Episodic sediment supply to alluvial fans: implications for fan incision and morphometry

Abstract. Sediment supply is widely believed to be a key control on alluvial fan morphology and channel dynamics. Although the sediment natural fans rather episodic, experimental studies of often use constant rates, making it difficult relate dynamics magnitude frequency in field. This paper presents series experiments designed test impact episodic evolution We compare four experiments, each with same mean but different durations high- low-supply periods. The show that respond systematically temporal elongation oscillations: longer cycles generate flatter more trenched channels. These results highlight how basin conditions might morphologies: supply-limited basins intermittent are than expected. Our raise question whether models can adequately characterise therefore suggest modellers should include variability when investigating responses supply.