A new methodology for presenting hydrodynamics data from a large river confluence

Confluences are very complex fluvial networks where the combination of matter (water and sediment) and energy (flow strength) from two different channels take place.The confluence of Rio Negro, with is black waters, and the Rio Solimões, with its suspended white sediments, is one of the biggest confluences on the earth and attracts thousands of tourists every year near by the city of Manaus, Amazonas – Brazil. This paper presents the application of a new method to analyze the ADCP data which is using an in-house FORTRAN code in combination with the Tecplot and Surfer Softwares. The method was applied to ADCP transects collected on this confluence within the EU-funded Clim-Amazon Projectin two different periods of the hydrological cycle: low flow conditions on 30 and 31 October 2014, during the FS−CNS1 campaign, and relatively high flow conditions on 29 and 30 April 2015, during the FS−CNS2 campaign, both of them included 23 transects. These data were first extracted with WinRiver II software to produce ASCII files. The ASCII files were first processed using the code to derive input files containing the three velocity components, the average backscatter as well as the secondary currents from the Rozovskii method. These data were plotted in Tecplot to gain cross-sectional profiles. Furthermore, as past investigations were limited to the analysis of the depth-averaged quantities, the FORTRAN code was used even to extract the values of the velocity components as well as the backscatter along three layers in the channel: near the bed, at mid-depth and near the water surface. The data were then used to prepare Surfer maps, in a plane contour map format, of these quantities. The analysis of the data along these three layers can provide further findings into the complex three-dimensional structure of the flow at the Negro/Solimões confluence

Application of shallow seismic profiling to study riverbed architectural facies: a case study of the Tocantins river (Pará - Brazil)

To date, the vast majority of river sedimentology study has relied on two main categories of observation: direct observation of shallow trenches, cut faces and cores or geophysical survey on dry and shallow regions of braid bars. In this study, a sub-bottom profiler was used to investigate the stratigraphy of the lower course of the Tocantins River in the Amazon region, between the city of Tucuruì and the village of Nazaré dos Patos. The interest in this specific region lies on the possible variation of the fluvial regime due to the installation of the dam of the Tucuruì hydroelectric plant and the perspective that such river would become navigable as soon as the canal lock will be completed. Collected data show a detailed variety and complexity of architectural elements, as well as internal structure of sandy macroforms. Furthermore, the results allowed the identification of three main environments linked to channel sedimentation processes: by-pass, transition and deposition environments, whose distribution is linked to channel dynamics and bedrock topography. The application of the study is manifold, once it provides not only an insight into sedimentary structure of alluvial forms and sedimentation history, but also elements demanded to plan eventual engineering works for river navigability.Até hoje, a maior parte dos estudos de sedimentologia fluvial tem adotado dois principais métodos de investigação: observação direta de trincheiras, faces expostas e testemunhos, ou levantamento geofísico nas regiões emersas ou rasas das barras fluviais. Neste estudo, um perfilador acústico de subfundo foi utilizado para investigar a estratigrafia do baixo curso do Rio Tocantins, na bacia Amazônica, entre a cidade de Tucuruí e a vila de Nazaré dos Patos. O interesse neste trecho do rio reside na possível variação do regime fluvial devido à instalação da barragem da usina hidrelétrica de Tucuruí e à perspectiva de que este rio se torne navegável após a conclusão da construção da eclusa. Os perfis coletados mostram detalhes da variedade e complexidade de elementos arquiteturais e a estrutura interna das macroformas arenosas. Além disso, os resultados permitiram a identificação de três ambientes correlacionados com os processos sedimentares ativos no canal: ambientes de by-pass, transição e deposição, que estão relacionados à dinâmica do canal e topografia do embasamento. A aplicação deste estudo é multíplice, uma vez que fornece informações sobre a estrutura sedimentar das formas aluvionais e histórico de deposição, mostra elementos necessários ao planejamento de eventuais intervenções para a navegabilidade do rio

Estimating the hydrodynamic and morphodynamic characteristics using Entropy theory at the confluence of Negro and Solimões Rivers

