Main de ter mi nants of the grain size dis tri bu tion of overbank de pos its in Po land – an over view of lit er a ture on mod els of sed i men ta tion
Jacek B. SZMAÑDA1, *
1 Ped a gog i cal Uni ver sity of Cra cow, In sti tute of Ge og ra phy, Podchor¹¿ych 2, 30-084 Kraków, Po land
Szmañda, J.B., 2018. Main de ter mi nants of the grain size dis tri bu tion of overbank de pos its in Po land – an over view of lit er a - ture on mod els of sed i men ta tion. Geo log i cal Quar terly, 62 (4): 873–880, doi: 10.7306/gq.1444
As so ci ate ed i tor: Wojciech Granoszewski
The ar ti cle de scribes the most im por tant fea tures of the grain size dis tri bu tion of overbank de pos its (madas) of Pol ish rivers.
The most im por tant char ac ter is tics of their de po si tion and the fac tors de ter min ing the vari abil ity of the grain size dis tri bu tion of overbank de pos its are in di cated. Al most all grain frac tions dis tin guished in na ture, i.e. cob bles, grav els, sands, silts, and clays, oc cur in the overbank de pos its of Pol ish rivers. The sandy frac tion dom i nates in overbank sed i ments, which con tra - dicts their wide spread rec og ni tion as silty-clayey (mud) sed i ments. The change in the pro por tion of these frac tions (the for - ma tion of dif fer ent types of lithological overbank de pos its) is caused by a change in the con di tions of sed i ment trans port de pend ent on six fac tors: (1) de crease in wa ter flow ve loc ity over a floodplain along with an in crease in the dis tance from the river chan nel, (2) change in wa ter flow ve loc ity dur ing a sin gle flood (stages of a flood), (3) the di ver sity of the floodplain re lief, (4) changes in the for est cover of the river ba sin (catch ment), (5) change in the lon gi tu di nal slope and (6) width of floodplains.
Key words: sedimentology, overbank de pos its, grain size dis tri bu tion, mod els of de po si tion.
INTRODUCTION
In this pub li ca tion the phrase “overbank de pos its” will be used in ter change ably with the term “mada”, as ac cord ing to Pol - ish pedologists and geomorphologists this means a synsedi - mentary type of soil. Overbank de pos its are found on the chan nel de pos its of me an der ing (Allen, 1965a) and anastomosing rivers (Smith and Smith, 1980; Nanson and Knighton, 1996). The is sue of the li thol ogy of overbank sed i ments and the fac tors de ter min - ing it in the river sys tems of Po land has been re peat edly ex am - ined by au thors in clud ing Po¿aryski (1955), Klimek (1974), Teisseyre (1985, 1986, 1988a, b), Zwoliñski (1986, 1992), Kalicki (2006) and Szmañda (2011).
Madas are usu ally re ferred to as ver ti cal ac cre tion de pos its, as op posed to chan nel de pos its which oc cur as a re sult of the lat eral ac cre tion of chan nels and so also termed lat eral ac cre - tion de pos its. Teisseyre (1985) pro posed that nam ing overbank de pos its “ver ti cal ac cre tion de pos its” is in cor rect be cause they are formed as a re sult of five types of ac cre tion: ver ti cal, fron tal, lat eral, back ward, and com pound. Sub se quent study (Szmañda, 2011), in volv ing lithodynamic in ter pre ta tion of overbank de pos its, showed that the dom i nant pro cess by which
madas form is sal ta tion, or in ter mit tent sus pen sion. On this ba - sis, one can as sume that overbank sed i ments form as a re sult of fron tal ac cre tion, down the river val ley, con sis tent with the gen eral di rec tion of wa ter flow over a floodplain.
Due to the com plex ity and dis con tin u ous na ture of sed i - men ta tion pro cesses on the river floodplains, the study of sed i - men ta tion pat terns is dif fi cult. Nev er the less, this pa per re views ideas on the main trends and fac tors de ter min ing the grain size dis tri bu tion of the overbank sed i ments of Pol ish rivers and the con struc tion of the overbank de posit sed i men ta tion mod els in Po land.
