River Belt Discovery Helps Scientists Understand Ancient Rivers

Christantiowati

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The Elwha River flows into the Strait of Juan de Fuca, carrying sediment after being trapped behind the reservoir.

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Nationalgeographic.co.id—Even though sungai primordial has long since dried up, the channel belt is alive. Composed of patches of sediment surrounding the river, the channel belt, which has hardened into rock, preserves the river’s former course.

Attempts to reconstruct details ancient river of deposition of the belt of the conduit is a very difficult job. But a Education New research from scientists at The University of Texas at Austin is making progress in that area.

Tian Dong, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas’ Jackson School of Geosciences who was the lead investigator on the study, said that by analyzing modern rivers, they were able to discover the rules linking channel belts to river patterns. The research team in this study found that, in general, the more channels a river has, the narrower its channel belt.

Because the physics that make up rivers are the same over time and everywhere, the rules also apply to ancient rivers and rivers on other planets, according to Timothy Goudge, an assistant professor at the Jackson School who was also a researcher on the study.

“We can look at river deposits from 100 million years ago on Earth or from 3.5 billion years ago on Mars and we can say something about what the river actually looked like,” Goudge said. EurekAlert!.

In addition to helping scientists imagine ancient rivers, the rules can also help them interpret how these rivers affected the wider landscape. Rivers with narrower channel belts can more easily access the surrounding floodplain.

“For multi-channel systems, like forked rivers, they are actually in a very narrow channel belt so very close to the floodplain,” Dong said. “So there could potentially be more interaction between the river and the floodplain material.”

The rule does have some exceptions. The rule does not apply to confined rivers, which are kept from migrating freely, by the surrounding landscape.

But when rivers are free to move and meander across land, there is a direct relationship between an increase in the number of river channels and a narrowing of the channel belt. The scientists also found that as the belt narrows, it also becomes smoother with less sharp edges.

The researchers discovered the rule by analyzing 30 modern rivers and their channel belts. They draw on high-resolution photos and altitude data captured by satellites.

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