Abstract:

The terrain in southeastern Tibet is steep and the valleys are crisscrossed. Since the Quaternary, glacial ice and debris have blocked the course of the Yarlung Tsangpo River and its tributary river valleys to form giant dammed lakes, and the huge flood deposits formed by the dammed lake outburst floods are often associated with moraines, ice water deposits, lacustrine deposits, aeolian sand or other running water sediments to form complex river valley accumulation landforms. Different types of sediments in alpine and canyon areas are similar in morphology, structure and fabric, and are difficult to distinguish. Grain size and morphological characteristics are the most important structural characteristics of sediment, and the distribution rules are controlled by many factors such as sedimentary environment, physical properties of detrital material, transporting medium and transporting mode, etc., which is an important proxy index for restoring paleoclimate and inverting paleoenvironment. However, the relevant research on identifying sediment types in alpine valley area of southeast Tibet by grain size and morphology index is still in the exploratory stage. In order to understand the particle size characteristics and spatial differentiation laws of outburst flood sediments and the micromorphological characteristics of particle surfaces, we collected 33 samples of Holocene flood retention sediments preserved along the river within about 350km from the outlet of the Jiacha Gorge in the middle reaches of the Yarlung Tsangpo River to Pai Town, and measured them with Malvern 3000 laser diffraction particle size meter and Zeiss Signma scanning electron microscope, combined with digital geomorphology(DEM)data extracted river channel width and steepness coefficient. The features of spatial distribution law of particle size are analyzed, and the following understanding is obtained. The particle size of outburst flood retention deposits is characterized on the whole by fine-silty sand(2.57~5.18Φ)with poor sorting, positive skew and narrow peak state. Two end element models are obtained: The main peak of EM1 terminal element is 3.16Φ, with an average percentage content of 42.7%, which may represent the alluvial characteristics of higher energy of outburst floods in alpine valley areas, and the main peak of EM2 terminal elements is 2.06Φ with an average percentage content of 55.6%, which can be used to indicate the accumulation process of the outburst flood lag deposits. Affected by the width of the river, the EM1 content has a tendency to increase downstream, while EM2 has the opposite trend. The surface microstructure of quartz particles in the outburst flood lag deposits is mainly characterized by mechanical scratches, shell-like fractures, upturn cleavage and cleavage steps, with low structural maturity, mostly angular shape, and rare denudation pores of chemical origin. As a typical representative of climbing sand dunes in the valley area of the semi-humid monsoon area, the genesis of the dunes is of great guiding significance for revealing the source of sand dunes in the valley area of the alpine valley area, identifying paleoflood deposit and aeolian deposit, distinguishing aeolian deposit and paleoflood slackwater deposits on both sides of the riverbank, and windbreak and sand fixation engineering in the Yarlung Tsangpo River. By comparing the particle size and surface micromorphology characteristics of the known outburst flood deposits of the Yarlung Tsangpo River, we believe that the sand source of the Fozhang dunes is mainly from the outburst flood deposits and was transformed later by wind forces.

Key words: Yarlung Tsangpo River, Holocene megaflood, grain size, end-member analysis, scanning electron microscopy(SEM),microstructure

摘要：

青藏高原东南部的河谷中广泛分布堰塞湖、溃决洪水和风成沙等不同类型的沉积物, 利用粒度和形貌指标识别沉积物类型的相关研究还处于探索阶段。为了解洪水沉积物的粒度特征、空间分异规律及颗粒表面的微形貌特征, 我们在雅鲁藏布江中游加查峡谷出口-派镇长约350km范围内的全新世早期溃决洪水滞留沉积物中采集了33个样品, 利用Malvern 3000型激光衍射粒度仪、Zeiss Signma扫描电子显微镜进行测试, 结合数字地貌(DEM)数据提取的河道宽度、陡峭系数, 对粒度特征的空间分布规律进行分析, 取得以下认识: 溃决洪水滞留沉积粒度的总体特征为细-粉砂(2.57~5.18Φ), 分选较差, 呈正偏、窄峰态; 通过端元建模得出2个端元模型: EM1端元可能代表高山峡谷区溃决洪水能量较高的冲积特征, EM2端元可用来指示溃决洪水滞留沉积的堆积过程。溃决洪水滞留沉积的石英颗粒表面的微观结构特征以机械成因的擦痕、贝壳状断口、上翻解理及解理台阶为主, 化学成因的溶蚀孔洞较为少见。作为半湿润季风区河谷地带爬坡沙丘的典型代表, 位于下游河段的丹娘佛掌沙丘与已知溃决洪水滞留沉积的粒度特征及石英颗粒表面的微形貌特征相似, 我们认为佛掌沙丘的沙源主要来自溃决洪水沉积。

关键词: 雅鲁藏布江, 全新世溃决洪水, 粒度特征, 端元模拟, 扫描电镜(SEM)微观结构