Fluvial erosion of physically modeled abrasion-dominated slot canyons

Abstract

Abrasion-dominated fluvial erosion generates slot canyons in massive bedrock with intricately undulating walls. Flows in slot canyons are unusual in that the walls comprise a significant portion of the wetted perimeter of the flow during geomorphically effective floods. In Wire Pass, Utah, the upper Paria River incises through massive, crossbedded Navajo Sandstone. Incision in Wire Pass and related slots occurs only during flash floods; paleoflood debris indicates that the width/depth ratios of these flows are at times as low as 1:1. Submeter resolution field mapping of a 20-m length of Wire Pass shows that the wall morphology is a complicated combination of in-phase (meander-like) and out-of-phase (pinch and swell) undulations. In order to investigate evolution of slot canyons and the influence of their wall shapes on flow dynamics, we recorded the evolution of four distinct canyon wall morphologies in a 2.4 m flume box at the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory. In a substrate consisting of ∼ 3:2 mixtures of F110 sand and Plaster of Paris, we molded canyons with in-phase and out-of-phase undulations, and wide (6.5 cm) and narrow (4 cm) straight initial wall profiles. Discharges ranged from 1.4 L/s to 2.9 L/s, and wall and bed morphology were measured at 5 h intervals at 0.5 cm resolution. Results show efficient back-eddy erosion in the undulating canyon walls and related erosional bedforms in all channels created by vortices in the flow. Maximum filaments of velocity are depressed and asymmetric, and the implied shear stress distribution varied in space and time on the channel beds. Flow width/depth ratios strongly influence the flow structure and distribution of shear stress in a slot and appear to be a factor in dictating whether a bedrock channel widens its walls or incises its bed.