Articles | Volume 11, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-11-21-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-11-21-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Entrainment and deposition of boulders in a gravel bed river
Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, ENS Lyon, Université Jean
Monnet Saint-Étienne & CNRS, Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon,
Terre Planètes Environnement, UMR 5276, 69100 Villeurbanne, France
Eric Lajeunesse
Université de Paris, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, CNRS, 75005, Paris, France
Olivier Devauchelle
Université de Paris, Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, CNRS, 75005, Paris, France
Vincent J. Langlois
Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, ENS Lyon, Université Jean
Monnet Saint-Étienne & CNRS, Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon,
Terre Planètes Environnement, UMR 5276, 69100 Villeurbanne, France
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Sediment transport in rivers is an important matter in Earth surface dynamics. We offer a new framework of understanding of the suspended sediment transport through observatory chronicles and a simple model that is able to catch the behavior during a flood event as well as time series in a steep river catchment. We validate our approach in both tropical and alpine environments, which also offers additional estimates of the size of the suspended sediment.
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Glacier tables are structures frequently encountered on temperate glaciers. They consist of a rock supported by a narrow ice foot which forms through differential melting of the ice. In this article, we investigate their formation by following their dynamics on the Mer de Glace (the Alps, France). We explain this phenomenon by a combination of the effect of turbulent flux, short-wave flux and direct solar radiation that sets a critical size above which a rock will form a glacier table.
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Short summary
We recorded yearly images of a bar of the Vieux-Habitants river, a river located on Basse-Terre (Guadeloupe). These images, combined with measurements of the river discharge, allow us to monitor the evolution of the population of boulders. We estimate the smallest discharge that can move the boulders and calculate the effective transport time. We show that the likelihood of a given boulder remaining at the same location decreases exponentially, with an effective residence time of 17 h.
We recorded yearly images of a bar of the Vieux-Habitants river, a river located on Basse-Terre...