THE GRAIN SIZE DISTRIBUTION OF OVERBANK DEPOSITS
Stud ies of the grain size dis tri bu tion of overbank de pos its in di cate their con sid er able di ver sity de pend ing on the time and place of de po si tion on the floodplain (Mycielska-Dowgia³³o, 1978; Myœliñska, 1980; Myœliñska et al., 1982; Turkowska, 1988; Florek, 1991; Andrzejewski, 1994; Kalicki, 2000; Ludwi - kow ska- Kê dzia, 2000; Kordowski, 2001, 2003; Kaczmarzyk et al., 2008; Kalicki and Szmañda 2009; Szmañda, 2011; Lisek and Petera-Zganiacz, 2017).
This di ver sity is well il lus trated by the dis tri bu tion of 2250 overbank sed i ment sam ples of Pol ish gravel-bed and sand-bed rivers as re gards mean grain size ver sus sort ing (Fig. 1). The sam ples come from fos sil Ho lo cene overbank (Kalicki, 1996, 2000, 2006; Szmañda et al., 2004; Chruœciñska et al., 2012)
* E-mail: jacek.szmanda@up.krakow.pl
Re ceived: May 1, 2018; ac cepted: July 31, 2018; first pub lished on line: December 18, 2018
and mod ern de pos its (Teisseyre, 1980, 1986; Szmañda, 2011;
Gierszewski and Szmañda, 2012) col lected from floodplains of the Vistula River (in the sec tion from Krakow Gate to the Toruñ Ba sin), the Drwêca, the T¹¿yna and the Z³otna rivers (Fig. 2).
These de pos its rep re sent all forms of the prox i mal and dis tal
zones of floodplain (Kalicki, 1996, 2006; Szmañda, 2011). They were taken from seg ments of the river val ley bot toms (1) with dif fer ent floodplain width, (2) of me an der ing and anabranching chan nel pat terns, and (3) of var ied chan nel sin u os ity.
The sam ples ana lysed are lo cated within the M-shaped trend de ter mined by Folk and Ward (Szmañda, 2004, 2011;
Fig. 1). This is not con sis tent with the pro posal of the ge netic clas si fi ca tion of river de pos its adopted by Mycielska-Dowgia³³o and Ludwikowska-Kêdzia (2011) and their di vi sion into river bed lag de pos its, chan nel de pos its, overbank de pos its, and overbank-pool de pos its, based on the dis tri bu tion of sed i ment sam ples in the di a gram of the mean grain size ver sus sort ing di - a gram. The M-shaped dis tri bu tion of sam ples in this di a gram de pends on the char ac ter is tics of the ma te rial found in na ture (Pettijohn, 1957) and the mix ing of the grain size frac tions rel a - tive to change in wa ter flow ve loc ity (Folk and Ward, 1957;
Szmañda, 2004, 2011).
