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Science 11 December 1992:
Vol. 258. no. 5089, pp. 1757 - 1760
DOI: 10.1126/science.258.5089.1757
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Articles

Downstream Fining by Selective Deposition in a Laboratory Flume

Chris Paola 1, Gary Parker 2, Rebecca Seal 1, Sanjiv K. Sinha 2, John B. Southard 3, and Peter R. Wilcock 4

1 Department of Geology and Geophysics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455
2 St. Anthony Falls Hydraulic Laboratory, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55414
3 Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139
4 Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218

There has long been debate about the relative importance of abrasion versus selective deposition of the coarsest clasts in causing downstream fining of sediment in river systems. Although high fining rates observed in many natural rivers seem to require strong selective deposition, the ability of selective deposition to produce downstream size sorting has never been measured under controlled conditions. In an experiment using a long flume and a poorly sorted, bimodal gravel feed, downstream fining was produced by a factor of 1.3 in median size and 1.8 in 90th percentile size, over a distance of 21 meters. The experimental conditions rule out abrasion effects. Selective deposition appears to be a natural consequence of the transport and deposition of sufficiently poorly sorted or bimodal gravels and appears to be capable of accounting for fining rates observed in natural gravel rivers.

Submitted on July 21, 1992
Accepted on November 2, 1992


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)