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1.
Rebekah M. Harries Linda A. Kirstein Alex C. Whittaker Mikael Attal Ian Main 《Basin Research》2019,31(5):866-891
Grain size trends in basin stratigraphy are thought to preserve a rich record of the climatic and tectonic controls on landscape evolution. Stratigraphic models assume that over geological timescales, the downstream profile of sediment deposition is in dynamic equilibrium with the spatial distribution of tectonic subsidence in the basin, sea level and the flux and calibre of sediment supplied from mountain catchments. Here, we demonstrate that this approach in modelling stratigraphic responses to environmental change is missing a key ingredient: the dynamic geomorphology of the sediment routing system. For three large alluvial fans in the Iglesia basin, Argentine Andes we measured the grain size of modern river sediment from fan apex to toe and characterise the spatial distribution of differential subsidence for each fan by constructing a 3D model of basin stratigraphy from seismic data. We find, using a self‐similar grain size fining model, that the profile of grain size fining on all three fans cannot be reproduced given the subsidence profile measured and for any sediment supply scenario. However, by adapting the self‐similar model, we demonstrate that the grain size trends on each fan can be effectively reproduced when sediment is not only sourced from a single catchment at the apex of the system, but also laterally, from tributary catchments and through fan surface recycling. Without constraint on the dynamic geomorphology of these large alluvial systems, signals of tectonic and climate forcing in grain size data are masked and would be indecipherable in the geological record. This has significant implications for our ability to make sensitive, quantitative reconstructions of external boundary conditions from the sedimentary record. 相似文献
2.
In summer 2005, a controlled flood of the Saskatchewan River (east-central Saskatchewan, Canada) resulted in general floodplain inundation and extensive natural levee deposition along a 60-km reach extending from 40 km below the E.B. Campbell dam to Cumberland Lake. Levee crests along channel banks were inundated for up to 7 weeks in some areas of the floodplain. New deposits on levee crests varied from 0 to 70 cm in thickness, displaying large variations both along reach and in opposing sites across channels. Mean grain sizes, mainly silt and very fine sand, likewise varied considerably among sample sites.Pre- and post-flood surveys of channel cross sections along the flooded reach permitted assessments of relationships between channel-area changes and patterns of levee sedimentation in this system in which virtually all new flood sediment was derived by channel scour. Results show that both net deposition and net erosion occurred within the channel cross sections, but that on average, net channel enlargement of 4.2% prevailed over the entire survey reach when weighted by cross-section size. Over the 60-km flooded reach, zones of thick levee deposition occur at or just downstream of two areas of major channel enlargement, and an intermediate zone of thin levee deposits is associated with an intermediate area of net channel aggradation. This bimodal distribution of flood-deposit thickness is inferred to have resulted from differences in sediment supply produced locally by the different extents of channel-perimeter erosion. Two other factors—(1) position of interfacial zones between clear floodbasin water and turbid channel water, and (2) difference in pre-flood levee heights—contributed to the poor correspondence in thickness and grain size between opposing levees at some sites. Additional features of the new levee deposits, including increases in transverse slopes, abrupt basinward fining, and paucity of deposition in distal areas due to clear floodbasin waters, are characteristic of strong front loading that results when suspended sediment production is restricted to channel erosion processes. 相似文献
3.