Stud ies on pat terns of grain size dis tri bu tion of overbank al lu - via (Szmañda, 2004, 2011) showed that four ba sic frac tions can be dis tin guished in their grain size dis tri bu tion (Fig. 3): (1) coarse and me dium grav els, from –5 to –3 phi, (2) coarse sands, from 0 to 1 phi, and fine sands, from 2 to 3 phi, (3) coarse and me - dium-grain silts, from 5 to 6 phi, (4) me dium clays, from 11 to 12 phi (Szmañda, 2011). Gaps called Tan ner Gaps (Tan ner, 1958) oc cur be tween them, where there is a pau city of cer tain Fig. 1. Sam ple dis tri bu tion ten dency of se lected Pol ish river
overbank de pos its on a mean grain size ver sus sort ing di a - gram, on the ba sis of sam ples taken from floodplains the lo ca - tions of which are shown in Fig ure 2
Fig. 2. Lo ca tion of sam pling ar eas of: 1–6 (Szmañda, 2011); 1 (Sandomierz Ba sin, Kalicki, 1996, 2006); 7 (Teisseyre, 1980)
1 – Vistula River val ley, Kraków Gate and Sandomierz Ba sin, 2 – Vistula River val ley, the Lesser Po land Gorge, 3 – Vistula River val ley, P³ock Ba sin, 4 – Vistula River val ley, Toruñ
Ba sin, 5 – Drwêca River val ley, 6 – T¹¿yna River val ley, 7 – Z³otna River val ley
grain sizes: (1) from –3 to 0 phi, (2) from 3 to 5 phi, (3) from 7 to 9 phi (Fig. 3). The change in the share of the gravel, sand, silt and clay frac tion, re flect ing changes in cur rent ve loc ity, de ter mines the lithological char ac ter is tics of the sed i ments in the var i ous sed i men tary en vi ron ments (Spencer, 1963; Tan ner, 1964), in - clud ing in madas (Szmañda, 2004, 2011). Fea tures of the grain size dis tri bu tion of overbank sed i ments can not be a de ter mi nant of its own gen e sis and are sim i lar to the fea tures of gla cial, glacio fluvial, eolian, and lac us trine sed i ments (com pare with e.g., Wysota et al., 1996; Podgórski and Szmañda, 2002). The dom i - nant frac tion in the overbank de pos its stud ied is the sand frac tion (53% on av er age) and, within this, the fine-grained sand frac tion (2–3 phi – on av er age 17.5%; Fig. 4).
THE INFLUENCE OF THE SLOPE AND WIDTH OF THE VALLEY BOTTOM ON THE GRAIN SIZE
DISTRIBUTION OF OVERBANK DEPOSITS
The change in the lon gi tu di nal val ley bot tom slope, which con trib utes to the change in wa ter flow ve loc ity over a floodplain, has a sig nif i cant ef fect on the type of de pos its that ac cu mu late in river val leys (Schumm, 1977; Teisseyre, 1991).
This is due to Lane’s (1955) gen eral prin ci ple that QrD ~ QS. It as sumes that at a con stant flow rate (Q) and a con stant sed i - ment trans port rate (Qr), along with the de crease of the lon gi tu - di nal val ley bot tom slope (S), the size of the grain de pos ited on its bot tom (D) de creases. This re la tion ship is sup ported by the in crease in the share of silty de pos its rel a tive to sandy de pos its in the Vistula overbank sed i ments, along with the de clin ing floodplain slope be tween the Toruñ Ba sin and the Unis³aw Ba - sin (Kordowski, 2001, 2003). The share of fine clastic sed i - ments in the de pos its of the Vistula River be tween the up per gravel-bed sec tion of the me an der ing river (be tween Kraków Gate and the Sandomierz Ba sin) and the mid dle and lower sec - tion of the sand-bed anastomosing Vistula River in creases in a sim i lar way (Szmañda, 2011).
The greater share of fine-clastic sed i ments on the bot tom of a val ley with a gen tle slope than in a val ley with a steeper slope is also vis i ble in the com par i son of the grain size dis tri bu tion of the overbank de pos its from the floodplains of the T¹¿yna and the Drwêca rivers (Szmañda, 2003). Sandy madas are de pos - ited on the bot tom of the T¹¿yna val ley, where the av er age slope of the floodplain amounts to 2.3‰, while mainly mud de - pos its ac cu mu late on the bot tom of the Drwêca val ley where the av er age slope of the floodplain is 0.4‰.
The ef fect of the change in val ley bot tom width on the ac cu - mu la tion of overbank sed i ments de pends on the re la tion be - tween the wa ter flow ve loc ity in the chan nel (Vk), and on the floodplain (Vp) dur ing floods (Wy¿ga, 1999). The de po si tion of min eral ma te rial on the floodplain oc curs when the dif fer ence be tween the wa ter flow ve loc ity in the chan nel and on the floodplain is ex pressed in the re la tion Vk > Vp. Along with a de - crease of this ve loc ity in the dis tal di rec tion of the floodplain, se - lec tive de po si tion of overbank de pos its oc curs due to the fall ing out of finer grains from the bed load and sus pended load (Teisseyre, 1985, 1988a, b; Wy¿ga, 1999). In fixed wa ter flow con di tions, the wa ter flow ve loc ity in flood ar eas (where the re - lief al lows the free flow of wa ter down the val ley) will change de - pend ing on the wet cross-sec tion of the river. As a con se - quence, as the width of the val ley bot tom in creases, in creas - ingly finer sed i ment will be ac cu mu lated on the floodplain. This type of ac cu mu la tion, re ferred to as up wardly con trolled aggradation (Mackin, 1937), makes the size of the ac cu mu lated grains and the thick ness of the de pos its de crease along with the course of the river and with the in crease in the dis tance from the chan nel (Fig. 5). In the in let to the ba sin-like ex ten sions of river val leys, along with the flood ing un der subaerial con di tions, mainly sandy pip ing fans are formed (Teisseyre, 1980, 1988b).
