Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms

Living Edition

Sinuous Rille

Living reference work entry
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_351-1
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Definition

Linear, meandering features interpreted to be the remains of channels formed by lava that erupted in effusive, high-volume volcanic events (Hurwitz et al. 2012).

Category

A type of lava channel

Synonyms

Arcuate rille; Large sinuous rille; Serpentine cleft (obsolete)

Description

Sinuous channels, which narrow and shallow downstream until they fade (Kargel et al. 1994). They have relatively steep slopes and flat bottom. They can have irregular twisting planform and high sinuosity, and its meanders have cuspate inner bends and show no bifurcation, braided bars, levees, oxbows, point bars, or deltas comparable to those in canali (Kargel et al. 1994).

Many sinuous rilles emerge from a circular topographic depression or an elongated flat floored depression (Leverington 2004; Hauber et al. 2009).

Morphometry/Regional Variations

On Venus, they are typically 10–300 km long, several hundreds of m to several (generally 2–5) km wide, with depths up to 0.5 km. Their depth to width ratio...

Keywords

Lava Flow Lava Lake Lava Tube Thermal Erosion Flood Basalt Province 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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References

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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.International Research School of Planetary SciencesUniversità d’AnnunzioPescaraItaly
  2. 2.Planetary Science Research GroupEötvös Loránd University, Institute of Geography and Earth SciencesBudapestHungary