All Datasets

A suite of physical rice pile experiments conducted to understand generic statistics of sediment transport and how variability in transport rates influences the propagation of environmental signals.

Experiment to explore shelf-edge deltas and coupled downslope submarine fan systems.

Experiment to explore the impact of flooding on delta surface processes. Two flooding states were imposed: high-intensity flooding, and low-intensity flooding. The system cycled between these states over the experimental runtime. Each flood regime was held constant for a set period to allow surface processes to equilibrate between each transition. Each transition in flooding took place over a planned duration. The water level rise in the basin and the integrated water and sediment flux were held constant over the experimental runtime.

Description: TDB-17-1: Fan-delta experiment performed in Tulane University Delta Basin. Experiment evolved under constant forcings of water (0.17 l/s), sediment (0.00017 l/s), and sea-level rise rate 0.1 (mm/hr). Experiment run time was 560 hrs of base-level rise. Experiment used a strongly cohesive sediment that had a wide grain size distribution with a median diameter of 65 microns. Experiment performed to explore autogenic sediment transport and stratigraphy with topography monitored every 1 hour of run time.

TDWB-19-2: Delta experiment performed in Tulane University Deep Water Basin. Experiment evolved under constant forcings of water (0.17 L/s), mean sediment (1.41 kg/hr), and long term sea-level rise rate (0.25 mm/hr). Experiment run time was 560 hrs. Experiment used a strongly cohesive sediment that had a wide grain size distribution with a median diameter of 65 microns. The experiment evolved with marsh proxy sediment deposition. The marsh proxy was EPK, a type of kaolinite clay, and was deposited on the delta top every two-hours at an average rate of 200 g/2-hr. Experiment performed to explore interaction of delta and marsh sedimentation and resulting stratigraphy with dry topography monitored every 2 hours of run time.

These data are presented in the manuscript "Effect of Sea-level Change on River Avulsions and Stratigraphy
for an Experimental Lowland Delta" by Austin Chadwick, Sarah Steele, Jose Silvestre, and Michael Lamb submitted to Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface.

This dataset contains the data and codes used in the analysis of Chadwick et al. (submitted), “CHANNEL MIGRATION IN EXPERIMENTAL RIVER NETWORKS MAPPED BY PARTICLE-IMAGE VELOCIMETRY.”

Data and MATLAB codes used to produce the analysis and figures reported in "Accelerated river avulsion frequency on river deltas due to sea-level rise." The data and codes are organized into 3 folders: Scripts, Functions, and Data. The contents of each folder are outlined in a readme document.

Data sets described by Esposito, C.E., & Georgiou, I.Y., Straub, K.M. (2020). Flow Loss in Deltaic Distributaries: Impacts on Channel Hydraulics, Morphology and Stability. Water Resources Research.

ADCP.xlsx: ADCP transect summary data
WSE.csv: Water surface elevation
Q1858.xlx: Discharge data from the flood of 1858, compiled from data tables of Humphreys, C. A. and Abbot, L. H.: Report upon the physics and hydraulics of the Mississippi River, Corps of Topographical Engineers, United States Army, Washington., 1867.

This dataset includes all measured information and digital elevation models of the experiments reported in the following manuscript:
https://www.earth-surf-dynam-discuss.net/esurf-2019-73/

Abstract of the paper:
Climate and tectonics impact water and sediment fluxes to fluvial systems. These boundary conditions set river form and can be recorded by fluvial deposits. Reconstructions of boundary conditions from these deposits, however, is complicated by complex channel-network interactions and associated sediment storage and release through the fluvial system. To address this challenge, we used a physical experiment to study the interplay between a main channel and a tributary under different forcing conditions. In particular, we investigated the impact of a single tributary junction, where sediment supply from the tributary can produce an alluvial fan, on channel geometries and associated sediment-transfer dynamics. We found that the presence of an alluvial fan may promote or prevent sediment to be moved within the fluvial system, creating different coupling conditions. A prograding alluvial fan, for example, has the potential to disrupt the sedimentary signal propagating downstream through the confluence zone. By analyzing different environmental scenarios, our results indicate the contribution of the two sub-systems to fluvial deposits, both upstream and downstream of the tributary junction, which may be diagnostic of a perturbation affecting the tributary or the main channel only. We summarize all findings in a new conceptual framework that illustrates the possible interactions between tributary alluvial fans and a main channel under different environmental conditions. This framework provides a better understanding of the composition and architecture of fluvial sedimentary deposits found at confluence zones, which is essential for a correct reconstruction of the climatic or tectonic history of a basin.

