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Geology topics

W. W. Emmett

Publications and source records attributed to W. W. Emmett.

12 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2009

The Vigil Network: A means of observing landscape change in drainage basins

Long-term monitoring of geomorphic, hydrological, and biological characteristics of landscapes provides an effective means of relating observed change to possible causes of the change. Identification of changes in basin characteristics, especially in arid areas where the response to altered climate or land use is generally rapid and readily apparent, might provide the initial direct indications that factors such as global warming and cultural impacts have affected the environment. The Vigil Network provides an opportunity for earth and life scientists to participate in a systematic monitoring effort to detect landscape changes over time, and to relate such changes to possible causes. The Vigil Network is an ever-increasing group of sites and basins used to monitor landscape features with as much as 50 years of documented geomorphic and related observations.

Hydrological Sciences Journal↗
USGS2007

Channel changes downstream from a dam

ABSTRACT: A flood-control dam was completed during 1979 on Bear Creek, a small tributary stream to the South Platte River in the Denver, Colorado, area. Before and after dam closure, repetitive surveys between 1977 and 1992 at five cross sections downstream of the dam documented changes in channel morphology. During this 15-year period, channel width increased slightly, but channel depth increased by more than 40 percent. Within the study reach, stream gradient decreased and median bed material sizes coarsened from sand in the pools and fine gravel on the rime to a median coarse gravel throughout the reach. The most striking visual change was from a sparse growth of streamside grasses to a dense growth of riparian woody vegetation.

Journal of the American Water Resources Associatio↗
USGS1994

Annual replenishment of bed material by sediment transport in the Wind River near Riverton, Wyoming

The U.S. Geological Survey, in cooperation with the Wyoming Department of Transportation, conducted a study during 1985-87 to determine the annual replenishment of sand and gravel along a point bar in the Wind River near Riverton, Wyoming. Hydraulic- geometry relations determined from streamflow measurements; streamflow characteristics determined from 45 years of record at the study site; and analyses of suspended-sediment, bedload, and bed- material samples were used to describe river transport characteristics and to estimate the annual replenishment of sand and gravel. The Wind River is a perennial, snowmelt-fed stream. Average daily discharge at the study site is about 734 cubic feet per second, and bankfull discharge (recurrence interval about 1.5 years) is about 5,000 cubic feet per second. At bankfull discharge, the river is about 136 feet wide and has an average depth of about 5.5 feet and average velocity of about 6.7 feet per second. Streams slope is about 0.0010 foot per foot. Bed material sampled on the point bar before the 1986 high flows ranged from sand to cobbles, with a median diameter of about 22 millimeters. Data for sediment samples collected during water year 1986 were used to develop regression equations between suspended-sediment load and water discharge and between bedload and water discharge. Average annual suspended-sediment load was computed to be about 561,000 tons per year using the regression equation in combination with flow-duration data. The regression equation for estimating bedload was not used; instead, average annual bedload was computed as 1.5 percent of average annual suspended load about 8,410 tons per year. This amount of bedload material is estimated to be in temporary storage along a reach containing seven riffles--a length of approximately 1 river mile. On the basis of bedload material sampled during the 1986 high flows, about 75 percent (by weight) is sand (2 millimeters in diameter or finer); median particle size is about 0.5 milli- meter. About 20 percent (by weight) is medium gravel to small cobbles--12.7 millimeters (0.5 inch) or coarser. The bedload moves slowly (about 0.03 percent of the water speed) and briefly (about 10 percent of the time). The average travel distance of a median-sized particle is about 1 river mile per year. The study results indicate that the average replenishment rate of bedload material coarser than 12.7 millimeters is about 1,500 to 2,000 tons (less than 1,500 cubic yards) per year. Finer material (0.075 to 6.4 millimeters in diameter) is replen- ishment at about 4,500 to 5,000 cubic yards per year. The total volume of potentially usable material would average about 6,000 cubic yards per year.

Water-Resources Investigations Report↗
USGS1990

Data that describe at-a-point temporal variations in the transport rate and particle-size distribution of bedload; East Fork River, Wyoming, and Fall River, Colorado

Data from the East Fork River, Wyoming, and the Fall River, Colorado, that document at-a-point temporal variations in the transport rate and particle-size distribution of bedload, associated with the downstream migration of dunes, are presented. Bedload sampling was undertaken, using a 76.2 x 76.2 mm Helley-Smith sampler, on three separate occasions at each site in June 1988. In each instance, the sampling time was 30 seconds and the sampling intervals 5 minutes. The sampling period ranged from 4.92 to 8.25 hours. Water stage did not vary appreciably during any of the sampling periods. (USGS)

Open-File Report↗
USGS1989

Fremont Lake, Wyoming — Some aspects of the inflow of water and sediment

Fremont Lake is a large (20.6 sq km), deep lake (185 m) in western Wyoming. Average annual inflow of water is about 5.1 cu meters/sec, and this discharge is equaled or exceeded about 23% of the time. Annual instantaneous peak flows of Pine Creek usually exceed 30 cu m/sec and the 100-year flood is about 80 cu m/sec. About 800 tons of sediment are delivered to the lake annually; annual deposition of sediment in the northern lake area throughout the last 10,000 years about equals contemporary values of sediment inflow. Only small quantities of fine-gradient sediment are transported beyond the delta at the northern end of the lake. Current rates of deposition in the delta are about 1 to 3 mm/yr. Sediment in the delta generally is sand size; elsewhere in the lake, sediment generally is clay and silt size. (USGS)

Wyoming↗
USGS1982

Field data describing the movement and storage of sediment in the East Fork River, Wyoming; Part III, river hydraulics and sediment transport, 1980

Frequent measurements of river stage, water discharge, sediment-transport rate and particle-size gradation, and river slope were made at 44 cross sections along a 1.83-kilometer reach of East Fork River, Wyoming, during the spring 1980 snowmelt runoff. Data are tabulated and explanatory text facilitates its use for description of river hydraulics and sediment transport. (USGS)

Open-File Report↗
USGS1976

Laboratory hydraulic calibration of the Helley-Smith bedload sediment sampler

The Helley-Smith bedload sampler operates on a pressure-difference principle and consists of an expanding nozzle, nylon-mesh sample bag , and external components for structural integrity and stability under flow conditions. The Helley-Smith bedload sampler has a hydraulic efficiency, the ratio of the mean velocity in the sampler nozzle to the mean ambient velocity, of approximately 1.54. Factors affecting the hydraulic efficiency include the geometry of the orifice and the open area of t he sampler bag . The exit-to-entrance area ratio of the nozzle is the major factor influencing hydraulic characteristics of the sampler. For the nozzles tested, the hydraulic efficiency rapidly increased to a maximum value as the exit-to-entrance area ratio increased . The hydraulic efficiency increased from 1.06 to 1.54 as the exit-entrance area ratio increased from 1.00 to 2.62. With an exit-entrance ratio greater than 2.62 but less than 3.22, this efficiency remained constant at 1.55. Filling the sample bag to 40 percent capacity with a sediment larger in diameter than the mesh size of the bag had no effect on the hydraulic efficiency. Particles close to the 0.2 mm mesh size of the sample bag plugged the openings and caused the efficiency to decrease in an undetermined manner.

Open-File Report↗