Connectivity of the Coarsest Fraction in Headwater Channels: Imprints of Fluvial Processes and Debris‐Flow Activity 
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下载免费PDF全文 Tomáš Galia Václav Škarpich Jan Hradecký 《Geografiska Annaler: Series A, Physical Geography》2015,97(3):437-452
Some steep headwater streams of the mid‐mountains landscape of the flysch belt of the Western Carpathians are affected by debris flows. Connectivity of the largest boulder and cobble fractions has been evaluated in steep streams found in the transitional zones between the hillslopes and alluvial cones of similar lithology and watershed morphometry. Two longitudinal profiles affected by past debris‐flow activity and two longitudinal profiles void of such processes were selected. In the first case, active channels were characterised by the presence of the coarsest fraction, while a downstream trend of sediment coarsening or fining lacked any influence of contemporary fluvial processes and sediment supply. In addition, debris‐flow‐affected streams showed greater differences between the middle axis of the coarsest particle and the particle‐size index including the lengths of all three axes, which is most likely the result of limited active fluvial transport. All the studied streams demonstrated general downstream fining of the largest particles, which resulted from local flysch lithology containing more resistant sandstones in the upper parts of the watershed. The trend of sediment fining was more rapid in the longitudinal profiles unaffected by past debris flows. These types of streams also showed adjustment of the coarsest bed fraction to contemporary processes in channels by sediment coarsening in incised reaches and sediment fining in depositional reaches as well as by downstream response to some lateral sediment inputs. The index of the unit stream power showed no correlation with the considered coarsest fraction in both fluvial‐dominated channels and debris‐flow‐affected channels. 相似文献
4.
In headwater streams in steep land settings, narrow and steep valley floors provide closely coupled relationships between geomorphic components including hillslopes, tributary fans, and channel reaches. These relationships together with small catchment sizes result in episodic changes to the amount of stored sediment in channels. Major sediment inputs follow high magnitude events. Subsequent exponential losses via removal of material can be represented by a relaxation curve. The influence of hillslope and tributary processes on relaxation curves, and that of altered coupling relations between components, were investigated along a 1.3 km reach of a degrading channel in the 4.8 km2 Weraamaia Catchment, New Zealand. Extensive deforestation in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, followed by invasion of scrubs and reforestation, induced changes to major erosion types from gully complexes to shallow landslides. Changes in the size and pattern of sediment slugs from 1938 to 2002 were analysed from air photographs tied to detailed field measurement. The rate and calibre of sediment flux changed progressively following substantive hillslope input in a storm in 1938. Subsequently, the channel narrowed and incised, decoupling tributary fans from the main stem, thereby scaling down the size of sediment slugs. As a consequence, the dominant influence on the behaviour of sediment slugs and associated relaxation processes, changed from tributary fans to the type and distribution of bedrock outcrops along the reach. 相似文献
5.
Episodic wood loading in a mountainous neotropical watershed 总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1
The Upper Rio Chagres drains 414 km2 of steep, mountainous terrain in central Panama. A tropical air mass thunderstorm on 10 July 2007 produced a flood across the basin that peaked at 720 m3 s− 1 at a headwaters gage draining 17.5 km2 and 1710 m3 s− 1 at a downstream gage draining 414 km2. The storm also triggered numerous landslides in the upper basin, which facilitated the formation of large logjams along portions of the channel where transport capacity of wood was reduced by a change in channel geometry such as a bend or channel expansion. During field work in February 2008, we characterized three jams with surface areas of 400–2450 m2; two of these jams resulted in storage of substantial (1100–8200 m3) sediment wedges upstream. We returned to these sites in March 2009 to document changes in the logjams and sediment storage. Drawing on observations made in the basin since 2002, and site visits during 2008 and 2009, we suggest that jams such as these last two years or less. We propose that wood dynamics in the Upper Chagres alternate between brief periods of moderate wood load in the form of large logjams and much longer periods of essentially no wood load, a situation that contrasts with the more consistent wood loads in catchments of similar size in temperate environments and with limited studies of more consistent wood load in tropical catchments with no landslides. 相似文献
6.
7.
