Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

Journal of the Geological Society

This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Allen, J. R. L. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Intertidal drainage and mass-movement processes in the Severn Estuary: rills and creeks (pills)

Department of Geology, The University, Whiteknights, Reading RG6 2AB, U.K

Mass-movement processes acting at up to three scales influence the intertidal forms of drainage in the Severn Estuary and its bordering estuarine alluvium. The open mudflats are marked by delicate drainage rills into which some freshly deposited silt is transferred at low tide by downslope creep, as shown by widespread systems of small extensional fractures. The pills traverse the areas of reclaimed alluvium and the saltings. They retain a relatively symmetrical cross-sectional profile, even where tortuous, and are remarkably stable in both general position and detailed form. The pills are maintained by large rotational slips accompanied in many cases by channelled mudflows formed from much smaller failures. A profile of long-term sediment accumulation that favours the loading of the upper sides of the pills, irrespective of local channel curvature, appears to be a significant factor in the maintenance of these drainage lines.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				J. R. L. Allen, J. R. L. Allen, and S. K. Haslett Buried salt-marsh edges and tide-level cycles in the mid-Holocene of the Caldicot Level (Gwent), South Wales, UK The Holocene, April 1, 2002; 12(3): 303 - 324. [Abstract] [PDF]

				J. R. L. ALLEN and M. G. FULFORD Late Flandrian coastal change and tidal palaeochannel development at Hills Flats, Severn Estuary (SW Britain) Journal of the Geological Society, February 1, 1996; 153(1): 151 - 162. [Abstract] [PDF]