HR: 0800h
AN: H21A-1313    [Abstracts]
TI: Links between suspended sediment, precipitation, geology and runoff in small mountain watersheds in Taiwan
AU: * Kuo, C
EM: ckuo@faculty.pccu.edu.tw
AF: Department of Geology, Chinese Culture University, 55, Hwa-Kang Road, Yang-Ming-Shan, Taipei, 111 Taiwan
AU: Huang, H
EM: cheerful714@yahoo.com.tw
AF: Department of Geology, Chinese Culture University, 55, Hwa-Kang Road, Yang-Ming-Shan, Taipei, 111 Taiwan
AU: Lin, C
EM: yao435@rcec.sinica.edu.tw
AF: Research Center for Environmental Change, Academia, Sinica, P.O. Box 1-55, Nankang, Taipei, 115 Taiwan
AB: Taiwan, a 0.024% of Earth­Ýs subaerial surface, offers extraordinary 1.9% of suspended sediment load to ocean annually (Dadson et al., 2003) with the influences of heavy annual precipitation and active tectonic forces. Two adjacent mountain river watersheds, the Chishan River and the Laolong River, tributaries to the Kaoping River, the second largest river of Taiwan, in southwestern Taiwan, with similar size but contrary to surficial geology were used to establish the interrelationships between precipitation, suspended sediment, and surface water discharge. The Chishan River watershed drains an area that is largely underlain by Holocene unconsolidated sediments and poor consolidated sandstone and shale. The Laolong River watershed, in contrast, drains an area most of Miocene low-degree metamorphic rocks, argillite and slate resulting in lower relationship (r2=0.4) between runoff and suspended sediment. Data from three years periods showed the temporal and spatial variations are more correlated to surficial geology than seismicity. This distinctive relationship observed from these two adjacent watersheds indicates the suspended sediment discharge in different segments of a river could be generated by different mechanisms under a specific event. However, runoff variability plays an important role in suspended sediment discharge in the study area.
DE: 1862 Sediment transport (4558)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005