Seismic controls on contemporary sediment export in the Siret river catchment, Romania

Earthquake-triggered landslides; Event efficiency index; Lithology; Sediment rating curve; Sediment yield; Seismic activity; Carpathians; Romania; Seret River; Ukraine; Vrancea

Abstract :

[en] While differences in catchment sediment yield (SY, [tkm-2y-1]) are generally attributed to topography, lithology, climate and land use, recent studies have highlighted that also seismic activity may have an important impact on SY. Nonetheless, relatively little is known about the importance of this factor and the processes and mechanisms explaining its influence. Therefore, this study explores the role of seismic activity in explaining spatial and temporal variation in sediment export within the Siret Basin (Romania, 45,000km2), a catchment with a large variability in seismic activity. Based on previously unpublished long-term (>30years) SY measurements for 38 subcatchments of the Siret, we analyze the correlation between average SY, seismic activity and various other catchment characteristics. Our results showed that spatial variation in average SY was indeed strongly correlated with the degree of seismic activity in each catchment (R2=0.74). Also catchment lithology explained an important part of the differences in SY (R2=0.67). The combination of these two factors accounted for about 80% of the observed variation in SY, while other factors (e.g. topography, land use, climate, and runoff) did not significantly contribute to the explained variance in average SY. To explore the impact of a specific earthquake event on sediment export, we analyzed daily variations in suspended sediment concentrations of 10 subcatchments, five years before and after an earthquake of Mw= 7.4 that affected the Vrancea region in 1977 and triggered a substantial number of landslides. Only one catchment showed a clear (3-fold) increase in sediment concentrations at unit discharge. For the other nine catchments, no consistent increase could be observed. This indicates that the impact of seismic activity on average SY is mainly indirect and not associated with sudden pulses of sediments, caused by earthquake-triggered landslides. Potential mechanisms that could explain such indirect responses are discussed. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.

Disciplines :

Earth sciences & physical geography

Author, co-author :

Vanmaercke, Matthias ; Université de Liège > Département de géographie > Géographie physique et du quaternaire

Obreja, F.; Department of Geography, Stefan cel Mare University of Suceava, Romania, River Forecast, Hydrology and Hydrogeology Bureau of The SIRET Water Branch, Bacau, Romania

Poesen, J.; Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, Heverlee, Belgium

Language :

English

Title :

Seismic controls on contemporary sediment export in the Siret river catchment, Romania

Publication date :

2014

Journal title :

Geomorphology

ISSN :

0169-555X

eISSN :

1872-695X

Publisher :

Elsevier

Volume :

216

Pages :

247-262

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Available on ORBi :

since 28 March 2017

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