Within them, the flow in the chan nel is di vided into sev eral courses. Then, along with the de po si tion of fine clastic sed i - ments on cen tral bars caus ing their con sol i da tion, sep a rate Fig. 3. Spec tral di a gram of grain size dis tri bu tion of overbank
de pos its, on the ba sis of sam ples taken from floodplains the lo ca tions of which are shown in Fig ure 2
Fig. 4. Av er age fre quency of overbank de posit frac tions, based on re sults of grain size sam ples from floodplains
in di cated in Fig ure 2
chan nels are formed (Teisseyre, 1991, 1992). The river evolves from a braided to an anastomosing one. In the case of high wa - ter lev els (floods), the ac cu mu la tion of de pos its on floodplains takes place un der sub aque ous con di tions (Teisseyre, 1988b).
Of ten such con di tions oc cur at the out lets of ba sin-like seg - ments of river val leys as a re sult of damm ing the flow that causes the back water ef fect. In this case, so-called downvalley con trolled aggradation oc curs (Fig. 5; Mackin, 1937). Be cause coarse-grained ma te rial was usu ally de pos ited in the river val - ley in the up per part of the ba sin, more and more fine-grained ma te rial is ac cu mu lated in the lower part of the ba sin, as its width de creases. In the case of downvalley con trolled aggra - dation, ac cu mu la tion of in creas ingly finer ma te rial, with an in - creas ing thick ness of de pos its, oc curs as the width of the val ley bot tom de creases (Teisseyre, 1988b). Un der these con di tions, the flow is of ten di vided into sev eral chan nels sep a rated by ar - eas built of co he sive sed i ments. There fore, the river has a ten - dency to be anastomosed.
FINING AND COARSENING UPWARDS SEQUENCES IN OVERBANK DEPOSITS
The fin ing up wards se quence, ob served by Allen (1965b) as a di ag nos tic fea ture of al lu vial sed i ments of me an der ing rivers de scribed as “fin ing-up wards cy cles in al lu vial suc ces sions”, is usu ally con tin ued in the struc ture of overbank de pos its.
It con sists of the fin ing of grain frac tions to wards the sur face and is a con se quence of the change in wa ter flow ve loc ity along with the in crease in the dis tance from the ac tive river chan nel, de scribed in the 1940s by Fisk (1947). The ten dency to wards the fin ing of overbank sed i ments as the dis tance from the river chan nel in creases, caused by the slow de crease in wa ter flow ve loc ity, is also sup ported by the re sults of tests of madas (overbank de pos its) in the prox i mal and dis tal zones of the floodplains of Pol ish rivers (i.a. Teisseyre, 1988a, b; Kalicki, 1996; Wy¿ga, 1999; Szmañda, 2011; Kordowski et al., 2014).
The phe nom e non of grain fin ing along with the in crease in the dis tance from the river chan nel oc curs not only be tween the prox i mal and dis tal zones of floodplains, but also in the de vel -
op ment of nat u ral lev ees them selves (Teisseyre, 1988b;
Kurowski, 1999; Szponar, 2000). The fin ing up wards se quence ob served in the pro files of de pos its at tests to the mov ing away of the river chan nel from the place of de po si tion. On the other hand, a coars en ing up wards se quence is the ef fect of the chan - nel ap proach ing the place of de po si tion.
