Dying Tree In West Alluvial Fan
by LaDonna McCray
Title
Dying Tree In West Alluvial Fan
Artist
LaDonna McCray
Medium
Photograph - Photography
Description
In the Rocky Mountain National Park, one trail we came across is the West Alluvial Fan Trailhead. This area has survived Massive flooding, lighting strikes and fires in the past. This particular tree off the trail path is slowly dying from all the natural disaster that has happened in this alluvial plain.
An alluvial plain is a largely flat landform created by the deposition of sediment over a long period of time by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. A floodplain is part of the process, being the smaller area over which the rivers flood at a particular period of time, whereas the alluvial plain is the larger area representing the region over which the floodplains have shifted over geological time.
Alluvial fans typically form where flow emerges from a confined channel and is free to spread out and infiltrate the surface. This reduces the carrying capacity of the flow and results in deposition of sediments. The flow can take the form of infrequent debris flows or one or more ephemeral or perennial streams.
Alluvial fans are common in the geologic record, such as in the Triassic basins of eastern North America and the New Red Sandstone of south Devon. Such fan deposits likely contain the largest accumulations of gravel in the geologic record.
Uploaded
August 30th, 2021
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