Experimental study of sediment supply control on step formation, evolution, and stability

Saletti, Matteo; Hassan, Marwan A.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-8-855-2020

Articles | Volume 8, issue 4

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-8-855-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-8-855-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 8, issue 4

Research article

|

21 Oct 2020

Research article |

| 21 Oct 2020

Experimental study of sediment supply control on step formation, evolution, and stability

Matteo Saletti and Marwan A. Hassan

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Final revised paper (published on 21 Oct 2020)
Preprint (discussion started on 04 May 2020)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'Review', Anonymous Referee #1, 15 Jul 2020
RC2: 'Review of “On how sediment supply affects step formation, evolution and stability in steep streams: an experimental study” by Matteo Saletti and Marwan A. Hassan', Anonymous Referee #2, 22 Jul 2020
AC1: 'Response to Referees', Matteo Saletti, 24 Jul 2020

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Matteo Saletti on behalf of the Authors (18 Aug 2020) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (03 Sep 2020) by Greg Hancock

ED: Publish as is (08 Sep 2020) by Niels Hovius (Editor)

AR by Matteo Saletti on behalf of the Authors (09 Sep 2020)

Short summary

Mountain streams often display a stepped morphology but the conditions under which these steps form, remain stable, and eventually collapse are still not entirely clear. We run flume experiments to study how (a) the amount of sediment input and (b) channel width variations affect step dynamics in steep channels. Steps form preferentially in areas of flow convergence (channel narrowing) and their frequency is higher when sediment supply is larger than zero but smaller than the transport capacity.