Seismic Bedload Transport on Mt. Rainier’s Glacial Rivers

The December 2025 atmospheric-river floods — analysis, review, and reproducible workflow

Author

Marine Denolle and Bradley P. Lipovsky

Published

July 1, 2026

Preface

This book reports a study of bedload sediment transport inferred from seismic noise on the glacier-fed rivers draining Mt. Rainier, Washington, during the December 2025 Pacific Northwest atmospheric-river floods — and documents the analysis, review, and reproducible workflow behind it.

It is organized in three parts:

Headline result

Band-limited seismic power scales with discharge as P \propto Q^{b}. At the glacial-source station the exponent rises with frequency above the turbulent-flow baseline (b\approx 0.9 to 1.4) and decays downstream and away from the channel toward that baseline — the signature of a threshold-controlled bedload contribution confined to the near-source reach.

Note

This is a working research compendium produced with substantial AI assistance. Part II preserves the review and development log; items flagged 💬 there are open questions and reviewer-defense notes, not settled claims.