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Bedload-to-suspended load ratio and rapid bedrock incision from Himalayan Landslide-dam lake record

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Beth Pratt-Sitaula ,
Michelle Garde ,
Douglas W. Burbank ,
Michael Oskin ,
Arjun Heimsath  and
Emmanuel Gabet
Beth Pratt-Sitaula*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
Michelle Garde
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA Kleinfelder, Inc., 8 Pasteur, Suite 190, Irvine, CA 92618, USA
Douglas W. Burbank
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
Michael Oskin
Affiliation:
Department of Geological Sciences, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, USA
Arjun Heimsath
Affiliation:
Department of Earth Sciences, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA
Emmanuel Gabet
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, University of California Riverside, Riverside, CA 92521, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Current address: Department of Geological Sciences, Central Washington University, Ellensburg, WA 98926, USA.E-mail address:psitaula@geology.cwu.edu (B. Pratt-Sitaula)
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Abstract

About 5400 cal yr BP, a large landslide formed a > 400-m-tall dam in the upper Marsyandi River, central Nepal. The resulting lacustrine and deltaic deposits stretched > 7 km upstream, reaching a thickness of 120 m. 14C dating of 7 wood fragments reveals that the aggradation and subsequent incision occurred remarkably quickly (∼ 500 yr). Reconstructed volumes of lacustrine (∼ 0.16 km3) and deltaic (∼ 0.09 km3) deposits indicate a bedload-to-suspended load ratio of 1:2, considerably higher than the ≤ 1:10 that is commonly assumed. At the downstream end of the landslide dam, the river incised a new channel through ≥ 70 m of Greater Himalayan gneiss, requiring a minimum bedrock incision rate of 13 mm/yr over last 5400 yr. The majority of incision presumably occurred over a fraction of this time, suggesting much higher rates. The high bedload ratio from such an energetic mountain river is a particularly significant addition to our knowledge of sediment flux in orogenic environments.

Keywords

BedloadSuspended loadHimalayaNepalBedrock incisionLandslide dam
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 68 , Issue 1 , July 2007 , pp. 111 - 120
Copyright
University of Washington

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