Avulsion (river)

In sedimentary geology and fluvial geomorphology, avulsion is the rapid abandonment of a river channel and the formation of a new river channel. Avulsions occur as a result of channel slopes that are much less steep than the slope that the river could travel if it took a new course.

Deltaic and net-depositional settings

Avulsions are common in deltaic settings, where sediment deposits as the river enters the ocean and channel gradients are typically very small. This process of avulsion in deltaic settings is also known as delta switching.

Deposition from the river results in the formation of an individual deltaic lobe that pushes out into the sea. An example of a deltaic lobe is the bird's-foot delta of the Mississippi River, pictured at right with its sediment plumes. As the deltaic lobe advances, the slope of the river channel becomes lower because the river channel is longer but has the same change in elevation (see slope or gradient). As the slope of the river channel decreases, it becomes unstable for two reasons. First, water under the force of gravity will tend to flow in the most direct course downslope. If the river could breach its natural levees (i.e., during a flood), it would spill out onto a new course with a shorter route to the ocean, thereby obtaining a more stable steeper slope. Second, as its slope is reduced, the amount of shear stress on the bed will decrease, resulting in deposition of more sediment within the channel and thus raising of the channel bed relative to the floodplain. This will make it easier for the river to breach its levees and cut a new channel that enters the ocean at a steeper slope.

Avulsion

Avulsion in general refers to a tearing away. Specifically, it can refer to:

Medicine

Real estate and geology

Other uses

Avulsion (legal term)

In real property law, avulsion refers to a sudden loss or addition to land, which results from the action of water. It differs from accretion, which describes a gradual loss or addition to land resulting from the action of water.

Avulsion and riparian owners

The distinction between avulsion and accretion becomes important where a river forms the boundary between two riparian owners. In many states (though not all), if the river changes channels by avulsion, the boundary does not change; it remains in the middle of the old channel. (This is why if you look at maps of the lower Mississippi river, you will find that some land on the east side of the river is part of Arkansas, and some land on the west side of the river is part of Tennessee. The river changed course quickly, so the state boundary did not change. However, as a river gradually changes through accretion, the boundary changes with it.

To prove that a change was avulsion and not accretion, it is sufficient for the owner of land which was washed away to point out approximately as much land added to the opposite bank as washed away from his bank.

Avulsion injury

In medicine, an avulsion is an injury in which a body structure is forcibly detached from its normal point of insertion by either trauma or surgery (from the Latin avellere, meaning "to tear off"). The term most commonly refers to a surface trauma where all layers of the skin have been torn away, exposing the underlying structures (i.e., subcutaneous tissue, muscle, tendons, or bone). This is similar to an abrasion but more severe, as body parts such as an eyelid or an ear can be partially or fully detached from the body.

Types of avulsions

Skin avulsions

The most common avulsion injury, skin avulsions usually occur during motor vehicle collisions. The severity of avulsion ranges from skin flaps (minor) to degloving (moderate) and amputation of a finger or limb (severe). Suprafascial avulsions are those in which the depth of the removed skin reaches the subcutaneous tissue layer, while subfascial avulsions extend deeper than the subcutaneous layer. Small suprafascial avulsions can be repaired by suturing, but most avulsions require skin grafts or reconstructive surgery.

List of Firefly characters

This page lists characters from the television series Firefly.

Major characters

Malcolm Reynolds

Malcolm Reynolds, played by Nathan Fillion, is owner and captain of the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity, and was a volunteer in the war between the Alliance and the Independents (aka "Browncoats"). He got the name for his spaceship from a famous battle he fought and commanded in, the Battle of Serenity Valley. When asked why he named his ship after a lost battle, Zoe comments "Once you're in Serenity, you never leave. You just learn how to live there." He is fiercely loyal to those he calls his crew.

Malcolm's main mission is to keep his crew alive and to keep his ship flying. As Firefly writer Tim Minear stated in an interview: "It's just about getting by. That's always been the mission statement of what the show is — getting by." In "Serenity", Mal says of himself: "[If the] Wind blows northerly, I go North."

Screens from Serenity suggest that Mal was born on September 20, 2468 — which would make him 49 at the time of the series Firefly — though, as the average human lifespan is 120, this would make him the equivalent of a man in his early 30s today. Mal was raised by his mother and "about 40 hands" on a ranch on the planet Shadow. Though Mal usually seems more practical than intellectual, he occasionally surprises his friends by displaying familiarity with disparate literature varying from the works of Xiang Yu to poems by Samuel Taylor Coleridge, though he has no idea "who" Mona Lisa is.

River (2011 film)

River is a 2011 Japanese drama film based on the 2008 Akihabara massacre incident. The film is written and directed by Ryūichi Hiroki. The film stars actress Misako Renbutsu, who will play the role of a person who lost her love interest in the attacks.

River debuted at the 12th Tokyo Filmex as one of its special presentations. It will subsequently be released in Japanese cinemas on 10 March 2012.

Plot

Hikari's boyfriend is one of those killed in the Akihabara massacre incident. Suffering from the shock of her loss and unable to accept this reality, she cuts herself off from the outside world. She eventually manages to muster enough courage to visit Akihabara, the scene of the incident. There, she encounters many people who are still coming to terms with the aftermath of the incident and are still suffering from the aftereffects.

Cast

Glossary of poker terms

The following is a glossary of poker terms used in the card game of poker. It supplements the glossary of card game terms. Besides the terms listed here, there are thousands of common and uncommon poker slang terms. This is not intended to be a formal dictionary; precise usage details and multiple closely related senses are omitted here in favor of concise treatment of the basics.

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