Pendant bar

A pendant bar is a fluvial geomorphology term that is usually applied to large landforms created by large scale flooding events. Pendant bars are thin, sharp-crested deposits, and are typically made up of coarser sediment from the bed load. This type of bar is found on the downstream side of a weathering-resistant protrusion such as a large outcrop of bedrock, and is separated from the protrusion by a depression.[1][2]

Formation

Pendant bars form as high-velocity floodwater moves around a protrusion. The water scours out a depression behind the protusion and deposits the sediment a short distance downstream in a bar-shaped formation. A similar process forms a sand splay, which is much like a shoal but is formed on floodplains or terraces in lower-intensity flooding episodes.[1] Other fluvial features that are formed by bed load sediments are the point bar, longitudinal bar, and expansion bar.[3]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Osterkamp, W.R. "Annotated Definitions of Selected Geomorphic Terms and Related Terms of Hydrology, Sedimentology, Soil Science and Ecology". Open File Report 2008–1217. U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of the Interior.
  2. Burr, Devon M.; Paul A. Carling; Victor R. Baker, eds. (2009). Megaflooding on Earth and Mars (1. publ. ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 39. ISBN 9780521868525.
  3. "The Lake Bonneville Flood". Digital Atlas of Idaho. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
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