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Science 15 January 1993:
Vol. 259. no. 5093, pp. 348 - 350
DOI: 10.1126/science.259.5093.348
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Articles

Paleohydrology of Late Pleistocene Superflooding, Altay Mountains, Siberia

Victor R. Baker 1, Gerardo Benito 1, and Alexey N. Rudoy 2

1 Arizona Laboratory for Paleohydrological and Hydroclimatological Analysis, Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721
2 Geography Department, Tomsk State Pedagogical Institute, Tomsk, Siberia, Russia

Cataclysmic flooding is a geomorphological process of planetary significance. Landforms of flood origin resulted from late Pleistocene ice-dammed lake failures in the Altay Mountains of south-central Siberia. Peak paleoflows, which exceeded 18 x 106 cubic meters per second, are comparable to the largest known terrestrial discharges of freshwater and show a hydrological scaling relation to floods generated by catastrophic dam failures. These seem to have been Earth's greatest floods, based on a variety of reconstructed paleohydraulic parameters.

Submitted on August 10, 1992
Accepted on November 13, 1992


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Geological and Seismological Field Observations in the Epicentral Region of the 27 September 2003 Mw 7.2 Gorny Altay Earthquake (Russia).
C. Dorbath, J. Van der Woerd, S. S. Arefiev, E. A. Rogozhin, and J. Y. Aptekman (2008)
Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America 98, 2849-2865
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The Spokane Flood debates: historical background and philosophical perspective.
V. R. Baker (2008)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 301, 33-50
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Constraining the timing of the most recent cataclysmic flood event from ice-dammed lakes in the Russian Altai Mountains, Siberia, using cosmogenic in situ 10Be.
A. U. Reuther, J. Herget, S. Ivy-Ochs, P. Borodavko, P. W. Kubik, and K. Heine (2006)
Geology 34, 913-916
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Palaeoflood hydrology: an emerging science.
D. Saint-Laurent (2004)
Progress in Physical Geography 28, 531-543
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Hydrogeologic processes of large-scale tectonomagmatic complexes in Mongolia-southern Siberia and on Mars.
G. Komatsu, J. M. Dohm, and T. M. Hare (2004)
Geology 32, 325-328
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Catastrophism and uniformitarianism: logical roots and current relevance in geology.
V. R. Baker (1998)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 143, 171-182
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Discovering Earth's future in its past: palaeohydrology and global environmental change.
V. R. Baker (1996)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 115, 73-83
   Abstract »    PDF »
A preliminary palaeohydraulic model applied to late Quaternary gravel dunes: Altai Mountains, Siberia.
P. A. Carling (1996)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 115, 165-179
   Abstract »    PDF »
Fluvial geomorphology.
B. L. Rhoads and B. L. Rhoads (1994)
Progress in Physical Geography 18, 588-608
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