When two mega rivers merge the mixing of two flows results in a highly complex threedimensional flow structure in an area known as the confluence hydrodynamic zone

Aplicação de Sísmica de Alta Resolução para a Determinação de Armadilhas Geológicas de Cascalhos Auríferos em um Trecho do Rio Peixoto de Azevedo, MT

A explotação de ouro em cascalhos auríferos presentes nas calhas dos rios da região amazônica é desenvolvida de maneira aleatória, com utilização de dragas de sucção e de escarificação. Tal condição remobiliza e aumenta o volume de sedimentos suspensos ao longo dos rios. Consequentemente, intensifica o assoreamento e a erosão nas margens dos rios. Este trabalho mostra resultados de investigações sísmicas realizadas com objetivo de verificar a eficiência da sísmica de reflexão de alta resolução na identificação de possíveis armadilhas geológicas de cascalhos auríferos presentes na calha do rio Peixoto de Azevedo. As aquisições de dados ocorreram durante o período de cheias em um trecho de 2700 metros do rio, com um perfilador de subfundo regulado para emitir sinais sísmicos nas frequências de 2 a 15 kHz. Os resultados possibilitaram a identificação de 3 fácies sísmicas e 2 superfícies de reflexão. As fácies sísmicas relacionam-se aos sedimentos arenosos atuais da calha do rio Peixoto (Sf1), aos sedimentos argilosos e grossos (cascalhos) mais antigos (paleosedimentos, Sf2), e às rochas ígneas do embasamento (Sf3). As superfícies de reflexão correspondem às interfaces entre os depósitos arenosos atuais da calha do rio e os paleosedimentos (Ss), e entre os paleosedimentos e as rochas ígneas do embasamento (Sr). Ao longo das seções sísmicas notam-se deflexões na superfície Sr que indica potenciais armadilhas de cascalhos auríferos

Large barchanoid dunes in the Amazon River and the rock record : implications for interpreting large river systems.

The interpretation of large river deposits from the rock record is hampered by the scarcity of direct observations of active large river systems. That is particularly true for deep-channel environments, where tens of meters deep flows dominate. These conditions are extremely different from what is found in smaller systems, from which current facies models were derived. MBES and shallow seismic surveys in a selected area of the Upper Amazonas River in Northern Brazil revealed the presence of large compound barchanoid dunes along the channel thalweg. The dunes are characterized by V-shaped, concave-downstream crest lines and convex-up longitudinal profiles, hundreds of meters wide, up to 300 m in wavelength and several meters high. Based on the morphology of compound dunes, expected preserved sedimentary structures are broad, large-scale, low-angle, concave up and downstream cross-strata, passing laterally and downstream to inclined cosets. Examples of such structures from large river deposits in the rock record are described in the Silurian Serra Grande Group and the Cretaceous S?o Sebasti?o and Marizal formations in Northeastern Brazil, as well as in Triassic Hawkesburry Sandstone in Southeastern Australia and the Plio?Pleistocene I?? Formation in the western Amazon. All these sedimentary structures are found near channel base surfaces and are somewhat coarser than the overlying fluvial deposits, favoring the interpretation of thalweg depositional settings. The recognition of large barchanoid dunes as bedforms restricted to river thalwegs and probably to large river systems brings the possibility of establishing new criteria for the interpretation of fluvial system scale in the rock record. Sedimentary structures compatible with the morphological characteristics of these bedforms seem to be relatively common in large river deposits, given their initial recognition in five different fluvial successions in Brazil and Australia, potentially enabling substantial improvements in facies models for large rivers

Dunes in the world’s big rivers are characterized by low-angle lee-side slopes and a complex shape

Dunes are present in all the worlds’ big rivers and form critical agents of bedload transport, constitute appreciable sources of bed roughness and flow resistance, and generate stratification that is the most common depositional element of ancient alluvium. Yet our current models of dunes are conditioned by the geometry of bedforms observed in small rivers and laboratory experiments, and in which the downstream leeside angle is often assumed to be at the angle-of-repose. Here we show, using high-resolution bathymetry from a range of the worlds great rivers, that dunes are instead characterized predominantly by low-angle leeside slopes