Geology and Geomorphology of Alluvial and Fluvial Fans: Terrestrial and Planetary Perspectives
CONTAINS OPEN ACCESS

Alluvial and fluvial fans are the most widespread depositional landform bordering the margins of highland regions and actively subsiding continental basins, across a broad spectrum of tectonic and climatic settings. They are significant to the local morphodynamics of mountain regions and also to the evolution of sediment-routing systems, affecting the propagation and preservation of stratigraphic signals of environmental change over vast areas.
The volume presents case studies discussing the geology and geomorphology of alluvial and fluvial fans from both active systems and ancient ones preserved in the stratigraphic record. It brings together case studies from a range of continents, climatic and tectonic settings, some introducing innovative monitoring and analysis techniques, and it provides an overview of current debates in the field.
This volume will be of particular interest to geologists, geomorphologists, sedimentologists and the general reader with an interest in Earth science.
Orbital-climate control of mass-flow sedimentation in a Miocene alluvial-fan succession (Teruel Basin, Spain)
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Published:January 01, 2018
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CiteCitation
Dario Ventra, Hemmo A. Abels, Frederik J. Hilgen, Poppe L. de Boer, 2018. "Orbital-climate control of mass-flow sedimentation in a Miocene alluvial-fan succession (Teruel Basin, Spain)", Geology and Geomorphology of Alluvial and Fluvial Fans: Terrestrial and Planetary Perspectives, D. Ventra, L. E. Clarke
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Abstract
The role of climate change in driving alluvial-fan sedimentation is hard to assess in pre-Quaternary successions, for which detailed chronologies and climate-proxy records cannot be easily established. In the Teruel Basin (Spain), high-resolution (104–105 years) chronological and palaeoclimatic information was derived by orbital tuning of Late Miocene mudflat to ephemeral-lake deposits. The semi-arid palaeoclimate made this low-gradient, basinal environment sensitive to thresholds in the local hydrological balance. Basic facies rhythms are attributed to alternating, relatively humid/arid phases controlled by the climatic precession cycle. The lower stratigraphic interval of this reference section interfingers with distal, coarse-clastic beds...
- aggradation
- alluvial fans
- arid environment
- atmospheric precipitation
- bedding
- Calatayud-Teruel Basin
- calcrete
- Cenozoic
- clastic rocks
- climate change
- climate forcing
- coarse-grained materials
- controls
- correlation
- cyclic processes
- cyclostratigraphy
- debris flows
- deposition
- depositional environment
- drainage basins
- ephemeral lakes
- Europe
- geomorphology
- humid environment
- humidity
- hydrologic cycle
- Iberian Peninsula
- lacustrine environment
- lakes
- landform evolution
- lithofacies
- mass movements
- Miocene
- mud flats
- Neogene
- orbital forcing
- paleoclimatology
- paleoenvironment
- paleohydrology
- planar bedding structures
- precession
- provenance
- runoff
- seasonal variations
- sediment yield
- sedimentary rocks
- sedimentary structures
- sedimentation
- sedimentology
- sediments
- semi-arid environment
- Southern Europe
- Spain
- stratigraphic units
- stratigraphy
- succession
- terrestrial environment
- Tertiary