Book contents
- Fluvial Megafans on Earth and Mars
- Fluvial Megafans on Earth and Mars
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Regional Studies
- 3 Megafans of Africa
- 4 Megafans of the Northern Kalahari Basin (Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia)
- 5 The Chaco Megafans, South America
- 6 Megafans of the Pantanal Basin, Brazil
- 7 Geomorphic and Chronological Assessment of Aggradation Patterns on the Río Grande (Guapay) Megafan, Eastern Bolivia
- 8 Megafans of Southern and Central Europe
- 9 The Loire Megafan, Central France
- 10 Megafans of the Gangetic Plains, India
- 11 The Kosi Megafan, India
- 12 The Holocene Mitchell Megafan, Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia
- 13 Megafans of the Northern Victorian Riverine Plains, SE Australia
- Part III Applications in Other Sciences
- Part IV Megafans in World Landscapes
- Index
- References
11 - The Kosi Megafan, India
Morphology, Dynamics, and Sedimentology
from Part II - Regional Studies
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 30 April 2023
Book contents
- Fluvial Megafans on Earth and Mars
- Fluvial Megafans on Earth and Mars
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Part I Introduction
- Part II Regional Studies
- 3 Megafans of Africa
- 4 Megafans of the Northern Kalahari Basin (Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia)
- 5 The Chaco Megafans, South America
- 6 Megafans of the Pantanal Basin, Brazil
- 7 Geomorphic and Chronological Assessment of Aggradation Patterns on the Río Grande (Guapay) Megafan, Eastern Bolivia
- 8 Megafans of Southern and Central Europe
- 9 The Loire Megafan, Central France
- 10 Megafans of the Gangetic Plains, India
- 11 The Kosi Megafan, India
- 12 The Holocene Mitchell Megafan, Gulf of Carpentaria, Australia
- 13 Megafans of the Northern Victorian Riverine Plains, SE Australia
- Part III Applications in Other Sciences
- Part IV Megafans in World Landscapes
- Index
- References
Summary
This overview of the well-documented, ~ 11,200 km2 Kosi megafan updates many aspects of its geomorphology, and maps the detail of its modern trunk channel. The axis of the Kosi megafan is orthogonal to the Himalaya and Ganga trunk river, but with a mean annual flow of 52 × 109 m3 it has constructed a relatively small megafan (~150 km long) constricted between neighbouring megafans and the Ganga floodplain. However, while the coarser sediment load of other megafans farther to the west, such as the Gandak, has been trapped upstream in piggyback basins of the Terai belt, this upstream filter does not exist in the case of the Kosi River. Consequences for the Kosi channel are thought to be a more continuous supply of sediment, a higher proportion of coarse debris, higher rates of bed aggradation, and a more avulsive style of river behaviour on the megafan. Extensive construction of artificial levees, initially designed to mitigate the hazards arising from excessive flooding, has accelerated natural rates of channel aggradation – thereby raising the channel bed in several reaches and resulting in more frequent levee breaching and flood-related damage than on other Himalayan megafans.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Fluvial Megafans on Earth and Mars , pp. 202 - 218Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023
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