Pendant bar

A pendant bar is a fluvial geomorphology term that is usually applied to large landforms created by large scale flooding events. Pendant bars are thin, sharp-crested deposits, and are typically made up of coarser sediment from the bed load. This type of bar is found on the downstream side of a weathering-resistant protrusion such as a large outcrop of bedrock, and is separated from the protrusion by a depression.[1][2]

Formation

Pendant bars form as high-velocity floodwater moves around a protrusion. The water scours out a depression behind the protusion and deposits the sediment a short distance downstream in a bar-shaped formation. A similar process forms a sand splay, which is much like a shoal but is formed on floodplains or terraces in lower-intensity flooding episodes.[1] Other fluvial features that are formed by bed load sediments are the point bar, longitudinal bar, and expansion bar.[3]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Osterkamp, W.R. "Annotated Definitions of Selected Geomorphic Terms and Related Terms of Hydrology, Sedimentology, Soil Science and Ecology". Open File Report 2008–1217. U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of the Interior.
  2. ↑ Burr, Devon M.; Paul A. Carling; Victor R. Baker, eds. (2009). Megaflooding on Earth and Mars (1. publ. ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 39. ISBN 9780521868525.
  3. ↑ "The Lake Bonneville Flood". Digital Atlas of Idaho. Retrieved 6 March 2013.
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