Fluvial Landform (12.Exhumed river Channel )

                                                                                                                                                      Back to Fluvial Landform

• An exhumed river channel is a ridge of sandstone.

• The softer flood plain mudstone is eroded away.

• The process :

                     1. The deposition of sand within a river channel & mud on the adjacent floodplain.
                     2. Eventually the channel is abandoned.
                     3. Over time becomes buried by flood deposits from other channels.
                    4. Because the sand is porous 
                    5. Groundwater flows more easily through the sand than through the mud of the floodplain deposits.

• Minerals can cement the grains together converting the loose sand into sandstone. 

• Millions of years later, erosion can remove the softer, less cemented mud stone.

• An exhumed river channel is a form of inverted relief.

• Exhumed channels are important indicators for ancient stream flow direction.