Week 4: Terrace and Sediments
Contents
Week 4: Terrace and Sediments............................................................................................................1
River Terraces........................................................................................................................................1
Sediment Transport...............................................................................................................................3
Initiation of motion............................................................................................................................4
Figure 1: Space for Time Substitution
- Able to make predictions based on change in one place in time.
River Terraces
- Elevation (driving): elevation of surface drives potential energy that runs the system
- Precipitation (driving): provide force
- Vegetation (resistance): resist force. Mediates effect of elevation and precipitation.
River terraces are places with steps of uplift and a lot of geological influence. They are former
floodplains. There are two types of terraces, which are strath terrace and fill terrace. Strath terraces
(degradation) are bedrock rock surfaces that were left behind by incision. Fill terraces (aggradation)
are where terraces are filled with sediments and incised again. Terraces are formed by aggradation
or degradation.
Top-down
Strath terraces are formed by degradation while fill terraces are formed by aggradation. For
degradation to occur, we must increase discharge. This can be achieved by increasing elevation,
decreasing vegetation or increasing precipitation. This is because a decrease in vegetation will result
in a decrease in infiltration. Hence, runoff intensity will increase, which result in a greater discharge.
For aggradation to occur, sediment load must be increased. This can be achieved by keeping
elevation and precipitation at a constant and decrease vegetation. This is because as vegetation
decreases, erodibility increases. Hence, sediment load produced increases as well. According to
Lane’s balance, an increase in sediment supply will promote aggradation. This situation is more likely
to happen at extreme climate where vegetation are not able to withstand the climate.
Bottom-up
A fall in base level will cause slope to increase. According to Lane’s balance, an increase in slope for a
given discharge and sediment size will lead to degradation. Hence, strath terraces are likely to be
formed during sea level fall which happened during the Pre-Last Glacial Maximum.
Complex Terrace Formation
[top down]
During interglacial periods, there will be an increase in vegetation cover at valley slopes, which
reduces sediment supply. There will also be an increase in discharge due to higher rate of
vegetation. According to Lane’s balance, a decrease in sediment supply and an increase in discharge
promotes degradation. Therefore, stream cuts down the valley. The sediment produced by river
cutting down deposits at the bottom of the river. Hence, a strath terrace will be formed at the top of
the river profile where the river was cut and fill terrace will be formed down the river where
sediments deposited.
[Bottom up]
During periglaciation, there will be a decrease in runoff and an increase in erosion. Hence,
aggradation occurs in rivers. Fill terraces will be formed upstream. Meanwhile, sea level is falling.
Hence, knickpoint will be formed at the base of river profile and will migrate headwards to the
aggraded section of the channel. (aggradation at top, degradation at bottom). As knickpoint
migrates, the fill terraces upstream will be incised.
During Valley glaciation, there will be a big outwash of sediments from glaciers while incision is still
migrating back upstream.
There is a lag on the effect of climate change on sediment yield. When we go from arid to humid,
there is a sudden spike in sediment yield as there are yet to be any vegetation cover but a higher
runoff. We will get a sudden decrease in sediment yield when we shift from humid to arid because
there will be additional vegetation cover protecting the hillslope for less runoff.
Sediment Transport
Sediment transport is affected by sediment size, morphology (form and roundness), sorting and clast
fabric. Rounded particles can be transported more easily then angular particles due to lower surface
resistance.
Clast fabric
Imbricated boulders sit on top of one another. They are just flipping and landing on each other. This
indicates that the boulders are at their threshold of transport. This means that the transport rate of
these sediments are very low and will result in bedrock armouring. Matrix supported conglomerates
have higher transport rate while matrix supported conglomerate without clast fabric transports at
the highest rate. Therefore, imbricate boulders are seen sitting on top of each other, it means that
the sediments are at their transport threshold. When particles are matrix supported where they
have chaotic orientations and are sitting on top of fine sediments, we can deduce that the particles
are transported at a massive rate.
Initiation of motion
Figure 2: Hjulstrom 1935
Particles will be transported when drag force and uplift force exceeds the submerge weight of
particles. It is harder to move particles such as clay due to the cohesion between clay particles.
Sands are the easiest to move due to its small grain size and absence of cohesion between particles.
As grain size increases, the velocity required to move a particle increases as well. It is easier to
transport sediments than to erode them. For particles with size >0.02mm, a certain threshold needs
to be overcome to transport sediment. (can relate this to magnitude/ frequency graph)
