Papers

Filtering out the effect of large floods"

Large floods should seemingly influence the depth and width of rivers. Phillips and Jerolmack, however, suggest that the self-organization of bedrock river channels blunts the impact of extreme rainfall events. River channel geometries from a wide range of course-grained rivers across the United States show that larger floods have very limited additional impact on channel geometry. River channel sculpting does increase as flood size increases, but the effect is most pronounced for moderate floods. This relationship may explain the long-term stability of rivers across shifts in climate.