Width and Thickness of Fluvial Channel Bodies and Valley Fills in the Geological Record: A Literature Compilation and Classification

Abstract The three-dimensional geometry of fluvial channel bodies and valley fills has received much less attention than their internal structure, despite the fact that many subsurface analyses draw upon the geometry of suitable fluvial analogues. Although channel-body geometry has been widely linked to base-level change and accommodation, few studies have evaluated the influence of local geomorphic controls. To remedy these deficiencies, we review the terminology for describing channel-body geometry, and present a literature dataset that represents more than 1500 bedrock and Quaternary fluvial bodies for which width (W) and thickness (T) are recorded. Twelve types of channel bodies and valley fills are…