Alluvial Fan

alluvial fan, unconsolidated sedimentary deposit that accumulates at the mouth of a mountain canyon because of a diminution or cessation of sediment transport by the issuing stream. The deposits, which are generally fan-shaped in plan view, can develop under a wide range of climatic conditions and have been studied in the Canadian Arctic, Swedish Lappland, Japan, the Alps, the Himalayas, and other areas. They tend to be larger and more prominent in arid and semiarid regions, however, and generally are regarded as characteristic desert landforms. This is particularly true in the basin-and-range type of areas of parts of Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, the western United States, Chile and Peru, Sinai and western Arabia, and Central Asia, where the basic landscape configuration consists of mountains set against adjacent basins.

A brief treatment of alluvial fans follows. For full treatment, see river: Alluvial fans.

Alluvial fans are of practical and economic importance to society, particularly in arid and semiarid areas where they may be the principal groundwater source for irrigation farming and the sustenance of life. In some instances, entire cities, such as Los Angeles, have been built on alluvial fans.

Alluvial fans border the mountain fronts with the apex of each fan just within a canyon mouth that serves as the outlet for a mountain drainage system. Sediment from erosion within the mountains is moved by these drainage systems to the adjacent basin. In arid and semiarid regions, this is either an irregular or seasonal process driven by strongly seasonal rainfall or rapid snowmelt. Sediment transfer is thus frequently associated with sporadic flash floods that may include mudflows. The fans, the main sites of deposition, are therefore an intrinsic part of an erosional-depositional system in which mountains tend slowly to wear away and basins to fill with sediment through geologic time.

Since the rivers that deposit alluvial fans tend to be fast-flowing, the first material to be laid down is usually coarse. However, fans consist of a wide range of sediment sizes and a high degree of sorting from apex to base. The initial formation of a fan is often furthered by the infiltration of surface water into the early deposit of coarse debris. This infiltration encourages the deposition of finer material. Usually the coarser sedimentary fraction forms towards the apex, with fine sands and silts toward the base. In addition, the braided distributary channels also perform some sorting, laying shallow sheets of sand and silt over the surface of the fan, while coarser sands and gravels are laid down in the main channels where water tends to flow more quickly.

Alluvial fans are built up in response to tectonic uplift, climatic change, and variations in the internal (autocyclic) balance between stream discharge, debris load, and surface gradient. Even in tectonically active mountains, climate can be a strong influence in alluvial fan development, as has been demonstrated in parts of the Himalayas.

Alluvial fans in desert or semiarid areas may act as groundwater reservoirs when stream water infiltrates the deposit and gradually percolates downward toward the base. If the water becomes trapped between impermeable layers within the fan, it may be tapped by wells along the base, and these may exhibit artesian flow as the groundwater builds up pressure within the fan. The use of desert fans as permanent sources of water is limited, however, because periodic rainfall or snowmelt provides only a very slow rate of recharge.

An alluvial fan can be large and may occupy a wide area, ranging from only a few metres in radius at its base to more than 150 km (95 miles). When a number of rivers discharge onto a plain, their fans may combine to create a piedmont alluvial fan.

Many fans in humid areas are actually fossil features created during earlier periods of intense erosion and deposition. The Plateau de Lannemezan on the northern side of the Pyrenees in France, for example, is a large piedmont alluvial fan that is still being built up by the tributaries of the Garonne and Adour rivers. This fan, though, is much too large to have been constructed by present-day rivers. It was formed during the late Cenozoic Era and is made up of coarse Pliocene gravels derived from the Pyrenees.