Ephemeral rivers are dry during a significant part of the year, contrary to perennial rivers.

Floodplains are the areas occupied by river channels, as well as the surrounding, flat
(overbank) areas that are subject to flooding.

Discharge is confined to the channel until bankfull discharge is reached; from that point on
overbank flow can occur, submerging the entire floodplain.

Photo: Overbank flow with main river channel in centre.

Channel Patterns
Channel patterns (fluvial styles) are commonly classified as:

Braided rivers
multiple-thread channels, dominated by mid channel bars, commonly
gravel. Large width-to-depth ratios, very unstable with frequent lateral
shifts. Often totally re-arranged by large floods, no levees, non-cohesive
banks.

Meandering rivers
single thread channel, sinuous plan form, point bars in each bend.
Moderate width-to-depth ratios, cohesive banks, associated with levees,
and fine-grained floodplain sediments.
 Straight rivers
Constrained; mobile alternate bars; gravel environments. Rare and
unstable.

Anastomosing rivers
Anastomosing channel systems are characterized by two or more
channels with high channel stability, but not channels filled with shifting
mid-channel bars; stable compared to braided channels, but subject to
frequent avulsions river jumps between a few used and unused, but
well-defined channels. Often developed in well vegetated settings with
gravel beds. The channels generally exhibit higher sinuosity, and the
energy level of these river systems is low. In humid environments
wetlands, peat bogs, and floodplain ponds are common, however
anastomosing channel systems may also be found in arid environments.
Development of these systems is favored by conditions where the the
river basin is subsiding relative to base level, or where the base level is
rising. This leads to vertical accretion being a dominant process, and the
establishment of near vertical facies contacts. Once established a given
depositional environment (channel, levee, floodplain) will tend to remain
stable in plan view and accrete vertically.

Fluvial style is primarily controlled by specific stream power (W m -2 ) and grain size, but also by
bank stability and the amount of bed load.

Specific stream power is defined by:

p=fluid density; Q=discharge; s=slope (gradient); w=channel width

Braided Meandering
Straight Anastomosing
Mid-channel bar (near) and point-bar (upper left) Outcrop of point-bar

Bars are sandy or gravelly macroforms in channels that are emergent, mostly unvegetated Point bars form on inner b
features at low flow stage, and undergo submergence and rapid modification during high in lateral-accretion surface
discharge. Braided rivers are characterized by a dominance of braid bars; meandering rivers downstream. As the channe
primarily contain point bars; in straight (and most anastomosing) rivers bars are almost absent. preserved topographically
bars that can be seen in mo
(above).

Channel belts consist of channel-bar and channel-fill deposits ; the proportion of the two
generally decreases markedly from braided rivers to straight or anastomosing rivers. The
geometry of a channel belt (width/thickness ratio) is a function of the channel width and the
degree of lateral migration; values are typically much higher for braided systems (>>100) than for
straight or anastomosing systems (<25).

Residual-channel deposits are predominantly muddy (occasionally organic) deposits that accumulate in an abandoned chan
flow. . As the channel migrates, parts of it may become abandoned and left behind as "Oxbow" lakes. These lakes have a ch
deposition of fine-grained lake sediment and these mud-plugs may form vertical/lateral permeability barriers.

Oxbow-Lake in abandoned meander channel (Nr. Ob River, W. Oxbow lake and the Chippewa River. Eau Claire, Wiscons
Siberia)

Overbank environments are dominated by fine-grained facies (predominantly muds)

Natural-levee deposits are wedges of sediment that form adjacent to the

channel, dominated by fine sand and silt exhibiting planar stratification or
(climbing) ripple cross stratification.

Crevasse-splay deposits are usually cones of sandy to silty facies with both
coarsening-upward and fining-upward successions, and are formed by small,
secondary channels during peak flow.

Flood-basin deposits are the most distal facies, consisting entirely of

sediments deposited from suspension, and are volumetrically very important
(mainly in low-energy fluvial settings).

Overbank Deposits, Mississippi River

A description and analysis of overbank deposits along a portion of the Mississippi River is
presented by Farrell,(1987). The sedimentology of two overbank subdeposits (backswamp and
levee/splay deposits) is described in detail. The backswamp deposits consist of a basal blue clay
unit with leaf layers. This unit is interpreted as having a lacustrine or poorly drained swamp
origin. The blue clay unit is overlain by a silty, sandy unit which is interpreted as representing a
channel avulsion event. A mudball unit overlays the silty/sandy unit and is probably formed in
response to a major flood event associated with the establishment of the new channel belt. The
upper unit in this sequence is a rooted clay zone. This final unit is interpreted to represent
overbank deposition onto the floodplain and the vertical accretion of a well drained swamp.

