Geomorphic controls on debris flow activity in the paraglacial zone of the Southeast Tibetan Plateau

Jiao Wang, Hao Wang, Yao Jiang, Guotao Zhang, Bo Zhao and Yu Lei ()
Additional contact information
Jiao Wang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Hao Wang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yao Jiang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Guotao Zhang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Bo Zhao: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yu Lei: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, 2023, vol. 117, issue 1, No 40, 917-937

Abstract: Abstract On the southeastern Tibetan Plateau, an area widely covered by alpine glaciers, two types of debris flow generally occur: glacier-related debris flows (GDFs) and rainfall-related debris flows (RDFs). It is widely accepted that topographic conditions influence debris flow activities; however, few studies have examined the differences between such influence on GDFs and RDFs. This study investigated the GDFs and RDFs in the periglacial area of the Parlung Tsangpo Basin, and calculated 12 geomorphic indexes to reveal the topographic features associated with these two types of debris flow. It was found that lower values in the drainage area, main channel length, and relative elevation occurred in RDFs compared to the GDFs. In contrast, higher values in the channel gradient, relief ratio, and effective basin area appeared in RDFs. The discrepancy is mainly related to the different topographic and geomorphic shaping of modern glaciers. According to its geomorphological characteristics, the Parlung Tsangpo Basin can be divided into the upper V-shaped canyon section, middle wide valley section, and lower steep canyon section. The scale and frequency of debris flow in the upstream canyon region are substantially lower than those in the downstream. Moreover, the frequency and scale of RDFs are considerably different from those of GDFs, primarily because of the different geomorphic evolutionary stages of debris flow gullies in different regions.

Keywords: Glacier debris flow; Debris flow activity; Topographic feature; Periglacial area; Parlung Tsangpo Basin (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11069-023-05889-z Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:nathaz:v:117:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s11069-023-05889-z

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/economics/journal/11069

DOI: 10.1007/s11069-023-05889-z

Access Statistics for this article

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards is currently edited by Thomas Glade, Tad S. Murty and Vladimír Schenk

More articles in Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards from Springer, International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().