Geology topics

J.P.M. Syvitski

Publications and source records attributed to J.P.M. Syvitski.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2014

Earth is (mostly) flat: Apportionment of the flux of continental sediment over millennial time scales: COMMENT

Recent synthesis of 10 Be-derived denudation rates by Willenbring et al. (2013) suggests that the “flat” areas of the world, those with average slopes of <∼100 m/km and representing ∼90% of Earth’s land surface, have adequately high rates of denudation to produce most of the sediment transported to the world’s oceans. This finding is based on the product of interpolated denudation rates (L/T) over the world’s drainage areas (L 2 ) using landscape slope as the controlling variable. We suggest that these findings are incorrect on several grounds.

Geology↗

USGS2008

Geolocation of man-made reservoirs across terrains of varying complexity using GIS

The Reservoir Sedimentation Survey Information System (RESIS) is one of the world's most comprehensive databases of reservoir sedimentation rates, comprising nearly 6000 surveys for 1819 reservoirs across the continental United States. Sediment surveys in the database date from 1904 to 1999, though more than 95% of surveys were entered prior to 1980, making RESIS largely a historical database. The use of this database for large-scale studies has been limited by the lack of precise coordinates for the reservoirs. Many of the reservoirs are relatively small structures and do not appear on current USGS topographic maps. Others have been renamed or have only approximate (i.e. township and range) coordinates. This paper presents a method scripted in ESRI's ARC Macro Language (AML) to locate the reservoirs on digital elevation models using information available in RESIS. The script also delineates the contributing watersheds and compiles several hydrologically important parameters for each reservoir. Evaluation of the method indicates that, for watersheds larger than 5 km2, the correct outlet is identified over 80% of the time. The importance of identifying the watershed outlet correctly depends on the application. Our intent is to collect spatial data for watersheds across the continental United States and describe the land use, soils, and topography for each reservoir's watershed. Because of local landscape similarity in these properties, we show that choosing the incorrect watershed does not necessarily mean that the watershed characteristics will be misrepresented. We present a measure termed terrain complexity and examine its relationship to geolocation success rate and its influence on the similarity of nearby watersheds. ?? 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Computers & Geosciences↗

USGS2002

Distinguishing sediment waves from slope failure deposits: Field examples, including the 'humboldt slide', and modelling results

Migrating sediment waves have been reported in a variety of marine settings, including submarine levee-fan systems, floors of fjords, and other basin or continental slope environments. Examination of such wave fields reveals nine diagnostic characteristics. When these characteristics are applied to several features previously attributed to submarine landslide deformation, they suggest that the features should most likely be reinterpreted as migrating sediment-wave fields. Sites that have been reinterpreted include the 'Humboldt slide' on the Eel River margin in northern California, the continental slope in the Gulf of Cadiz, the continental shelf off the Malaspina Glacier in the Gulf of Alaska, and the Adriatic shelf. A reassessment of all four features strongly suggests that numerous turbidity currents, separated by intervals of ambient hemipelagic sedimentation, deposited the wave fields over thousands of years. A numerical model of hyperpycnal discharge from the Eel River, for example, shows that under certain alongshore-current conditions, such events can produce turbidity currents that flow across the 'Humboldt slide', serving as the mechanism for the development of migrating sediment waves. Numerical experiments also demonstrate that where a series of turbidity currents flows across a rough seafloor (i.e. numerical steps), sediment waves can form and migrate upslope. Hemipelagic sedimentation between turbidity current events further facilitates the upslope migration of the sediment waves. Physical modelling of turbidity currents also confirms the formation and migration of seafloor bedforms. The morphologies of sediment waves generated both numerically and physically in the laboratory bear a strong resemblance to those observed in the field, including those that were previously described as submarine landslides.

Marine Geology↗