Controls on modern tributary-junction alluvial fan occurrence and morphology: High Atlas Mountains, Morocco

Controls on modern tributary-junction alluvial fan occurrence and morphology: High Atlas Mountains, Morocco

Controls on alluvial fan long - profi les

Water and debris fl ows exiting confi ned valleys have a tendency to deposit sediment on steep fans. On alluvial fans where water transport of gravel predominates, channel slopes tend to decrease downfan from ~0.10–0.04 to ~0.01 across wide ranges of climate and tectonism. Some have argued that this pattern refl ects grain-size fi ning downfan such that higher threshold slopes are required just...

Hot upwelling conduit beneath the Atlas Mountains, Morocco

The Atlas Mountains of Morocco display high topography, no deep crustal root, and regions of localized Cenozoic alkaline volcanism. Previous seismic imaging and geophysical studies have implied a hot mantle upwelling as the source of the volcanism and high elevation. However, the existence, shape, and physical properties of an associated mantle anomaly are debated. Here we use seismic waveform ...

Inversion of synrift normal faults in the High Atlas Mountains, Morocco

Structural inversion related to intracontinental rifting occurs when extensional rift faults reverse their sense of motion during subsequent episodes of compressional tectonics. Features generated by extension, such as half grabens, are uplifted to form positive anticlinal structures. Mountain belts resulting from the convergence of continent-continent or continent-oceanic plates usually form a...

Experimental Alluvial Fan Evolution: Channel Dynamics, Slope Controls, and Shoreline Growth

River deltas and alluvial fans have channelization and deposition dynamics that are not entirely understood, but which dictate the evolution of landscapes of great social, economic, and ecologic value. Our lack of a process-based understanding of fan dynamics hampers our ability to construct accurate prediction and hazard models, leaving these regions vulnerable. Here we describe the growth of ...