Searching the Rhone delta channel in Lake Geneva since François Alphonse Forel

Article Article scientifique Article Searching the Rhone delta channel in Lake Geneva since François Alphonse Forel eng 2012 author Girardclos Stéphanie 40596 author Hilbe Michael author Corella Juan Pablo 757350 author Loizeau Jean-Luc 0000-0002-0611-0388 23020 author Kremer Katrina 716443 author Delsontro Tonya author Arantegui Angel author Moscariello Andrea 0000-0003-3698-0162 29182 author Arlaud Frédéric 684374 author Akhtman Yosef author Anselmetti Flavio S. author Lemmin Ulrich 103-118 1661-464X In the late 19th century, F.A. FOREL led investigations of the Rhone River delta area of Lake Geneva that resulted in the discovery of a textbook example of a river-fed delta system containing impressive subaquatic channels. Well ahead of the marine counterparts, scientific observations and interpretations of water currents shaping the delta edifice for the first time documented how underflow currents carry cold, suspension-laden waters from the river mouth all the way to the deep basin. These early investigations of the Rhone delta laid the basis for follow-up studies in the 20th and 21th centuries. Sediment coring, water-column measurements, manned submersible diving, seismic reflection profiling and bathymetric surveying eventually provided a rich database to unravel the key erosional and depositional processes, further documenting the impact of human-induced changes in the catchment. With the merging of old and new scientific knowledge, today a comprehensive understanding prevails of how a delta changes through time, how its channels are formed, and what potential natural hazards may be related to its evolution. New and efficient bathymetric techniques, paired with novel coring operations, provided a time-series of morphologic evolution showing and quantifying the high dynamics of the delta/channel evolution in an unprecedented temporal and spatial resolution. Future investigations will continue to further quantify these dynamic processes and to link the evolution of the subaquatic domain with changes and processes in the catchment and with natural hazards. Its size, easy access, and large variety of states and processes will continue to make the Rhone delta area a perfect ‘laboratory' in which general processes can be studied that could be upscaled or downscaled to other marine and lacustrine deltas. Lake Geneva Léman Rhone delta Submersible Channel Canyon Multibeam bathymetry Underflow Dewey 550 Dewey 333.7-333.9 Autre Elemo research program Swiss National Science Foundation Quantifying human impact and recent climate change using clastic sediments from lacustrine records in western Switzerland 121666 CH Projects Swiss National Science Foundation A multibeam-bathymetric device to acquire high-resolution lake floor morphologic data 133790 CH Infrastructure 18 Institut des sciences de l'environnement 0DB 41 Département F.-A. Forel des sciences de l'environnement et de l'eau 153 42 Département des sciences de la Terre 154 false 943 ISE Climat 944 ISE Eau 945 ISE Energie 938 ISE Pôle Sciences 946 ISE Villes et territoires 753 Limnology and Environmental Geology 664 Limnology and Geomicrobiology Archives des sciences 65 2c868f8c-5908-4eef-ab5f-a03713c78730 Article (Published version) Restricted article_Girardclos_2012a.pdf 1478181 application/pdf restrictedAccess Centres et instituts / Institut des sciences de l'environnement Faculté des sciences / Section des sciences de la Terre et de l'Environnement / Département F.-A. Forel des sciences de l'environnement et de l'eau Faculté des sciences / Section des sciences de la Terre et de l'Environnement / Département des sciences de la Terre

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Searching the Rhone delta channel in Lake Geneva since François Alphonse Forel	Archives des sciences			2012	964	9

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Arlaud, Frédéric