Paleoflood records from sinkholes. An example from the Ebro Valley, NE Spain

Gutiérrez, F. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Zarroca, M. ; Castañeda, C. ; Carbonel, D. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Guerrero, J. (Universidad de Zaragoza) ; Linares, R. ; Roqué, C. ; Lucha, P. (Universidad de Zaragoza)

Resumen: This work introduces for the first time the concept of using sinkholes in fluvial valleys as recorders of past floods. The notion is illustrated through the investigation of a complex sinkhole located in a broad floodplain underlain by salt-bearing Cenozoic evaporites. This active sinkhole comprises a large subsidence depression affecting the floodplain and the edge of a terrace, and a nested collapse sinkhole that used to host a sinkhole pond. A borehole drilled in the buried sinkhole pond revealed an ~7.8-m-thick fill that records around 2700 yr of clayey lacustrine deposition interrupted by three types of detrital facies. Two thick pebble gravel beds have been attributed to major high-competence floods: a paleoflood that occurred in Visigothic times (1537–1311 cal yr BP) and the 1961 Great Ebro River Flood, which is the largest event of the instrumental record. A trench dug in the portion of the terrace affected by subsidence exposed a mid-Holocene slack-water paleoflood deposit. The disadvantages and advantages of sinkholes as archives of past flood histories are discussed.

Idioma: Inglés

DOI: 10.1017/qua.2017.23

Año: 2017

Publicado en: Quaternary Research (United States) 88, 1 (2017), 71-88
ISSN: 0033-5894

Factor impacto JCR: 2.329 (2017)

Categ. JCR: GEOSCIENCES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY rank: 76 / 189 = 0.402 (2017) - Q2 - T2
Categ. JCR: GEOGRAPHY, PHYSICAL rank: 26 / 49 = 0.531 (2017) - Q3 - T2

Factor impacto SCIMAGO: 1.216 - Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) (Q1) - Earth-Surface Processes (Q1) - Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous) (Q1)

Financiación: info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MINECO-FEDER/CGL2013-40867-P

Tipo y forma: Article (Published version)

Área (Departamento): Área Didáctica Ciencias Exper. (Dpto. Didáctica Cienc. Experi.)
Área (Departamento): Área Geodinámica Externa (Dpto. Ciencias de la Tierra)