Groundwater sapping

Scientists believe that groundwater sapping created these gullies in Noachis Terra on Mars. NASA image.

The two canyons at center-left in this photo from Canyonlands National Park in Utah have the theater-shaped heads typical of valley features shaped by groundwater sapping. The Green River is at right.

Groundwater sapping is the geomorphic process in which groundwater exits a bank or hillslope laterally as seeps and springs and erodes soil from the slope. This often causes the slope to be undermined and undergo mass wasting, hence the word sapping.

This is one of the processes involved in the formation of gullies, such as lavaka. Erosion by sapping tends to produce steep-sided U-shaped valleys of fairly uniform width with box-like, "theater-shaped" headwalls. This contrasts with the more common branching or dentritic pattern of V-shaped valleys produced by overland flows that become wider with distance from their source. Groundwater sapping has been suggested as the cause for erosion of the valley and channel networks on Mars, although studies show that groundwater alone can not excavate and transport the material required to create these canyons.^[1]

See also

• Headward erosion
• Groundwater discharge
• Valley networks (Mars)

References

1. ^ Lamb, M. P.; Dietrich, W. E.; Aciego, S. M.; Depaolo, D. J.; Manga, M. (2008). "Formation of Box Canyon, Idaho, by Megaflood: Implications for Seepage Erosion on Earth and Mars". Science 320 (5879): 1067–1070. doi:10.1126/science.1156630. PMID 18497296. 

External links

• Simulation of Groundwater Sapping
• Alan D. Howard, "Introduction: Groundwater Sapping on Mars and Earth" in Sapping Features of the Colorado Plateau, edited by A.D. Howard, R. C. Kochel, and H. R. Holt, NASA SP-491, p. 1-5 (1988)
• Julie E. Laity and Michael C. Malin, "Sapping processes and the development of theater-headed valley networks on the Colorado Plateau," Geological Society of America Bulletin: Vol. 96, No. 2 (1985), pp. 203–217 (Abstract).
• T.F. Stepinski and S. Coradetti, "Comparing morphologies of drainage basins on Mars and Earth using integral-geometry and neural maps."

This geomorphology article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.v · Categories: Geomorphology stubs Geomorphology Hydrogeology Aquifers Wikimedia Foundation. 2010. Игры ⚽ Поможем решить контрольную работу List of Australian corps in World War I Thraco-Illyrian Look at other dictionaries: Sapping — Union troops digging a sap with a sap roller on Morris Island, 1863 …   Wikipedia Valles Marineris — cuts a wide gash across the face of Mars Coordinates …   Wikipedia Noachian — MOLA colorized relief map of Noachis Terra, the type area for the Noachian System. Note the superficial resemblance to the lunar highlands. Colors indicate elevation, with red highest and blue violet lowest. The blue feature at bottom right is… …   Wikipedia Mars — This article is about the planet. For other uses, see Mars (disambiguation) …   Wikipedia Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle — The margaritifer Sinus quadrangle is one of a series of 30 quadrangle maps of Mars used by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) Astrogeology Research Program. The Margaritifer Sinus quadrangle is also referred to as MC 19 (Mars Chart… …   Wikipedia Erosion — is the carrying away or displacement of solids (sediment, soil, rock and other particles) usually by the agents of currents such as, wind, water, or ice by downward or down slope movement in response to gravity or by living organisms (in the case …   Wikipedia Regolith — (Greek: blanket rock ) is a layer of loose, heterogeneous material covering solid rock. It includes dust, soil, broken rock, and other related materials and is present on Earth, the Moon, some asteroids, and other planets. The term was first… …   Wikipedia Lavaka — Lavaka, the Malagasy word for hole , is a type of erosional feature common in Madagascar. They are most abundant in the central highlands of Madagascar, where there are deep laterites developed on in steep terrain in a monsoonal climate. Lavakas… …   Wikipedia Dao Vallis — is the leftmost channel, joined just above the center of the image by Niger Vallis. In each valley water flowed toward the bottom of the image. Coordinates …   Wikipedia Martian soil — is the fine regolith found on the surface of Mars. Its properties can differ significantly from those of terrestrial soil. The term Martian soil typically refers to the finer fraction of regolith, that which is composed of grains one centimeter… …   Wikipedia 18+ © Academic, 2000-2024 Contact us: Technical Support, Advertising Dictionaries export, created on PHP, Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, MODx. Mark and share Search through all dictionaries Translate… Search Internet Share the article and excerpts Direct link … Do a right-click on the link above and select “Copy Link”