The influence of valley aggradation and listric normal faulting on styles of river avulsion: A case study of the Brazos River, Texas, USA

Abstract

The Holocene avulsion history of the lower Brazos alluvial valley of east Texas, USA, was studied using 10 drill cores, 26 radiocarbon dates, aerial photos, and a digital elevation model. This study shows that two long-term processes, aggradation and localized valley tilting (along a normal listric fault), are responsible for generating two styles of avulsion. The first process precedes avulsion-by-progradation, while the second process precedes avulsion-by-annexation. As valley aggradation migrated updip over the last 7.5 ka, three regional backstepping avulsions occurred along the lower 140 km of the valley and each generated sizable deposits. A pattern emerges of landward stepping progradational avulsions tracking the locus of valley aggradation and of valley aggradation migrating inland even after the rate of sea level rise diminishes. At the same time, several local nodal avulsions occurred between 50 and 55 km updip of the current highstand shoreline but generated no observable deposits. Geomorphic evidence indicates that, since the late Pleistocene, active movement along a previously undocumented normal listric fault has occurred at the location of the nodal avulsion. These two long-term processes do not operate mutually exclusive of each other to promote avulsions; rather, they operate concurrently. Only aggradation promotes avulsions that affect floodplain alluviation, although the total volume of these deposits comprises a small portion of the valley fill.