Experiment to explore shelf-edge deltas and coupled downslope submarine fan systems that experience changes in relative sea level. Stage 1 included construction of system with constant relative sea level, stage 2 captured system evolving under short relative sea level cycles with small magnitudes, stage 3 captured system evolving under a long relative sea level cycles with a large magnitude. Size and durations of relative sea level cycles were scaled to autogenic scales. Input flow was delivered with a flood cycle and input flow contained dissolved salt to promote plunging of turbidity currents at shelf-edge.

Supporting information for the project ‘Physical experiments on fill-terrace formation and sediment-signal disruption’

This data collection contains topographic scans, overhead photographs and experiment documentation of the experiments published in Tofelde, S., Savi, S., Wickert, A., Bufe, A., Schildgen, T., 2019. Alluvial channel response to environmental perturbations: Fill-terrace formation and sediment-signal disruption. ESurf.
The experiments were run in November and December 2015 at Saint Anthony Falls Laboratory, Minneapolis, USA. The experimental setup consisted of a wooden box with dimensions of 4 m x 2.5 m x 0.4 m that was filled with quartz sand with a mean grain size of 144 μm. At the inlet, water discharge (Qw) and sediment supply (Qs,in) could be regulated separately. At the 20 cm wide outlet sediment discharge (Qs,out) could be measured and the base level could be controlled. The water was dyed blue to better distinguish wet from dry areas.
This dataset contains seven experiments. In each experiment, we varied either upstream water discharge (Qw), upstream sediment supply (Qs,in) or downstream base level. For each experiment, we provide an experiment log sheet, the topographic laser scans, overhead photographs and time-lapse movies. Details on each dataset are given below.

1. Experiment documentation
The metadata for each experiment is summarized in an excel spreadsheet. For each experiment, we provide the input parameters (Qs,in and Qw), the bed elevation at the inlet and outlet and the according bed slope (assuming a straight channel), sediment discharge at the outlet (Qs,out) and the start and stop times to perform the topographic laser scans.

2. Topographic scans
Laser scans were performed every 30 minutes (exception base-level fall experiment, 10 to 15 min) using a custom built laser scanner. The scans were acquired in five parallel, overlapping swaths that were merged afterwards (merged scans provided here). The experiments had to be interrupted to acquire the scans (absolute times given in the excel spreadsheet). The horizontal resolution is 1 mm and the scans cover 1700 by 3400 pixels, cutting 300 pixels at the upstream and downstream end, respectively. Scans are numbered with the numbers given in the excel spreadsheet.

3. Overhead photographs
Overhead photographs were acquired every 20 seconds using a fish-eye lens. The distorted photos were ortho-rectified in Adobe Photoshop using an inbuilt lens correction and were resampled at a 1 mm horizontal resolution (corrected photos provided here). Photos are named by date and absolute time and are provided in jpg format (e.g. Img2015-12-05 11.45.49
copy.jpg). Each folder contains two additional text files containing the image names and the according experimental runtime in seconds. Photos taken without running water, or when the dye was not working, were removed. No photos were taken for the Ctrl_1 experiment due to an error in the camera installation.

4. Time-lapse movies
In addition, time lapse videos of each run were generated by stitching the overhead photos together. Movies were generated from the unprocessed photos and are thus for display only, not for analyses.