This book offers a comprehensive overview of the alluvial fan phenomena, including all terminology, morphology, sedimentology, controlling factors, processes and the human impact. It combines the knowledge dispersed widely in existing literature with regional case studies, color figures and photographs. The chapters provide a useful basis to understand alluvial fans and a selection of papers attached to each chapter offers additional, more focused reading. This volume is aimed at engineers, planners and especially students in earth sciences.

This book presents a complete set of studies of alluvial fan sediments in southern Iran from the point of view of sedimentology, sedimentary geochemistry, tectonics, economic geology, groundwater, geomorphology, hazards and telemetry. In addition, the book focuses on advanced topics and theory, which practically serves as a model for the study of this type of sediment around the world. Alluvial fans are an important and fundamental factor in many sciences such as geology, environmental science, natural hazards, groundwater science, agriculture and many other related sciences. Lack of accurate knowledge of their constituent sediments has always been an important problem for experts in many science disciplines. From the economic point of view, the identification of alluvial fan deposits is of particular importance. For example, alluvial deposits are the centre of groundwater accumulation, and most groundwater reservoirs within the sedimentary basin are fed by water from alluvial deposits. Most of the gold production in South Africa has been formed as placer deposits in ancient alluvial fans. In addition, a large amount of uranium placer deposits is extracted from old alluvial fans in sedimentary basins in South Africa. This book serves as an ideal guide for experts in earth and environmental sciences and hydrology.

Much of the final shaping of the global landscape is accomplished by incision of river networks. The base-level is a principle determinate controlling the global relief by processes of erosion and aggradation. In the populated world, entrenchments triggered by base-level changes may become devastating events, damaging agricultural lands, undercutting bridges and destroying roads. The aim of this book, as a chapter in fluviomorphology, is to present the base-level control when active in the continental interior, unrelated to marine base-level fluctuations along the continental margins nor to sequence stratigraphic tract models in Exxon sequence stratigraphic sense. The focus is on the morphology and the gross trends of the processes controlling channel evolution through transient signals initiated by base-level changes and communicated upstream through the drainage network. The book brings together principles and conclusions gained by field work, by laboratory studies and by models, based on the widely scattered literature. The chapters include presentation of different types of base-levels, discussing the constraints of their altitude, the degradation and aggradation responses, the temporal and spatial trends along the channel network, the controlling factors, the knickpoint transient retreat process and its rates. Special emphasis is given to the Dead Sea Rift following its extreme base-level conditions which make it a unique field laboratory. This book is relevant to students in earth sciences as well as to planners, hydrologists and engineers dealing with geomorphology and surface drainage.

Alluvial and fluvial fans are the most widespread depositional landform bordering the margins of highland regions and actively subsiding continental basins, across a broad spectrum of tectonic and climatic settings. They are significant to the local morphodynamics of mountain regions and also to the evolution of sediment-routing systems, affecting the propagation and preservation of stratigraphic signals of environmental change over vast areas. The volume presents case studies discussing the geology and geomorphology of alluvial and fluvial fans from both active systems and ancient ones preserved in the stratigraphic record. It brings together case studies from a range of continents, climatic and tectonic settings, some introducing innovative monitoring and analysis techniques, and it provides an overview of current debates in the field. This volume will be of particular interest to geologists, geomorphologists, sedimentologists and the general reader with an interest in Earth science.

Alluvial fans are gently sloping, fan-shaped landforms common at the base of mountain ranges in arid and semiarid regions such as the American West. Floods on alluvial fans, although characterized by relatively shallow depths, strike with little if any warning, can travel at extremely high velocities, and can carry a tremendous amount of sediment and debris. Such flooding presents unique problems to federal and state planners in terms of quantifying flood hazards, predicting the magnitude at which those hazards can be expected at a particular location, and devising reliable mitigation strategies. Alluvial Fan Flooding attempts to improve our capability to determine whether areas are subject to alluvial fan flooding and provides a practical perspective on how to make such a determination. The book presents criteria for determining whether an area is subject to flooding and provides examples of applying the definition and criteria to real situations in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, and elsewhere. The volume also contains recommendations for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is primarily responsible for floodplain mapping, and for state and local decisionmakers involved in flood hazard reduction.

Megafans are partial cones of river sediment that reach unexpectedly large dimensions, with the largest on Earth being 700 km long. Due to recent developments in space-based observations, global mapping efforts have shown that modern megafan features cover vast landscapes on most continents. This book provides a new inventory of nearly 300 megafans across five continents. Chapters focus on regional studies of megafans from all continents barring North America and Antarctica. The major morphological attributes of megafans and multi-megafan landscapes are discussed, and the principal controls on megafan development are examined. The book also compares megafans with alluvial fans, deltas, floodplains and the recently recognised 'major avulsive fluvial system' (MAFS). The final part of the book discusses the application of megafan research to economic geology, aquifers and planetary geology including layered deposits on Mars. This is an invaluable reference for researchers in geomorphology, sedimentology and physical geography.