controls on alluvial fan long-profiles. Geol Soc Am Bull 120:619–640
Storz-Peretz Y, Bowman D, Laronne JB, Svoray T (2011) Rapid incision of a small, coarse and steep fan-delta in response to base-level fall: the case of Nahal Qedem, the Dead Sea, Israel. Earth Surf Process Landf 36:467–480
Suresh N, Bagati TN, Kumar R, Thakur VC (2007) Evolution of quaternary alluvial fans and terraces in the intramontane Pinjaur Dun, Sub-Himalaya, NW India: interaction between tectonics and climate change. Sedimentology 54:809–833
Swanson-Hysell N, Barbeau DL Jr (2007) The diachroneity of alluvial-fan lithostratigraphy? A test case from southeastern Ebro basin magnetostratigraphy. Earth Planet Sci Lett 262(3):343–362
Viseras C, Calvache ML, Soria JM, Fernández J (2003) Differential features of alluvial fans controlled by tectonic or eustatic accommodation space. Examples from the Betic Cordillera, Spain. Geomorphology 50(1–3):181–202
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature B.V.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Bowman, D. (2019). Textural and Facies Characteristics. In: Principles of Alluvial Fan Morphology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1558-2_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1558-2_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-024-1556-8
Online ISBN: 978-94-024-1558-2
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)