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11 - The Kosi Megafan, India

Morphology, Dynamics, and Sedimentology

from Part II - Regional Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 April 2023

By
Rajiv Sinha ,
Kumar Gaurav ,
Kanchan Mishra  and
Surya Gupta
Edited by
Justin Wilkinson  and
Yanni Gunnell
Justin Wilkinson
Affiliation:
Texas State University, Jacobs JETS Contract, NASA Johnson Space Center
Yanni Gunnell
Affiliation:
Université Lumière Lyon 2
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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 - 218
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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