The coars en ing up wards se quence of ten found in the struc - ture of overbank de pos its in the val leys of Pol ish rivers may be caused not only by the chan nel ap proach ing the place of ac cu - mu la tion, but also by two other fac tors: (1) the ac cre tion of sed i - ments on floodplains and, con se quently, the change in the rel a - tive height on the floodplain; (2) changes in the land cover in the bot tom of a river val ley and its catch ment.
The ac cre tion of the thick ness of the de pos its de pos ited on floodplains re sults in the fact that coarser sed i ments are de pos - ited in a given place on the floodplain, with flows of ever higher en ergy (Tomczak, 1971). Par tic u larly rapid ac cre tion of sed i - ments oc curs in the nat u ral levee zone (Teisseyre, 1985). This phe nom e non is ac com pa nied by a de crease in the thick ness of ac cu mu lated lay ers of sed i ments to wards the sur face of floodplains (Tomczak, 1971; Kalicki, 2000; Szmañda, 2003;
Czajka, 2007). Based on the re sults of these au thors’ re search, it should be noted that the ac cre tion of overbank de pos its de - creases along with the flood size, and in creas ingly larger floods are ob served in the in creas ingly higher ar eas of floodplains near the river chan nel.
The in flu ence of the rel a tive height of the floodplain on the grain size of de pos ited sed i ments was em pha sized by Teisseyre (1985), Zwoliñski (1985), Tomczak (1987), Florek (1991), Kordowski (2001, 2003), Szmañda (2003, 2006) Kalicki (2006) and Kordowski et al. (2014). Based on the re sults of their re search, it can be con cluded that sandy sed i ments are de pos - ited on the higher-ly ing ar eas of floodplains and silty sed i ments are de pos ited on lower-ly ing floodplains and in post-flood bas - ins. The type of de pos ited sed i ment is in flu enced by the height of the wa ter col umn (Teisseyre, 1988a) which, at the time of par tic u lar wa ter lev els, is the small est over nat u ral lev ees, and the larg est over post-flood bas ins. As a con se quence, high flow re gime con di tions, un der which the ac cu mu la tion of coarse de - pos its takes place, oc cur over nat u ral lev ees, and low flow re - gime con di tions and the ac cu mu la tion of fine de pos its oc cur in flood bas ins.
Changes in land cover are also seen as a cause of the coars en ing up wards se quences in overbank de pos its.
Changes in the land cover in river catch ments are mainly re - lated to the change in the amount and size of the ma te rial sup - plied to river chan nels. The causes of these changes can be nat u ral or anthropogenic. Some au thors as sume that the rea - son for the ac cu mu la tion of overbank sed i ments and their lithological di ver sity in the pro files is the changes in land use as - so ci ated with de for es ta tion, which be gan in the Neo lithic (clayey madas) and was par tic u larly in tense in the early Mid dle Ages (sandy madas; Biernacki, 1968; Klimek, 1988, 1999;
Alexandrowicz, 1996; Klimek et al., 2003; Szmañda et al., 2004;
Szmañda, 2005; Kaczmarzyk et al., 2008). The re sults of stud - ies, for in stance those con ducted by Po¿aryski (1955), Starkel (1960, 2001), Myœliñska (1980), Rutkowski (1987), Kalicki (1996, 2006) and Kukulak (2004), show that the ac cu mu la tion of overbank sed i ments took place at dif fer ent in ten si ties in all the pe ri ods of the Late Gla cial and Ho lo cene, as well as in the Pleni-Vistulian (Gêbica, 2004). These au thors as so ci ate the ac - cu mu la tion of overbank de pos its with changes in land cover caused not only by hu man ac tiv ity, but also by cli mate change.
