Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T07:03:25.789Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A terminal debris-flow lobe in the northern Pennines, United Kingdom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 November 2011

P. A. Carling
P. A. Carling
Affiliation:
Freshwater Biological Association, The Ferry House, Ambleside, Cumbria LA22 OLP, U.K.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

On 17 July 1983 heavy rainfall resulted in a flash-flood in the headwaters of the West Grain, a small stream tributary to the River Wear in the northern Pennines. Associated with the flood was a series of three boulder-lobes. The morphology of these lobes and the associated sediment facies are described and used to estimate the hydro-dynamic mode of transport and deposition. Estimates of the shear-strength and viscosity are consistent with the initial conclusion (based on the sedimentology) that the deposits represent low-viscosity debris-flows. The boulder snouts moved as inertial grain-flows with an associated pebbly-core exhibiting a degree of matrix strength imparted by intergranular friction. A degree of reworking of the upper surface of the core by fluidal flow during core motion and immediately upon deposition was also identified. The full sedimentary sequence therefore represents debris-flow core deposits subject to low dispersive pressure evolving into fluidal debris-torrent deposits.

Keywords

boulder-lobescoarse-elasticsdebris-torrentflash-floodgrain-flowrheologysediment-fabric
Type
Research Article
Information
Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of The Royal Society of Edinburgh , Volume 78 , Issue 3 , 1987 , pp. 169 - 176
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1987