《Geomorphology》2007,83(1-2):82-96
The segmenting of gravel-bed rivers flowing through mountain valleys into a number of discrete ‘sedimentary links’, each characterized by downstream fining of alluvium, is a relatively recent concept which offers promise to model the large-scale spatial organisation of many types of aquatic habitat (reproductive, feeding, refuge, etc), strongly dependent on dominant bed sediment calibre. Although, so far, the ecological application of the concept has mainly focused on benthic invertebrates, here we illustrate its application to fish (Atlantic salmon; Salmo salar). Moreover, the link concept has also been primarily applied to alpine river environments where link formation is triggered by point sources (mainly tributaries) supplying coarser sediment. However, somewhat lower relief, mountain valley landscapes of North Eastern Canada are often structured into sedimentary links triggered by non-point, ‘supply zones’ of coarse sediments, originating in bedrock canyon reaches or valley bottom deposits of glacial drift. Here, we propose an adaptation and extension of the original, sedimentary link concept to such landscapes and test its utility along one such system, the Ste Marguerite River (SMR), a salmon river draining the Canadian Shield in the Saguenay region of Québec. We first discuss a simple field and office based method of link delineation. Then we discuss potential sources of minor, sublink scale grain size variability and their effects on how sedimentary links are defined. Lastly, we demonstrate the usefulness of the link structure to model the distribution of Atlantic salmon spawning habitat (a habitat that depends critically on bed texture). Our results indicate that a revised sedimentary link typology is needed to describe longitudinal grain size patterns where non-point, valley-segment scale sources of coarse sediment are important and that consideration of the research purpose and scale is important in defining meaningful link units. We also show that salmon spawning zones can be directly predicted from the link structure: along the SMR, spawning activity is apportioned within each of the discrete links, in those sub-zones where surface sediment size and sand content are optimal for reproduction. 相似文献
8.
The Rio Negro has responded significantly in the Late Pleistocene and Holocene to lagged environmental changes largely associated with activity during the last glacial in the Amazon basin. On the basis of geological structure, the Rio Negro can be divided into six distinct reaches that each reflects very marked differential processes and geomorphological styles. No deposits of the Upper Pleniglacial were recognized in the field. The oldest recognizable Late Pleistocene alluvial unit is the Upper Terrace of Middle Pleniglacial age (ca. 65–25 ka) (reach I), tentatively correlated with the oldest terrace identified on the left bank of reach III. At that time, the river was mainly an aggradational bed load system carrying abundant quartz sand, a product of more seasonal conditions in the upper catchment. The late glacial (14–10 ka) is represented by a lower finer-grained terrace along the upper basin (reach I), which was recognized in the Tiquié, Curicuriarí, and Vaupes rivers. At that time, the river carried abundant suspended load as a response to climatic changes associated with deglaciation.Since about 14 ka, the river has behaved as a progradational system, infilling in downstream series a sequence of structurally controlled sedimentary basins or ‘compartments,’ creating alluvial floodplains and associated anabranching channel systems. Reach II was the first to be filled, then reach III, both accumulating mainly sand. Fine deposits increase downstream in reach III and become predominant in some anabranch islands of the distal reach. The lowermost reaches of the Negro (V and VI) have been greatly affected by a rising base level and associated backwater effect from aggradation of the Amazon during late glacial and recent times. Reach V has acted almost entirely as a fine sediment trap. The remarkable Anavilhanas archipelago is the product of Holocene deposition in the upper part of this sedimentary basin; however, suspended sediment load declined about 1.5 ka, prior to the lower part of this basin becoming infilled.The progradational behavior of the Rio Negro, filling tectonic basins as successive sediment traps with sand in the upper basins and fines in the downstream ones, illustrates how a large river system responses to profound changes in Late Quaternary base level and sediment supply. The most stable equilibrium conditions have been achieved in the Holocene in reaches IIb and IIIa, where an anabranching channel and erosional–relictual island system relatively efficiently convey water and sediment downstream. Reaches IIIb and V never achieved equilibrium conditions during the Holocene, characterised as they are today with incomplete floodplains and open water. 相似文献
9.