Fig. 5. Scheme of overbank de pos its ac cu mu la tion in bas ins based on Mackin (1937), Teisseyre (1985), Szmañda (2011)
A CYCLOTHEM AND A RYTHMITE AS A DIAGNOSTIC STRUCTURAL FEATURE
OF OVERBANK DEPOSITS
Changes in wa ter flow con di tions and the re sult ing ero sion pro cesses and trans port and ac cu mu la tion of sed i ments on floodplains were de scribed by Zwoliñski (1992). He dis tin - guished 6 stages of floods, in 5 of which changes in wa ter flow ve loc ity were ob served on the floodplain dur ing a flood: (1) the ris ing of wa ter stage and bank mod i fi ca tion, (2) flood in un da tion and ini tial de po si tion, (3) flood peaks and wide spread trans port and de po si tion, (4) fall ing of wa ter stage, and high in ten sity de - po si tion, (5) ces sa tion of overbank flow and fi nal de po si tion.
The re cord of changes in flow ve loc ity oc cur ring dur ing these 5 stages of a sin gle flood event is ex pressed in the form of a flood cyclothem (Klimek, 1974; Teysseyre, 1988b; Szmañda, 2011). This cyclothem is char ac ter ized by a pensimetric graded se quence (Mansfield, 1938) con sist ing of three lay ers:
– lower – silt of a mas sive struc ture, con tain ing plant de tri - tus (mainly or ganic mat ter in the form of grass and leaves);
– mid dle – sand, lo cally in in versely graded se quence with grav els;
– up per – silt and/or mas sive clay.
The lower layer of silt with the con tent of plant or ganic mat - ter is formed in the first stage of the flood, cor re spond ing to the rapid in crease in the wa ter flow and level. At this stage, con sid - er able flow re sis tance as so ci ated with grassy veg e ta tion con - trib utes to the ac cu mu la tion of a lower se ries of silts on and among this veg e ta tion. Its thick ness de creases with dis tance from the edge of the chan nel. The lower silts usu ally have a thick ness of a few milli metres. The ac cu mu la tion of silts on grassy veg e ta tion con trib utes to the re duc tion of re sis tance and, within the nat u ral lev ees, to the change from low flow re - gime to high flow re gime (Teisseyre, 1988b). As a re sult, a grad ual change in ac cu mu la tion from silts to sands takes place.
At the sec ond stage of the flood, mainly sands are de pos ited.
Grain sizes in crease con sis tently as flow ve loc ity in creases, to reach the larg est di am e ters at the cul mi na tion of the flood wave (stage 3), or to be trans formed into gravel frac tions and cre ate
an in versely graded se quence (Teisseyre, 1988b). The thick - ness of the sand and gravel layer may reach up to sev eral centi - metres. Sub se quently, at stages 4 and 5, along with the grad ual wan ing and ces sa tion of the flood flow, a layer of up per silts is formed. Its thick ness grad u ally in creases in the dis tal di rec tion of floodplains, reach ing a max i mum lo cally in post-flood bas ins.
The cy cli cal re cord of the flood course in the tex tural and struc - tural fea tures of sed i ments is also a re flec tion of changes in the con cen tra tion of ma te rial trans ported dur ing floods. These changes have the char ac ter is tics of hys ter esis (Froehlich, 1982; M³ynarczyk, 1996) and mainly af fect the thick ness of de - pos ited lay ers. A flood cyclothem oc curs mainly in the nat u ral levee zone and on the flat floodplain. It is also found in the struc - ture of flood silts of the so-called se ries of clayey overbank de - pos its or in post-flood bas ins (Teisseyre, 1985; Szmañda, 2003, 2011). Dur ing the in un da tion and ini tial depositional stages, ver ti cally-stacked laminae are formed in post-flood bas - ins, thus form ing a lower plane bed (be ing the equiv a lent of the lower silts). Then, at the stage of flood peaks and wide spread trans port and de po si tion with high ve loc ity flows, rip ple marks are formed from the silt frac tion sub ject to de po si tion from the sal ta tion load (Rees, 1966). Small-scale rip ple mark lam i na tion de vel ops. This cor re sponds to the layer of sands with re verse grad ing formed at this stage. As tran sient forms, how ever, rip - ple marks dis ap pear very quickly dur ing the stage of wa ter level fall and rapid de po si tion, and dur ing ces sa tion of the overbank flow and fi nal de po si tion. Then, with a large pro por tion of the ma te rial be ing de pos ited from the sus pended load, lower plane bed lam i na tion and a layer of up per silts are formed again.
