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18 - Some Future Megafan Research Directions

from Part IV - Megafans in World Landscapes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 April 2023

By
M. Justin Wilkinson  and
Yanni Gunnell
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

New findings around fluvial megafans have accrued from the world survey presented in this book, and challenge some commonly accepted generalisations. Among a list of unexpected results are that (i) megafans constitute a landform and sedimentary body of regional significance on Earth, subsidiarily on Mars, despite their relatively small number; (ii) any topographic step, high or low, can provide the anchor point for a megafan apex; (iii) most megafans are associated with tributary drainages, seldom with axial drainages; (iv) megafans form in all climates. Megafan sizes, shapes, nesting patterns, drainage configurations, tectonic settings, and sediment dispersal styles are summarised, classified, and compared to other large fluvial sediment bodies. Finer mosaics of landscape elements and landforms belonging to the rheic zone (belts of fluvial incision, narrow or wide, that cut into fan surfaces) and perirheic zone (extensive land surface beyond the reach of the fan-forming river) are reviewed from modern analogues, and their implications for identifying megafans and other distributary fluvial systems in the rock record are examined. Vocabulary defining megafans and their environments has been sharpened as a result, with some avenues for further investigation laid out in this closing chapter.

Type
Chapter
Information
Fluvial Megafans on Earth and Mars , pp. 372 - 388
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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