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At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
USGS2012

Sediment mobility and bed armoring in the St Clair River: insights from hydrodynamic modeling

The lake levels in Lake Michigan-Huron have recently fallen to near historical lows, as has the elevation difference between Lake Michigan-Huron compared to Lake Erie. This decline in lake levels has the potential to cause detrimental impacts on the lake ecosystems, together with social and economic impacts on communities in the entire Great Lakes region. Results from past work suggest that morphological changes in the St Clair River, which is the only natural outlet for Lake Michigan-Huron, could be an appreciable factor in the recent trends of lake level decline. A key research question is whether bed erosion within the river has caused an increase in water conveyance, therefore, contributed to the falling lake level. In this paper, a numerical modeling approach with field data is used to investigate the possibility of sediment movement in the St Clair River and assess the likelihood of morphological change under the current flow regime. A two-dimensional numerical model was used to study flow structure, bed shear stress, and sediment mobility/armoring over a range of flow discharges. Boundary conditions for the numerical model were provided by detailed field measurements that included high-resolution bathymetry and three-dimensional flow velocities. The results indicate that, without considering other effects, under the current range of flow conditions, the shear stresses produced by the river flow are too low to transport most of the coarse bed sediment within the reach and are too low to cause substantial bed erosion or bed scour. However, the detailed maps of the bed show mobile bedforms in the upper St Clair River that are indicative of sediment transport. Relatively high shear stresses near a constriction at the upstream end of the river and at channel bends could cause local scour and deposition. Ship-induced propeller wake erosion also is a likely cause of sediment movement in the entire reach. Other factors that may promote sediment movement, such as ice cover and dredging in the lower river, require further investigation.

St. Clair River↗
USGS2012

Measuring gravel transport and dispersion in a mountain river using passive radio tracers

Random walk models of fluvial sediment transport recognize that grains move intermittently, with short duration steps separated by rests that are comparatively long. These models are built upon the probability distributions of the step length and the resting time. Motivated by these models, tracer experiments have attempted to measure directly the steps and rests of sediment grains in natural streams. This paper describes results from a large tracer experiment designed to test stochastic transport models. We used passive integrated transponder (PIT) tags to label 893 coarse gravel clasts and placed them in Halfmoon Creek, a small alpine stream near Leadville, Colorado, USA. The PIT tags allow us to locate and identify tracers without picking them up or digging them out of the streambed. They also enable us to find a very high percentage of our rocks, 98% after three years and 96% after the fourth year. We use the annual tracer displacement to test two stochastic transport models, the Einstein–Hubbell–Sayre (EHS) model and the Yang–Sayre gamma-exponential model (GEM). We find that the GEM is a better fit to the observations, particularly for slower moving tracers and suggest that the strength of the GEM is that the gamma distribution of step lengths approximates a compound Poisson distribution. Published in 2012. This article is a US Government work and is in the public domain in the USA.

Earth Surface Processes and Landforms↗
USGS2012

The role of fire on soil mounds and surface roughness in the Mojave Desert

A fundamental question in arid land management centers on understanding the long-term effects of fire on desert ecosystems. To assess the effects of fire on surface topography, soil roughness, and vegetation, we used terrestrial (ground-based) LiDAR to quantify the differences between burned and unburned surfaces by creating a series of high-resolution vegetation structure and bare-earth surface models for six sample plots in the Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, Arizona. We find that 11 years following prescribed burns, mound volumes, plant heights, and soil-surface roughness were significantly lower on burned relative to unburned plots. Results also suggest a linkage between vegetation and soil mounds, either through accretion or erosion mechanisms such as wind and/or water erosion. The biogeomorphic implications of fire-induced changes are significant. Reduced plant cover and altered soil surfaces from fire likely influence seed residence times, inhibit seed germination and plant establishment, and affect other ecohydrological processes.

Arizona↗
USGS2006

Geo-botanical evidence of Late Quaternary mass wasting in block field areas of Virginia

Studies of block fields at Massanutten Mountain, Virginia, document and provide information on the magnitude and frequency of mass movement on these coarse-grained slopes. Although Pleistocene periglacial climate may have facilitated original formation of block fields, some block fields now continue to spread downslope during intense runoff events. Present block-field mass wasting may be the principal erosional process in these areas of resistant rock.

Virginia↗
USGS2006

The Piedmont landscape of Maryland: a new look at an old problem.

Both equilibrium and episodic erosion features can be recognized in the modern landscape. An equilibrium condition is suggested by adjustment of first and second order streams to rock structure and lithology, entrenchment of some streams against gneiss domes, altitudinal zonation of rock types around gneiss domes, correlation of lithology with overburden thickness on uplands, etc. The long-term episodic character of erosion is suggested by clastic wedges on the adjacent Coastal Plain, an upland of low relief that truncates non-carbonate rocks of different lithologies, isovolumetric chemical weathering of alumino-silicate rocks, clastic deposition in marble valleys, and weathering profile truncation by modern drainage. The upland surface preserved in the eastern Piedmont developed by the Late Cretaceous. In the interval from the Late Cretaceous to the Late Miocene, low input of terrigenous sediments to the Coastal Plain, dominance of marine sedimentation, and spotty evidence of saprolite formation on crystalline rocks, suggest that the Maryland Piedmont was an area of low relief undergoing intense weathering. Incised valleys were formed during a cycle of erosion probably initiated in the Late Miocene and extensive colluvial sediments were deposited on hillslopes by periglacial processes during the Pleistocene.-after Authors