The di a gram of sed i men ta tion of the overbank sed i ments de pos ited dur ing a sin gle flood event (Fig. 6) rep re sents the the o ret i cal dis tri bu tion of the vari abil ity of de po si tion of flood cyclothems on a floodplain. This di a gram is pat terned on the mod els of sed i men ta tion in val leys of gravel-bed (Teisseyre, 1988b) and sand-bed rivers (Zwoliñski, 1985; Szmañda, 2011).
The fol low ing sets are an ef fect of de po si tion in the prox i mal zone of a nat u ral levee (Fig. 6): Fm-Smi-GDm-Sm-(Fm), Fm-Sh-Sr-(Fm) – lithofacial cod ing ac cord ing to Miall (1977), and Zieliñski and Pisarska-Jamro¿y (2012). Near the edge of the river chan nel, no layer of up per silts is formed. The rea son for this is the flow of wa ter over the nat u ral levee con nected with
Fig. 6. Model of cyclothemal units in overbank de pos its based on Teisseyre (1988b) and Szmañda (2011), mod i fied
A – on gravel-bed me an der ing river; B – on sand-bed me an der ing and anastomosing rivers; lithofacial units: GDm – mas sive diamictic gravel, Smi – in versely graded sand, Sm – mas sive sand, Sh – hor i zon - tally lam i nated sand, Sr – rip ple cross-lam i nated sand, SFm – mas sive silty sand, FSm – mas sive sandy silt, Fm – mas sive silt or mud, Fr – rip ple cross-lam i nated silt, C – or ganic mat ter; flood phases af ter Zwoliñski (1992) – (1) the ris ing wa ter stage and bank mod i fi ca tion, (2) flood in un da tion and ini tial de po - si tion, (3) flood peaks and wide spread trans port and de po si tion, (4) fall ing of wa ter stage, and rapid de - po si tion, (5) ces sa tion of overbank flow and fi nal de po si tion
its re turn to the ac tive chan nel dur ing the re treat of wa ter from the floodplain. Sed i men ta tion on this part of the nat u ral levee may not oc cur at all, as lev ees may be raised above the wa ter level. In the dis tal zone of the nat u ral levee, the re cord of in di - vid ual stages of the flood is the set Fm-Smi-Fm. In the floodplain zone, a cyclothem may con sist of the set of lay ers Fm-SFm(FSm)-Fm, with a ten dency to wards fin ing in the mid - dle layer, from mas sive silty sands to mas sive sandy silts. Sets of the silty lay ers Fm-Fr-Fm are formed in flood bas ins. A layer of plant de tri tus (C) is typ i cally lo cated at the floor of all sets.
Flood rhythmites are lam i nated sed i ments con sist ing of laminasets of pairs of lay ers dif fer ing in grain size dis tri bu tion:
(1) a lower layer of coarse-grained sands or sandy grav els, lo - cally with an in verse graded se quence struc ture, and (2) an up - per layer of mas sive silts/muds. Two flood stages are re corded in flood rhythmites in the up per layer: (2) flood in un da tion and ini tial de po si tion, and (3) flood peaks and wide spread trans port and de po si tion, and an other two flood stages in the lower layer:
(4) fall ing of wa ter stage and rapid de po si tion, (5) ces sa tion of overbank flow and fi nal de po si tion (Antczak, 1985; Nie - dzia³ kowska, 1992; Czy¿owska, 1997; Szmañda, 2006, 2011;
Kaczmarzyk, et al., 2008).
The re cord of the course of the flood wave can be ex - pressed not only in the lithofacies vari a tion be tween the lay ers (laminae) of the flood rhythmite, but also in the dif fer ences in or - ganic mat ter con tent (Szmañda, 2006). In the sandy de pos its of nat u ral lev ees of the T¹¿yna River, sets of pairs of lay ers were found based on dif fer ences in the col our of sand laminae.