The downstream fining of fluvial sediments is a fundamental tenet of drainage systems and, for decades, has been the subject of considerable research. Most of this research has focused on variability in channel-bed material. Other sedimentological components such as channel bars and banks, however, represent distinctively different processes occurring at various flow magnitudes and durations and thus provide an opportunity to examine a more comprehensive set of controls on the larger fluvial system. This study analyses downstream patterns of sediment size and composition for channel-bed material, bars, and banks in the Llano River watershed (11,568 km2) in central Texas, USA.Fluvial deposits in the study area were characterized through field, laboratory, and statistical analyses and standard sedimentary indices (d16, d50, d84, sorting) were computed. Two hundred thirty-eight sediment samples were collected at 15 sites along the main-stem channel with sampling occurring at the low-flow channel (thalweg), lateral bars, banks, and overbank locations. Channel-bar deposits are characterized by a downstream reduction in particle size, but low-flow-channel deposits have a substantially weaker trend, a discrepancy possibly attributed to uniformity and continuity of hydraulic sorting mechanisms during moderate and high flows. Channel-bar deposits reveal an abrupt downstream reduction in gravel size in the upper watershed, which is attributed to an increase in drainage area. Further, an abrupt gravel-to-sand transition occurs immediately downstream of a distinct lithologic change from mostly carbonate rocks to igneous and metamorphic rocks. The downstream decrease in channel-bar particle size occurs despite an increasingly constricted alluvial valley, commonly associated with greater unit stream power and relatively coarse sediment. Contrasting with channel-bed material, particle size of channel banks increases downstream, which is attributed to the addition of sand-sized sediment from igneous and metamorphic rocks. The consideration of distinctive sedimentological components of a dynamic fluvial system represents a more comprehensive and nuanced study of the topic of downstream sediment trends than prior studies, which is important to a range of engineering, biological, and planning issues at the watershed scale. 相似文献
10.
Francis O. Odemerho 《The Professional geographer》1992,44(3):332-339
Stream channel changes are often assumed to propagate downstream of the disturbed or urbanized reach, especially where the main controlling variables of discharge and sediment load vary regularly in the downstream direction. A survey of bankfull cross-sectional sizes at 10 stations along a tropical stream shows that downstream propagation of the disturbance may not always occur. Serial regression analysis suggests that a reduction in channel size induced by urbanization did not extend beyond the urbanized reach. Furthermore, local channel change did not alter the downstream log linear trend between channel size and basin area. Apparently, the storage of floodwaters and sediments on floodplains reduced the downstream effects of urbanization. 相似文献
11.
通过对2010―2011年在广西防城港海域表层沉积物所取样品进行粒度实验,并利用二维沉积物粒径趋势分析模型进行了粒径输运趋势分析。结果表明,研究区海域底质沉积物类型主要为砂、粉砂质砂、砾石质砂、砂-粉砂-黏土、黏土质粉砂和砂质粉砂等6种。粒度参数在空间分布上,沿岸和西部海域中值粒径较粗,分选中等或较好,偏态呈正偏或极正偏,在海湾口处呈负偏或极负偏;东南部海域粒径较细,分选系数差,偏态呈负偏或近对称。根据沉积物输运趋势方向不同,将研究海域分为3个区：沿岸海域主要离岸输送,方向由北向南;东南部海域的沉积物输运趋势向中间汇聚,形成一个沉积中心;西南部海域,沉积物输运方向偏北。 相似文献
12.
