Median grain sizes on riverbeds range from boulders in uplands to silt in lowlands; however, rivers with ~1–5 mm diameter bed sediment are rare. This grain size gap also marks an abrupt transition between gravel- and sand-bedded reaches that is unlike any other part of the fluvial network. Abrupt gravel-sand transitions have been attributed to rapid breakdown or rapid transport of fine gravel, or a bimodal sediment supply, but supporting evidence is lacking. Here we demonstrate that rivers dramatically lose the ability to transport sand as wash load where bed shear velocity drops below ~0.1 m/s, forcing an abrupt transition in bed-material grain size. Using thresholds for wash load and initial motion, we show that the gap emerges only for median bed-material grain sizes of ~1–5 mm due to Reynolds number dependencies in suspension transport. The grain size gap, therefore, is sensitive to material properties and gravity, with coarser gaps predicted on Mars and Titan.
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