These dif fer ences re sult from the vari able con tent of or ganic mat ter, in which the up per lamina of the set is en riched. Since peats oc cur in the sub strate of the nat u ral levee, it can be as - sumed that the greater ad mix ture of or ganic mat ter in the up per laminae co mes from the redeposition of peats at the stages of the fall ing wa ter and dur ing the ces sa tion of overbank flow and fi nal de po si tion.
FINAL REMARKS
The in de ter mi nate na ture and un even ness of wa ter flow as well as stream power dur ing overbank flows and the re sult ing con di tions of sed i ment trans port are causes of the com plex spa tial dis tri bu tion and dis con ti nu ity in the de po si tion of over - bank de pos its. De spite the com plex ity of these pro cesses, based on the anal y sis of lit er a ture and on my own ob ser va tions, sev eral fac tors de ter min ing the ac cu mu la tion of madas and the re sult ing pat terns have been dis tin guished. These fac tors in - clude (Fig. 7):
1. A de crease in wa ter flow ve loc ity over the floodplain along with an in crease in the dis tance from the river chan nel re - sults in the ac cu mu la tion of in creas ingly finer clastic ma te rial as dis tance from the ac tive river chan nel in creases (Teisseyre, 1988b; Kalicki, 2006).
2. A change in flow ve loc ity on floodplains dur ing a sin gle flood is re corded ei ther in the se quence of a flood cyclothem (Klimek, 1974; Zwoliñski, 1985; Teisseyre, 1988b), which is a re cord of the rise and fall of the flood wave, or in the se quence of a flood rhythmite, if the re cord in cludes the peak and fall stages of a flood (Antczak, 1985; Niedzia³kowska, 1992;
Szmañda, 2006).
3. The ac cu mu la tion of more coarse de pos its in the higher parts of floodplains lo cated above the river chan nel is caused by the di ver sity of the floodplain re lief and the in crease of the overbank sed i ments thick ness (Tomczak, 1971; Teisseyre, 1988b; Czajka, 2007).
4. Changes in the pro por tion of for est ar eas in the ba sin re - sult in the in ten si fi ca tion or weak en ing of soil ero sion. Af for es ta - tion con trib utes to a re duc tion in over all ma te rial sup ply to the river chan nel, and to a de crease in the pro por tion of coarse- grained ma te rial. As a re sult, the mainly fine-clastic sus pended frac tion that forms “clayey madas” is de pos ited on floodplains (Po¿aryski, 1955; Kalicki, 1996, 2006). De for es ta tion con trib - utes to an in crease in the over all sup ply of ma te rial, in clud ing in par tic u lar sus pended coarse-grained sed i ments, which are de - pos ited on floodplains dur ing floods, cre at ing a “sandy madas”
(Po¿aryski, 1955; Biernacki, 1968; Kalicki, 1996, 2006).
5. Changes in the lon gi tu di nal slope of a floodplain de pend on dif fer ences in the grain size com po si tion of madas be tween sed i ments de pos ited on a floodplain of dif fer ent slope. The pro - por tion of sand frac tion in creases to the dis ad van tage of the silt frac tion in the overbank de pos its with an in crease of the slope of a floodplain (Kordowski, 2001, 2003; Szmañda, 2003, 2011).
6. Changes in the width of floodplains mainly re flect an in - crease in the width of the floodplain into the ba sin of river val leys which re sults in a di vi sion of flow within coarse-grained overbank de pos its (upvalley con trolled aggradation), while a de crease in the width of the bot tom of a val ley re sults in the sep - a ra tion of chan nels in fine clastic de pos its (downvalley con - trolled aggradation; Teisseyre, 1985).
There fore, the change in the pro por tion of grain size frac - tions in overbank de pos its takes place along with a change of depositional con di tions, de ter mined mainly by changes in the wa ter flow con di tions on floodplains. These con di tions de pend pri mar ily on the six fac tors noted above.
Ancknowledgments. I wish to thank the re view ers, E. Smolska and an anon y mous re viewer, as well as Co-Ed i tor W. Granoszewski for their valu able, con struc tive com ments, which helped me to im prove the manu script.
Fig. 7. Model of fac tors con trol ling the overbank de posit grain size com po si tion of the Pol ish rivers af ter Szmañda (2011)
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