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GSA Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, USA - 2016

Paper No. 228-1
Presentation Time: 1:40 PM

ANALYSIS OF MULTI-DECADAL (1960-2010) DYNAMICS IN SEDIMENT AND WATER DISCHARGES FROM GLOBAL RIVERS: TEMPORAL VARIABILITY AND INTRA-BASIN CONTROLS


COHEN, Sagy, Geography, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, SYVITSKI, James, Geological Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder, 80305, KETTNER, Albert, institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80305 and DUNN, Frances, Geography and Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1B, United Kingdom, sagy.cohen@ua.edu

We study changes in global riverine water discharge and sediment flux over a 50-year period, 1960–2010, using the WBMsed v.2.0 global hydrological water balance model. Normalized departure from an annual mean is used to quantify spatial and temporal dynamics at continental scale. Coefficient of variance analysis is used to quantify temporal variability in large global rivers.

Considerable intra-basin variability in both water and sediment discharge is observed in different regions of the world. A correlation analysis between continental-averaged suspended sediment and water discharge shows that yearly changes in intra-basin precipitation dynamics explain most of the discrepancies between water discharge and suspended sediment. The mechanism proposed and demonstrated here (for the Ganges, Danube and Amazon Rivers) is that regions with high relief and soft lithology will amplify the effect of higher than average precipitation by producing an increase in sediment yield that greatly exceeds increase in water discharge. Preliminary analysis of the effect of sediment variability on large tropical deltas and a new bedload module are also presented.

Session No. 228

T206. The Effects of Discharge Variability on Alluvial Stratigraphy: Toward a New Facies Model
Tuesday, 27 September 2016: 1:30 PM-5:30 PM
Room 401 (Colorado Convention Center)
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 48, No. 7
doi: 10.1130/abs/2016AM-280555
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