River delta morphotypes emerge from multiscale characterization of shorelines

Vulis, L. ; Tejedor, A. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Ma, H. ; Nienhuis, J. H. ; Broaddus, C. M. ; Brown, J. ; Edmonds, D. A. ; Rowland, J. C. ; Foufoula-Georgiou, E.

Resumen: Delta shoreline structure has long been hypothesized to encode information on the relative influence of fluvial, wave, and tidal processes on delta formation and evolution. We introduce here a novel multiscale characterization of shorelines by defining three process-informed morphological metrics. We show that this characterization yields self-emerging classes of morphologically similar deltas, that is, delta morphotypes, and also predicts the dominant forcing of each morphotype. Then we show that the dominant forcings inferred from shoreline structure generally align with those estimated via relative sediment fluxes, while positing that misalignments arise from spatiotemporal heterogeneity in deltaic sediment fluxes not captured in their estimates. The proposed framework for shoreline characterization advances our quantitative understanding of how shoreline features reflect delta forcings, and may aid in deciphering paleoclimate from images of ancient deposits and projecting delta morphologic response to changes in sediment fluxes.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1029/2022GL102684

Año: 2023

Publicado en: Geophysical Research Letters 50, 7 (2023), e2022GL102684 [10 pp.]
ISSN: 0094-8276

Factor impacto JCR: 4.6 (2023)

Categ. JCR: GEOSCIENCES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY rank: 30 / 254 = 0.118 (2023) - Q1 - T1

Factor impacto CITESCORE: 9.0 - Geophysics (Q1) - Earth and Planetary Sciences (all) (Q1)

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 1.85 - Geophysics (Q1) - Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous) (Q1)

Tipo y forma: Article (Published version)

Área (Departamento): Área Física Teórica (Dpto. Física Teórica)