Eruption-related lahars and sedimentation response downstream of Mount Hood: Field guide to volcaniclastic deposits along the Sandy River, Oregon

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Abstract

Late Holocene dome-building eruptions at Mount Hood during the Timberline and Old Maid eruptive periods resulted in numerous dome-collapse pyroclastic flows and lahars that moved large volumes of volcaniclastic sediment into temporary storage in headwater canyons of the Sandy River. During each eruptive period, accelerated sediment loading to the river through erosion and remobilization of volcanic fragmental debris resulted in very high sediment-transport rates in the Sandy River during rain- and snowmelt-induced floods. Large sediment loads in excess of the river's transport capacity led to channel aggradation, channel widening, and change to a braided channel form in the lowermost reach of the river, between 61 and 87 km downstream from the volcano. The post-eruption sediment load moved as a broad bed-material wave, which in the case of the Old Maid eruption took ~2 decades to crest 83 km downstream. Maximum post-eruption aggradation levels of at least 28 and 23 m were achieved in response to Timberline and Old Maid eruptions. In each case, downstream aggradation cycles were initiated by lahars, but the bulk of the aggradation was achieved by fluvial sediment transport and deposition. When the high rates of sediment supply began to diminish, the river degraded, incising the channel fills and forming progressively lower sets of degradational terraces. A variety of debris-flow, hyperconcentrated-flow, and fluvial (upper and lower flow regime) deposits record the downstream passage of the sediment waves that were initiated by these eruptions. The deposits also presage a hazard that may be faced by communities along the Sandy River when volcanic activity at Mount Hood resumes.

Study Area

Publication type Book chapter
Publication Subtype Book Chapter
Title Eruption-related lahars and sedimentation response downstream of Mount Hood: Field guide to volcaniclastic deposits along the Sandy River, Oregon
Chapter 11
DOI 10.1130/2009.fld015(11)
Year Published 2009
Language English
Publisher Geological Society of America
Publisher location Boulder, Colorado
Contributing office(s) Volcano Hazards Program, Volcano Science Center
Description 16 p.
Larger Work Type Book
Larger Work Subtype Monograph
Larger Work Title Volcanoes to vineyards: geologic field trips through the dynamic landscape of the Pacific Northwest
First page 221
Last page 236
Country United States
State Oregon
Other Geospatial Sandy River
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