Sandbars are of vital ecological and environmental significance, which however, have been intensively influenced by human activities. Morphodynamic processes of sandbars along the Yichang-Chenglingji Reach of the Changjiang River, the channel immediately downstream of the Three Gorges Dam(TGD), are assessed based on remote sensing images between 2000 and 2016. It can be found that the entire area of sandbars reduces drastically by 19.23% from 149.04 km~2 in 2003 to 120.38 km~2 in 2016, accompanied with an increase in water surface width. Owing to differences in sediment grain size and anti-erosion capacity, sandbar area in the upstream sandy gravel reach(Yichang-Dabujie) and downstream sandy reach(Dabujie-Chenglingji) respectively decreases by 45.94%(from 20.79 km~2 to 11.24 km~2) and 14.93%(from 128.30 km~2 to 109.14 km~2). Furtherly, morphological evolutions of sandbars are affected by channel type: in straight-microbend channel, mid-channel sandbars exhibit downstream moving while maintaining the basic profile; in meandering channel, point sandbars show erosion and deposition in convex and concave bank respectively, with mid-channel sandbars distributing sporadically; in bending-branching channel, point sandbars experience erosion and move downstream while mid-channel sandbars show erosion in the head part along with retreating outline. We document that the primary mechanism of sandbars shrinkages along the Yichang-Chenglingji Reach can be attributed to TGD induced suspended sediment concentration decreasing and increasing in unsaturation of sediment carrying capacity. Additionally, channel type can affect the morphological evolution of sandbars. Along the Yichang-Chenglingji Reach, sandbars in straight-microbend channel are more affected by water flow than that in bending-branching channel. 相似文献
13.
三峡水库不同类型支流河口泥沙淤积成因及趋势 总被引：1，自引：1，他引：0
为揭示三峡水库库区不同类型支流河口泥沙淤积的内在机理和变化趋势,本文充分利用水文、泥沙、固定断面和河道地形等原型观测资料,从支流水沙输移规律和河口局部水沙分布特征出发,研究了不同类型支流河口段泥沙淤积规律及主要影响因素的作用机理,探讨其淤积趋势及形成拦门沙的风险。结果表明:三峡水库蓄水后,库区不同类型支流河口普遍淤积,淤积范围及河道形态的变化各有特点;水库蓄水造成水动力条件减弱是河口泥沙淤积的根本原因,淤积幅度和范围主要取决于干支流来沙量和局部河势。在干支流来沙均明显减少的情况下,三峡水库库区支流河口泥沙淤积速度显著下降,形成拦门沙坎的可能性较小。 相似文献
14.
Stephen E. Watkins Alexander C. Whittaker Rebecca E. Bell Sam A. S. Brooke Vamsi Ganti Robert L. Gawthorpe Lisa C. McNeill Casey W. Nixon 《Basin Research》2020,32(6):1600-1625
The volume and grain-size of sediment supplied from catchments fundamentally control basin stratigraphy. Despite their importance, few studies have constrained sediment budgets and grain-size exported into an active rift at the basin scale. Here, we used the Corinth Rift as a natural laboratory to quantify the controls on sediment export within an active rift. In the field, we measured the hydraulic geometries, surface grain-sizes of channel bars and full-weighted grain-size distributions of river sediment at the mouths of 47 catchments draining the rift (constituting 83% of the areal extent). Results show that the sediment grain-size increases westward along the southern coast of the Gulf of Corinth, with the coarse-fraction grain-sizes (84th percentile of weighted grain-size distribution) ranging from approximately 19 to 91 mm. We find that the median and coarse-fraction of the sieved grain-size distribution are primarily controlled by bedrock lithology, with late Quaternary uplift rates exerting a secondary control. Our results indicate that grain-size export is primarily controlled by the input grain-size within the catchment and subsequent abrasion during fluvial transport, both quantities that are sensitive to catchment lithology. We also demonstrate that the median and coarse-fraction of the grain-size distribution are predominantly transported in bedload; however, typical sand-grade particles are transported as suspended load at bankfull conditions, suggesting disparate source-to-sink transit timescales for sand and gravel. Finally, we derive both a full Holocene sediment budget and a grain-size-specific bedload discharged into the Gulf of Corinth using the grain-size measurements and previously published estimates of sediment fluxes and volumes. Results show that the bedload sediment budget is primarily comprised (~79%) of pebble to cobble grade (0.475–16 cm). Our results suggest that the grain-size of sediment export at the rift scale is particularly sensitive to catchment lithology and fluvial mophodynamics, which complicates our ability to make direct inferences of tectonic and palaeoenvironmental forcing from local stratigraphic characteristics. 相似文献
15.
