Outburst flood

In geomorphology, an outburst flood—a type of megaflood—is a high-magnitude, low-frequency catastrophic flood involving the sudden release of a large quantity of water.[1][2] During the last deglaciation, numerous glacial lake outburst floods were caused by the collapse of either ice sheets or glaciers that formed the dams of proglacial lakes. Examples of older outburst floods are known from the geological past of the Earth and inferred from geomorphological evidence on Mars. Landslides, lahars, and volcanic dams can also block rivers and create lakes, which trigger such floods when the rock or earthen barrier collapses or is eroded. Lakes also form behind glacial moraines or ice dams, which can collapse and create outburst floods.[3][4]

  1. ^ O'Connor, Jim E.; Beebee, Robin A. (2009). "Floods from natural rock-material dams". In Burr, Devon M.; Baker, Victor R.; Carling, Paul A. (eds.). Megaflooding on Earth and Mars. Cambridge University Press. pp. 128–71. ISBN 978-0-521-86852-5.
  2. ^ Goudie, A. (2004). Encyclopedia of Geomorphology. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-27298-8.[page needed]
  3. ^ Burr, Devon M.; Wilson, Lionel; Bargery, Alistair S. (2009). "floods from fossae: a review of Amazonian-aged extensional-tectonic megaflood channels on Mars". In Burr, Devon M.; Baker, Victor R.; Carling, Paul A. (eds.). Megaflooding on Earth and Mars. Cambridge University Press. pp. 194–208. ISBN 978-0-521-86852-5.
  4. ^ Li, Dongfeng; Lu, Xixi; Walling, Desmond E.; Zhang, Ting; Steiner, Jakob F.; Wasson, Robert J.; Harrison, Stephan; Nepal, Santosh; Nie, Yong; Immerzeel, Walter W.; Shugar, Dan H.; Koppes, Michèle; Lane, Stuart; Zeng, Zhenzhong; Sun, Xiaofei; Yegorov, Alexandr; Bolch, Tobias (July 2022). "High Mountain Asia hydropower systems threatened by climate-driven landscape instability". Nature Geoscience. 15 (7): 520–530. Bibcode:2022NatGe..15..520L. doi:10.1038/s41561-022-00953-y. hdl:1874/428480. ISSN 1752-0908. S2CID 249961353.