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Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms pp 1–14Cite as

Alluvial Fan

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Definition

Subaerial alluvial fans are “cone-shaped or fan-shaped depositional landforms created due to loss of flow competence anywhere that a river (channelized flow) is released from confinement and discharge or environment conditions promote avulsion” (North and Davidson 2012).

Synonyms

Subaerial fan

Note

“Sublacustrine/Submarine Fans” are discussed in a separate entry.

Description

Alluvial fans are gently sloping semi-conical fan-shaped ramps that radiate from steep mountain area drainage outlets emerging into low-relief basins (Moore and Howard 2005) of reduced stream power. The cone-shaped deposit is fan shaped in plan view (Bull 1977). Alluvial fans have a concave longitudinal profile and a convex transverse (cross-fan) profile. Alluvial fans in places have stream channels incised into the fan material (Lecce 1990*). Alluvial fans are different from alluvial plains in that in fans the fluvial system is distributary, whereas in plains it is through-flowing (Stainstreet and...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Planetary Science Research Group, Eötvös Loránd University, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Henrik Hargitai

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  1. Henrik Hargitai
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Correspondence to Henrik Hargitai .

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Hargitai, H. (2014). Alluvial Fan. In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_466-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_466-1

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