HR: 08:30h
AN: G11B-03 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: Morphometric differences in debris flow and mixed flow fans in eastern Death Valley, CA
AU: * Wasklewicz, T A
EM: twsklwcz@memphis.edu
AF: Department of Earth Sciences, University of Memphis Johnson Hall #113, Memphis, TN 38152 United States
AU: Whitworth, J
EM: ivyanne83@yahoo.com
AF: Department of Earth Sciences, University of Memphis Johnson Hall #113, Memphis, TN 38152 United States
AB: Geomorphological features are best examined through direct measurement and parameterization of accurate topographic data. Fine-scale data are therefore required to produce a complete set of elevation data. Airborne Laser Swath Mapping (ALSM) data provide high-resolution data over large spatially continuous areas. The National Center for Advanced Laser Mapping (NCALM) collected ALSM data for an area along the eastern side of Death Valley extending from slightly north of Badwater to Mormon Point. The raw ALSM data were post-processed and delivered by NCALM in one-meter grid nodes that we converted to one-meter raster data sets. ALSM data are used to assess variations in the dimensions of surficial features found in 32 alluvial fans (21 debris flow and 11 mixed flow fans). Planimetric curvature of the fan surfaces is used to develop a topographic signature to distinguish debris flow from mixed flow fans. These two groups of fans are identified from field analysis of near vertical exposures along channels as well as surficial exposures at proximal, medial, and distal fan locations. One group of fans exhibited debris flow characteristics (DF), while the second group contained a mixture of fluid and debris flows (MF). Local planimetric curvature of the alluvial fan surfaces was derived from the one-meter DEM. The local curvature data were reclassified into concave and convex features. This sequence corresponds to two broad classes of fan features: channels and interfluves. Thirty random points were generated inside each fan polygon. The length of the nearest concave-convex (channel-interfluve) couplet was measured at each point and the percentage of convex and concave pixels in a 10m box centered on the random point was also recorded. Plots and statistical analyses of the data show clear indication that local planimetric curvature can be used as a topographic signature to distinguish between the varying formative processes in alluvial fans. Significant differences in the lengths of the channel and interfluve couplets and the percent pixels per unit area have been identified between the two fan groups. In general, shorter distances were found in the mixed flow fans. This finding can be attributed to primary and secondary erosional processes leading to a higher degree of dissection in the MF fan surfaces than was identified in the DF fans. The clast-rich deposits of the DF fan are more resistant to secondary erosional processes and overtopping of the levees likely leads to filling of older incised debris flow channels.
DE: 8040 Remote sensing
DE: 8107 Continental neotectonics
DE: 1824 Geomorphology (1625)
DE: 1294 Instruments and techniques
SC: Geodesy [G]
MN: 2004 AGU Fall Meeting