The second facies described are the levee/splay deposits. The sedimentological succession here
consist of a basal blue clay, a lower sand/silt unit, a rooted clay unit, and an upper sand/silt unit.
The rooted clay deposits are interpreted to be backswamp deposits the interfinger with the
sand/silt units. Rhythmites are the primary bedding type in this facies. The sedimentary
sequence detected in the cravass splays consist of a lower coarsening upward unit, a thick cross
laminated middel unit, and a fining upward upper unit with a wormy fabric. This succession is
indicative of early prograding cravass splay sediments overlain by the fully developed cravass
splay sands, and capped by the abandonment facies from the cravass splay.

The establishment of a channel belt was also documented and divided into four stages. The pre-
avulsion stage corresponds to the blue clay units. This is followed by channel avulsion, and then
the establishment of an early channel belt. The final stage is the establishment of a mature
channel belt with well developed levees. The overbank sub-environments described above are
genetically connected to the channel belt stages.

Natural levee Crevasse-Splay

Channel down-cutting into abandonment/overbank mudstones.

Coal in Fluvial Sys

The presence of significan

order climatic controls and
also dependent on channe
Many descriptions of anas
floodplain areas (Miall, 19
cravassing or levee overb
significant amounts of det
low quality coals. Higher q
peat exceeds clastic depo
slightly raised swamps wh

Coal distributions may

results in coal seam in
draining the paleo swa

Abrupt transition from overbank, coaly shales to coarse, channel sand

Paleosols (well drained conditions) and peats (poorly drained conditions) occur frequently in
overbank environments and are important indicators of variations of clastic aggradation rates and
the position relative to active channels. Lacustrine deposits can be important in overbank
environments characterized by high water tables, and are also found in distal settings.

Fluvial Architecture and Facies Successions

Facies successions in sandy to gravelly channel deposits typically fine upward, from a coarse
channel lag, through large-scale to small-scale cross stratified sets (commonly with decreasing
set height), and finally overlain by muddy overbank deposits. Facies successions produced by
different fluvial styles can be extremely similar. The geometry and three-dimensional
arrangement of architectural elements therefore provides a much better means of inferring fluvial
styles from the sedimentary record.

See CHANNEL-BELT WIDTH PREDICTION AND CONNECTED SANDBODY VOLUMES FROM

PRESERVED SANDSTONE THICKNESS IN WELLS for a discussion on Fluvial Channel
Architecture and sand-body geometries.

Alluvial architecture refers to the three-dimensional arrangement of channel-belt deposits and overbank
deposits in a fluvial succession. The nature of alluvial architecture (e.g., the proportion of channel-belt to
overbank. deposits) is dependent on fluvial style, aggradation rate, and the frequency of
avulsion. Avulsionis the sudden diversion of a channel to a new location on the floodplain, leading to the
abandonment of a channel belt and the initiation of a new one.
Low Agradation/High Subsidence High Agradatio
Glossary
Bars

In-channel accumulations of sediment that are often only inundated at bankfull flows. Very important to channel
form and function bars are an important
part of hydraulic roughness, deflect flow, and active migration of bar forms (slow movement over years, can be
re-arranged by big floods) is an important component of sediment transport.

Mid-channel bar: common in zones of rapid deposition (rivers overloaded with

coarse bedload), at channel widenings, etc. As these become common they will
split flow into multiple threads.
Alternate bars: side-channel bars formed in straight channels (mobile bed) a
natural flow/sediment transport instability that will always form: positive
feedbacks from virtually any initial perturbation to a straight, flat-bed channel.
Point bars: bar forms produced by deposition on the inside of meander bends,
critical to meander migration and alluvial stratigraphy
Back-bar chute: high flow channel often formed at top, inside edge, of point bar.

Crevasse-splay

Fan-shaped wedges of coarse sediment deposited downstream of levee breaks during floods.

Floodplain

Level land along the course of a river formed by the deposition of sediment during periodic floods. Floodplains
contain such features as levees, backswamps, delta plains, and oxbow lakes. Floodplains may be extensive,
such as below the conflux of the Ohio and the Mississippi, where they have a width up to 80 mi (130 km).

Floodplain channels

Smaller channels important in the flooding and draining of the floodplain (and in the distribution of sediment,
development of stratigraphy).

Scroll-bar topography

Series of arcuate topographic ribs left behind a migratingmeander loop related to migrating bar forms and back-
bar chutes.

Thalweg

The line defining the lowest points along the length of a river bed or valley.

http://www.seddepseq.co.uk/DEPOSITIONAL_ENV/Fluvial/Fluvial.htm