Soils and Geomorphology
Soils and Geomorphology

Author: Peter W. Birkeland

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 430

ISBN-13: 9780195078862

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Soils and Geomorphology, now in its third edition, remains popular among soil scientists, geomorphologists, geologists, geographers, and archaeologists. While retaining the useful "factors of soil formation format," it has been extensively revised, incorporating a considerable amount of new research and offering a greater number of topics and examples -- particularly in the chapters "Weathering and Soil Development with Time" and "Topography: Soil Relations with Time in Different Climatic Settings." Greater emphasis is placed on the role of dust in pedogenesis, and new data are included on tropical soil development, global soil-loess relations, neotectonics, and reduction processes. The text discusses field applications such as the use of soils in recognizing climate change, estimating the age of geological deposits, and dealing with environmental problems such as acid rain. New "how-to" appendices on soil descriptions and calculating the profile development index are also included. Soils and Geomorphology is an ideal text for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in courses on pedology, soil science, Quaternary geology, archeology, and sedimentary petrology.

Alluvial Fan Flooding
Alluvial Fan Flooding

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1996-10-07

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 0309185491

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Alluvial fans are gently sloping, fan-shaped landforms common at the base of mountain ranges in arid and semiarid regions such as the American West. Floods on alluvial fans, although characterized by relatively shallow depths, strike with little if any warning, can travel at extremely high velocities, and can carry a tremendous amount of sediment and debris. Such flooding presents unique problems to federal and state planners in terms of quantifying flood hazards, predicting the magnitude at which those hazards can be expected at a particular location, and devising reliable mitigation strategies. Alluvial Fan Flooding attempts to improve our capability to determine whether areas are subject to alluvial fan flooding and provides a practical perspective on how to make such a determination. The book presents criteria for determining whether an area is subject to flooding and provides examples of applying the definition and criteria to real situations in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Utah, and elsewhere. The volume also contains recommendations for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is primarily responsible for floodplain mapping, and for state and local decisionmakers involved in flood hazard reduction.