Sandbars are of vital ecological and environmental significance, which however, have been intensively influenced by human activities. Morphodynamic processes of sandbars along the Yichang-Chenglingji Reach of the Changjiang River, the channel immediately downstream of the Three Gorges Dam (TGD), are assessed based on remote sensing images between 2000 and 2016. It can be found that the entire area of sandbars reduces drastically by 19.23% from 149.04 km2 in 2003 to 120.38 km2 in 2016, accompanied with an increase in water surface width. Owing to differences in sediment grain size and anti-erosion capacity, sandbar area in the upstream sandy gravel reach (Yichang-Dabujie) and downstream sandy reach (Dabujie-Chenglingji) respectively decreases by 45.94% (from 20.79 km2 to 11.24 km2) and 14.93% (from 128.30 km2 to 109.14 km2). Furtherly, morphological evolutions of sandbars are affected by channel type: in straight-microbend channel, mid-channel sandbars exhibit downstream moving while maintaining the basic profile; in meandering channel, point sandbars show erosion and deposition in convex and concave bank respectively, with mid-channel sandbars distributing sporadically; in bending-branching channel, point sandbars experience erosion and move downstream while mid-channel sandbars show erosion in the head part along with retreating outline. We document that the primary mechanism of sandbars shrinkages along the Yichang-Chenglingji Reach can be attributed to TGD induced suspended sediment concentration decreasing and increasing in unsaturation of sediment carrying capacity. Additionally, channel type can affect the morphological evolution of sandbars. Along the Yichang-Chenglingji Reach, sandbars in straight-microbend channel are more affected by water flow than that in bending-branching channel. 相似文献
16.
《Basin Research》2018,30(4):783-798
When we model fluvial sedimentation and the resultant alluvial stratigraphy, we typically focus on the effects of local parameters (e.g., sediment flux, water discharge, grain size) and the effects of regional changes in boundary conditions applied in the source region (i.e., climate, tectonics) and at the shoreline (i.e., sea level). In recent years this viewpoint has been codified into the “source‐to‐sink” paradigm, wherein major shifts in sediment flux, grain‐size fining trends, channel‐stacking patterns, floodplain deposition and larger stratigraphic systems tracts are interpreted in terms of (1) tectonic and climatic signals originating in the hinterland that propagate downstream; and (2) eustatic fluctuation, which affects the position of the shoreline and dictates the generation of accommodation. Within this paradigm, eustasy represents the sole means by which downstream processes may affect terrestrial depositional systems. Here, we detail three experimental cases in which coastal rivers are strongly influenced by offshore and slope transport systems via the clinoform geometries typical of prograding sedimentary bodies. These examples illustrate an underdeveloped, but potentially important “sink‐to‐source” influence on the evolution of fluvial‐deltaic systems. The experiments illustrate the effects of (1) submarine hyperpycnal flows, (2) submarine delta front failure events, and (3) deformable substrates within prodelta and offshore settings. These submarine processes generate (1) erosional knickpoints in coastal rivers, (2) increased river channel occupancy times, (3) rapid rates of shoreline movement, and (4) localized zones of significant offshore sediment accumulation. Ramifications for coastal plain and deltaic stratigraphic patterns include changes in the hierarchy of scour surfaces, fluvial sand‐body geometries, reconstruction of sea‐level variability and large‐scale stratal geometries, all of which are linked to the identification and interpretation of sequences and systems tracts. 相似文献
17.
泥沙解吸重金属污染物动力学模式研究 总被引：16，自引：0，他引：16
从吸附动力学方程和质量守恒出发,导得静态试验中泥沙解吸重金属污染时,单位重量泥沙剩余吸附量和水相浓度随时间变化的计算公式,进而导得单位重量泥沙剩余平衡吸附量和水相平衡浓度的计算公式。在此基础上,结合试验进一步研究了泥沙解吸重金属污染物的动力学模式。 相似文献
18.
