| Abstract from DBPedia | An alluvial plain is a largely flat landform created by the deposition of sediment over a long period of time by one or more rivers coming from highland regions, from which alluvial soil forms. A floodplain is part of the process, being the smaller area over which the rivers flood at a particular period of time, whereas the alluvial plain is the larger area representing the region over which the floodplains have shifted over geological time. As the highlands erode due to weathering and water flow, the sediment from the hills is transported to the lower plain. Various creeks will carry the water further to a river, lake, bay, or ocean. As the sediments are deposited during flood conditions in the floodplain of a creek, the elevation of the floodplain will be raised. As this reduces the channel floodwater capacity, the creek will, over time, seek new, lower paths, forming a meander (a curving sinuous path). The leftover higher locations, typically natural levees at the margins of the flood channel, will themselves be eroded by lateral stream erosion and from local rainfall and possibly wind transport if the climate is arid and does not support soil-holding grasses. These processes, over geologic time, will form the plain, a region with little relief (local changes in elevation), yet with a constant but small slope. The Glossary of Landform and Geologic Terms, maintained by the United States' National Cooperative Soil Survey, defines an "alluvial plain" as "a large assemblage of fluvial landforms (braided streams, terraces, etc.,) that form low gradient, regional ramps along the flanks of mountains and extend great distances from their sources (e.g., High Plains of North America)" Use of "alluvial plain" as a general, informal term for a broad flood plain or a low-gradient delta is explicitly discouraged. The NCSS glossary instead suggests "flood plain".沖積平野（ちゅうせきへいや、英語: alluvial plain）とは、平野の一種であり、主に河川による堆積作用によって形成される地形。河川によって運搬された砕屑物（礫、砂、泥）が、山地間の谷底や、山地を離れた平地、河口、さらに沖合にかけて堆積して平野となったものをいう。谷底堆積低地、扇状地、氾濫原、三角州などの総称。海浜堆積物によって形成される海岸平野と区別される。とほぼ同義。沖積低地、沖積地ともいう。 かつては、沖積世（完新世）に形成された平野についても沖積平野と呼ばれていた。そのため、海岸平野のうち完新世に形成されたものは沖積平野に含まれていた。現在では沖積世という時代区分用語は使用されていないため、沖積平野という語を形成時代的な意味合いで使用することは推奨されない。 (Source: http://dbpedia.org/resource/Alluvial_plain) |
