A Record Outburst Megafloods in the eastern Himalaya

Outburst megaflooding is a unique example of a process known to shape planetary surfaces that remains largely unobserved. In this talk I will present evidence of outburst megaflooding along the Yarlung-Siang-Brahmaputra river system in the eastern Himalaya. Compilation of field and laboratory observations confirm that megafloods originated from ice-dammed lakes in southeastern Tibet and repeated multiple times in the Holocene and late Pleistocene, blanketing river channels with enormous volumes of coarse and fine sediment. Numerical simulations further predict that outburst megafloods are capable of hydrodynamic processes unobserved in meteoric floods – forcing us to reconsider conventional explanations of fluvial landforms in megaflooded landscapes.

Host: Dr. Kennet E. Flores