Articles | Volume 10, issue 6
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-1097-2022
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-10-1097-2022
Research article
 | 
09 Nov 2022
Research article |  | 09 Nov 2022

Episodic sediment supply to alluvial fans: implications for fan incision and morphometry

Anya S. Leenman and Brett C. Eaton

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Cited articles

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Al-Farraj, A. and Harvey, A. M.: Morphometry and depositional style of Late Pleistocene alluvial fans: Wadi Al-Bih, northern UAE and Oman, Geol. Soc. Lond. Spec. Publ., 251, 85–94, 2005. a, b, c
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The supply of sediment (sand and gravel) carried by a stream out of a steep mountain valley is widely thought to control the gradient of the fan-shaped landforms that streams often build where they leave their valley. We tested this idea in a set of sandbox experiments with oscillating high and low sediment supply. Even though the average sediment supply never changed, longer oscillations built flatter fans, indicating how wetter climates might affect these mountain landforms.