Self-organization of tidal deltas.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Fagherazzi S
PROVIDER: S-EPMC2596246 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Dec
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Self-organization of tidal deltas.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20081124 48
Tidal deltas are characterized by a dendritic network of distributaries that transport water and sediments to the ocean. Here, I show that the distributaries self-organize to uniformly redistribute the tidal prism across the entire delta system. The 2 opposite mechanisms of channel formation by avulsion and channel abandonment drive the entire delta toward a critical state at which every channel is close to the silting threshold. Under these conditions the delta reaches self-organized criticalit ...[more]
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