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Allen, J. R. L. 1971. Mixing at turbidity current heads, and its geological implications, J SEDIMENT PETROL 41, 97–113.Google Scholar
Andrews, J. T. & Smith, D. I. 1970. Statistical analysis of till fabric; methodology, local and regional variability. Q J GEOL SOC LONDON 125, 503–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bagnold, R. A. 1954. Experiments on a gravity-free dispersion of large solid spheres in a Newtonian fluid under shear. PROC R SOC LONDON A225, 49–63.Google Scholar
Carling, P. A. 1986a. Peat slides in Teesdale and Weardale, Northern Pennines, July 1983: description and failure mechanisms. EARTH SURF PROCESSES LANDFORMS (in press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carling, P. A. 1986b. The Noon Hill flash floods; July 17th 1983.: Hydrological and geomorphological aspects of a major formative event in an upland landscape. TRANS INST BR GEOGR 11, 105–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carling, P. A. 1987. Hydrodynamic interpretation of a boulder-berm and GEOMORPHOLOGY (in press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carling, P. A. & Glaister, M. S. 1987. Rapid deposition of sand and gravel mixtures downstream of a negative step: the role of matrix-infilling and particle-overpassing in the process of bar-front accretion. J GEOL SOC 144, 543–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costa, J. E. 1984. Physical geomorphology of debris flows. In Costa, J. E. & Fleisher, P. J. (eds) Developments and Applications of Geomorphology, pp. 268–317. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costa, J. E. & Jarrett, R. D. 1981. Debris flows in small mountain stream channels of Colorado and their hydrologic implications. ASSOC ENG GEOL BULL 18, 309–22.Google Scholar
Dott, R. H. 1963. Dynamics of subaqueous gravity depositional processes. BULL AM ASSOC PETROL GEOL 47, 104–28.Google Scholar
Enos, P. 1977. Flow regimes in debris flows. SEDIMENTOLOGY 24, 133–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gloppen, T. G. & Steel, R. J. 1981. The deposits, internal structure and geometry in six alluvial fan–fan delta bodies (Devonian-Norway)—a study in the significance of bedding sequences in conglomerates. SOC ECON PALEONTOL MINERAL SPEC PUBL 31, 49–69.Google Scholar
Hampton, M. A. 1972. The role of subaqueous debris flow in generating turbidity currents. J SEDIMENT PETROL 42, 775–93.Google Scholar
Hampton, M. A. 1975. Competence of fine-grained debris flow. J SEDIMENT PETROL 45, 834–44.Google Scholar
Harvey, A. M. 1986. Geomorphic effects of a 100 year storm in the Howgill Fells, Northwest England. Z FUR GEOMORPHOL 30, 71–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hooke, R LeB. 1967. Processes on arid-region alluvial fans. J GEOL 75, 438–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Innes, J. L. 1983. Lichenometric dating of debris-flow deposits in the Scottish Highlands. EARTH SURF PROCESSES LANDFORMS 8, 579–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, A. M. 1970. Physical Processes in Geology. San Francisco: Freeman, Cooper & Co.Google Scholar
Johnson, A. M. 1984. Debris flow. In Brunsden, D. & Prior, D. B. (eds) Slope Instability, pp. 257–361. New York: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Krumbein, W. C. 1942. Flood deposits of Arroyo Seco, Los Angeles County, California. BULL GEOL SOC AM 53, 1355–1402.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lowe, D. R. 1976. Grain flow and grain flow deposits. J SEDIMENT PETROL 46, 188–99.Google Scholar
Lowe, D. R. 1979. Sediment gravity floods: their classification and some problems of application to natural flows and deposits. SOC ECON PALEONTOL MINERAL SPEC PUBL 27, 75–82.Google Scholar
Lowe, D. R. 1982. Sediment gravity flows, II. Depositional models with special references to the deposits of high-density turbidity currents. J SEDIMENT PETROL 52, 279–98.Google Scholar
Mardia, K. V. 1972. Statistics of Directional Data. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Miall, A. D. 1977. A review of the braided river depositional environment. EARTH SCI REV 13, 1–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Middleton, G. V. 1966. Experiments on density and turbidity currents. CAN J EARTH SCI 3, 523–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Middleton, G. V. 1970. Experimental studies related to problems of flysch sedimentation. In Lajoie, J. (ed.) Flysch Sedimentology in North America. GEOL SOC CAN SPEC PAP 7, 253–72.Google Scholar
Naylor, M. A. 1980. The origin of inverse grading in muddy debris flow deposits—a review. J SEDIMENT PETROL 50, 1111–116.Google Scholar
Nelson, F. E. 1985. A preliminary investigation of solifluction macrofabrics. CATENA 12, 23–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nyberg, R. 1985. Debris flows and slush avalanches in Northern Swedish Lappland. Lund: University of Lund.Google Scholar
Okuda, S., Suwa, H., Okunishi, K., Yokoyama, K. & Nakano, M. 1980. Observations on the motion of a debris flow and its geomorphological effects. Z GEOMORPHOL SUPPL 35, 142–63.Google Scholar
Pettijohn, E. J. 1975. Sedimentary Rocks, 3rd edn. New York: Harper Int.Google Scholar
Pierson, T. C. 1986. Flow behaviour of channelized debris flows, Mount St. Helens, Washington. In Abrahams, A. D. (ed.) Hillslope Processes, pp. 269–96. Boston: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Postma, G. 1986. Classification for sediment gravity-flow deposits based on flow conditions during sedimentation. GEOLOGY 14, 291–94.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, K. S. 1982. Rivers: Form and Process in Alluvial Channels. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Scott, K. M. 1971. Origin and sedimentology of 1969 debris flow associated debris-torrent deposits. near Glendora, California. U.S. GEOL SURV PROF PAP 750–C, C242–47.Google Scholar
Sharp, R. P. & Nobles, L. M. 1953. Mudflow of 1941 at Wrightwood, California. BULL GEOL SOC AM 64, 547–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Statham, I. 1976. Debris flows on vegetated screes in the Black Mountain, Carmarthenshire. EARTH SURF PROCESSES 1, 173–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Takahashi, T. 1980. Debris flow on prismatic open channel. J HYDROL DIV, AM SOC CIVIL ENG 106, 381–96.Google Scholar
Takahashi, T. 1981. Debris flow. ANN REV FLUID MECH 13, 57–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wasson, R. J. 1977. Last-glacial alluvial fan sedimentation in the Lower Derwent Valley, Tasmania. SEDIMENTOLOGY 24, 781–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, S. G. & Harvey, A. M. 1987. Sedimentological and geomorphic variations in storm-generated alluvial fans, Howgill Fells, northwest England. BULL GEOL SOC AM 98, 182–98.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkinson, J. P. 1971. The Transport of Rock Debris in Upland Streams. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.Google Scholar
Woodcock, N. H. 1977. Specification of fabric shapes using an eigenvalue method. BULL GEOL SOC AM 88, 1231–36.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar