Threshold phenomena in erosion driven by subsurface flow

Details Threshold phenomena in erosion driven by subsurface flow Threshold phenomena in erosion driven by subsurface flow

2005-02-08

arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0502213v1

Physics

Condensed Matter

Soft Condensed Matter

9 pages, 11 figures

Scientific paper

10.1029/2004JF000172

We study channelization and slope destabilization driven by subsurface (groundwater) flow in a laboratory experiment. The pressure of the water entering the sandpile from below as well as the slope of the sandpile are varied. We present quantitative understanding of the three modes of sediment mobilization in this experiment: surface erosion, fluidization, and slumping. The onset of erosion is controlled not only by shear stresses caused by surfical flows, but also hydrodynamic stresses deriving from subsurface flows. These additional forces require modification of the critical Shields criterion. Whereas surface flows alone can mobilize surface grains only when the water flux exceeds a threshold, subsurface flows cause this threshold to vanish at slopes steeper than a critical angle substantially smaller than the maximum angle of stability. Slopes above this critical angle are unstable to channelization by any amount of fluid reaching the surface.

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