A modified morphodynamic model for investigating the response of rivers to short-term climate change
Patrick M. Verhaar Pascale M. Biron Robert I. Ferguson Trevor B. Hoey 《Geomorphology》2008,101(4):674-682
Near-future climate change will affect the discharge and base level of rivers and thus cause channel changes. The nature and pace of such changes can be simulated using morphodynamic models. As part of an investigation of how the changing hydrology of the St-Lawrence River, Quebec, Canada, will affect its tributaries we have made additions and modifications to a one-dimensional morphodynamic model developed for gravel-bed rivers (SEDROUT). The changes allow simulation of sand-bed rivers, variable discharge, downstream water level fluctuations, and flow and sediment routing in channels with islands. A revised formulation for calculating the grain size distributions of the surface and subsurface material is presented to allow for alternating sedimentation and erosion. We test the enhanced model using small-scale simulations and present-day conditions in four tributaries of the St-Lawrence River. The model is calibrated and validated for the tributaries and the capability to simulate river morphology over a 100-year period is tested. Good validation agreement on water level, cross-sectional mean velocity, and sediment transport rate is obtained for the four tributaries of the St-Lawrence River. With these modifications, modelling a very wide range of river morphodynamic problems is now possible. 相似文献
19.
以西辽河红山水库修建后上游河道调整为例，说明了除来水来沙等的变化所引起的河流系统调整外，存在由于河流系统可调要素之间的相互联系，相互作用，在水库水位上升后造成的溯源淤积发展中，主、支流河道、上、下游河段冲淤相互影响，槽，滩淤积相互转换，地生态系统调整的影响下，产生的可调要素的复杂多向的调整过程。 相似文献
20.
Rapid grain size coarsening at sandstone/conglomerate transition: similar expression in Himalayan modern rivers and Pliocene molasse deposits 总被引：1，自引：0，他引：1 下载免费PDF全文
下载免费PDF全文 Radical grain size changes between two main units of a sedimentary megacycle in a foreland basin are commonly interpreted to result from changes in tectonic activity or climate in the adjacent mountain range. In central Nepal, the Cenozoic Siwalik molasse deposits exposed in the frontal Himalayan folds are characterized by such a radical grain size transition. Locally gravel deposits completely replace sands in vertical succession over approximately a hundred metres, the median grain size (D50) displaying a sharp increase by a factor of ca. 100. Such a rapid gravel‐sand transition (GST) is also observed in present‐day river channels about 8–20 km downstream from the outlet of the Siwalik Range. The passage from gravel‐bed channel reaches (proximal alluvial fans) to sand‐bed channel reaches (distal alluvial fans) occurs within a few kilometres on the Gangetic Plain in central Nepal, and the D50 ratio between the two types of channels equals ca. 100. We propose that the dramatic and remarkably similar increase in grain size observed in the Neogene Siwalik series and along modern rivers in the Gangetic foreland basin, results from a similar hydraulic process, i.e. a grain sorting process during the selective deposition of the sediment load. The sudden appearance of gravels in the upper Siwalik series would be related to the crossing of this sorting transition during progressive southward migration of the gravel front, in response to continuous Himalayan orogen construction. And as a consequence, the GST would be diachronous by nature. This study demonstrates that an abrupt change in grain size does not necessarily relate to a change in tectonic or climatic forcing, but can simply arise from internal adjustment of the piedmont rivers to the deposition and run out of coarse bedload. It illustrates, in addition, the genesis of quartz‐rich conglomerates in the Himalayan foreland through gravel selective deposition associated with differential weathering, abrasion processes and sediment recycling during thrust wedge advance and shortening of the foreland basin. 相似文献