TY - CHAP
T1 - Global Late Quaternary Fluvial Paleohydrology
T2 - With Special Emphasis on Paleofloods and Megafloods
AU - Baker, V. R.
N1 - Funding Information:
The author's early research on palaeoflood hydrology was supported by the US National Science Foundation. This chapter is contribution number 83 of the Arizona Laboratory for Paleohydrological and Hydroclimatological Analysis, The University of Arizona.
Funding Information:
Victor R. Baker is Regents' Professor of hydrology and water resources, geosciences, and planetary sciences, University of Arizona. He received a BS in geology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 1967 and a PhD in geology from the University of Colorado in 1971. He has authored or co-authored more than 350 research papers and chapters on topics that include paleoflood hydrology; flood geomorphology; channels, valleys, and geomorphic features on Mars and Venus; catastrophic Pleistocene floods in the northwestern US and central Asia; history/philosophy of Earth and planetary sciences; and the interface of environmental science with public policy. He was the 1998 President of the Geological Society of America, the 1992–93 Chair of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Section on Geology and Geography, and the 1995–99 President of the International Union for Quaternary Research Commission on Global Continental Paleohydrology. Among his honors are Foreign Membership in the Polish Academy of Sciences; Honorary Fellowship in the European Union of Geosciences; the David Linton Award of the British Society for Geomorphology; both the Easterbrook Distinguished Scientist Award and the Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology Distinguished Career Award from The Geological Society of America; a Fulbright-Hays Senior Research Fellowship; an Indo-American Fellowship; and Fellowships in the American Geophysical Union, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Geological Society of America.
PY - 2013/3
Y1 - 2013/3
N2 - Fluvial paleohydrology was initiated in the 1950s with a study of late Quaternary river terraces. It evolved to include regime studies of paleochannels, paleocompetence analysis, and alluvial chronology. More recent global studies have emphasized the paleostage estimation of Holocene paleofloods. Extensive paleoflood hydrological work in western North America, Europe, Israel, India, South Africa, Australia, and China is providing relatively accurate estimates of magnitude and frequency for the most extreme, hazardous floods. Even more spectacular discoveries have been made in regard to megafloods, which are paleofloods where peak discharges have equaled or exceeded 1 million cubic meters per second. Most of the known megafloods and related catastrophic flooding phenomena are associated with large-scale glaciation, notably that which occurred in the terminal phases of the Pleistocene, associated with the Laurentide and Cordilleran Ice Sheets in North America, the Patagonian Ice Sheet of South America, the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet in Europe, and various mountain and lowland ice sheets of central Asia.
AB - Fluvial paleohydrology was initiated in the 1950s with a study of late Quaternary river terraces. It evolved to include regime studies of paleochannels, paleocompetence analysis, and alluvial chronology. More recent global studies have emphasized the paleostage estimation of Holocene paleofloods. Extensive paleoflood hydrological work in western North America, Europe, Israel, India, South Africa, Australia, and China is providing relatively accurate estimates of magnitude and frequency for the most extreme, hazardous floods. Even more spectacular discoveries have been made in regard to megafloods, which are paleofloods where peak discharges have equaled or exceeded 1 million cubic meters per second. Most of the known megafloods and related catastrophic flooding phenomena are associated with large-scale glaciation, notably that which occurred in the terminal phases of the Pleistocene, associated with the Laurentide and Cordilleran Ice Sheets in North America, the Patagonian Ice Sheet of South America, the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet in Europe, and various mountain and lowland ice sheets of central Asia.
KW - Alluvial chronology
KW - Fluvial paleohydrology
KW - Glaciation
KW - Ice sheets
KW - Megafloods
KW - Paleofloods
KW - Quaternary
KW - Rivers
KW - Slackwater deposits
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U2 - 10.1016/B978-0-12-374739-6.00252-9
DO - 10.1016/B978-0-12-374739-6.00252-9
M3 - Chapter
AN - SCOPUS:84903411229
SN - 9780080885223
VL - 9
SP - 511
EP - 527
BT - Treatise on Geomorphology
PB - Elsevier Inc.
ER -