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Sinuous Rille

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms

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Definition

Linear, meandering features interpreted to be the remains of channels formed by lava that erupted in effusive, high-volume volcanic events (Hurwitz et al. 2012).

Category

A type of lava channel

Synonyms

Arcuate rille; Large sinuous rille; Serpentine cleft (obsolete)

Description

Sinuous channels, which narrow and shallow downstream until they fade (Kargel et al. 1994). They have relatively steep slopes and flat bottom. They can have irregular twisting planform and high sinuosity, and its meanders have cuspate inner bends and show no bifurcation, braided bars, levees, oxbows, point bars, or deltas comparable to those in canali (Kargel et al. 1994).

Many sinuous rilles emerge from a circular topographic depression or an elongated flat floored depression (Leverington 2004; Hauber et al. 2009).

Morphometry/Regional Variations

On Venus, they are typically 10–300 km long, several hundreds of m to several (generally 2–5) km wide, with depths up to 0.5 km. Their depth to width ratio...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. International Research School of Planetary Sciences, Università d’Annunzio, Pescara, Italy

    Goro Komatsu

  2. Planetary Science Research Group, Eötvös Loránd University, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

    Henrik Hargitai

Authors
  1. Goro Komatsu
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  2. Henrik Hargitai
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Correspondence to Goro Komatsu .

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Komatsu, G., Hargitai, H. (2014). Sinuous Rille. In: Encyclopedia of Planetary Landforms. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_351-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-9213-9_351-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4614-9213-9

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