Earth Surface Processes and Landforms↗
USGS2006

Estimating limiting age for pleistocene erosional surfaces in central Montana by uranium-series dating of associated travertines

Travertine deposits overlie the highest Number 2 surfaces in central Montana and clasts of travertine occur in gravels on lower Number 2 surfaces. Dating these travertine deposits may provide limits on the ages of surfaces that record intervals of extensive erosion during Pleistocene time. Analysis of three travertine samples from the southeast side of The Park yield an average uranium‐thorium age of 73 000 ±+M 7 000 years. Another sample from the west side of The Park is 320 000 (+ 160 000, − 70 000) years old. These results indicate that travertine deposits may have formed at several intervals. The surface beneath The Park travertine is older than about 320 000 years. Number 2 pediment gravels that contain travertine downslope from the oldest dated sample may be younger than about 320 000 years.

Montana↗
USGS2006

Coincidence and spatial variability of geology, soils, and vegetation, Mill Run watershed, Virginia

The Mill Run watershed is a structurally‐controlled synclinal basin on the eastern limb of the Massanutten Mountain complex of northwestern Virginia. Bedrock contacts are obscured by coarse sandstone debris from exposures near basin divides. Colluvium blankets more than half the basin, masking geomorphic surfaces, affecting vegetation patterns, and contributing to the convexity of the alluvial, terrace, pediment and erosion surfaces. Examination of the bedrock geology, geomorphology, soils and vegetation shows distinct distributional correspondences. Vegetation is strongly interdependent with geomorphology, bedrock geology, and soils. On convex colluvial slopes, mixed hardwood forests are most common. In concave coves and deep gorges, mixed hardwoods are replaced by conifers. In thin colluvium, in poorly developed soils, and on blockfields, chestnut oak is singularly prevalent. Conifers dominate shaley bedrock areas. Soils and surficial sediments have a major effect on near‐surface hydrology. During wet seasons, cemented horizons in the subsurface cause temporary saturation in the superjacent horizons; lateral movement of soil‐water effectively eliminates a vertical component of ground‐water recharge. Vegetation is strongly dependent on water availability and thus reflects the distribution of subsurface barriers and sediment‐soil fades changes.

Virginia↗
USGS2006

Genesis of marine terrace soils, Barbados, West Indies: evidence from mineralogy and geochemistry

Well-developed, clay-rich soils dominated by interstratified kaolinite-smectite are found on the uplifted coral reef terraces on the island of Barbados. The reef limestone is unlikely to have been the soil parent material however, because it is 98% CaCO 3 and geomorphic evidence argues against the 20 m of reef solution required to produce the soils by this process. The mineralogy of the sand, silt, and clay fractions of the soils, and trace element geochemistry, suggest that aeolian materials carried on the trade winds from Africa, volcanic ash from the island of St. Vincent, and quartz from Tertiary bedrock on the island itself are the parent materials for the soils. -Authors

Earth Surface Processes and Landforms↗
USGS2006

Acid rain damage to carbonate stone: a quantitative assessment based on the aqueous geochemistry of rainfall runoff from stone

An onsite experimental procedure was used to identify and quantify acid rain damage to carbonate stone, based on the change in rain runoff chemical composition. Onsite data obtained during the summer and fall of 1984 at three locations in the northeastern United States indicate that carbonate stone surface recession is related to acid deposition. -from Author

Earth Surface Processes and Landforms↗
USGS2006

A model of channel response in disturbed alluvial channels

Dredging and straightening of alluvial channels between 1959 and 1978 in West Tennessee caused a series of morphologic changes along modified reaches and tributary streams. Degradation occurred for 10 to 15 years at sites upstream of the area of maximum disturbance and lowered bed-levels by as much as 6.1 m. Following degradation, reaches upstream of the area of maximum disturbance experienced a secondary aggradation phase in response to excessive incision and gradient reduction. -from Author

Earth Surface Processes and Landforms↗
USGS2007

Physical and chemical characteristics of a metal-contaminated overbank deposit, west-central South Dakota, USA

The deposit along the Belle Fourche River is typically up to 2 m thick and extends about 90 m away from the channel along the insides of meander bends. The sediments contain above-background levels of copper, iron, manganese, zinc, and particularly arsenic. An influx at high streamflow of uncontaminated sediment from terraces and the premining floodplain as well as from tributaries causes arsenic concentrations in parts of the contaminated deposit that are farthest away from the channel to be two to three times less than arsenic concentrations in overbank sediment that is immediately adjacent to the channel.

South Dakota↗
USGS2006

Lateral migration of linear dunes in the Strzelecki Desert, Australia

Preferential accumulation of sand on east-facing flanks indicates that the dunes migrated eastward several metres during the Holocene. Moreover, the west-facing flanks of some dunes have experienced a minimum of tens of metres of erosion. This asymmetric erosion and deposition were caused by dune obliquity and lateral migration that may have begun as early as the Pleistocene. Dunes in the Strzelecki Desert and in the adjacent Simpson Desert display a variety of grossly different internal structures. -from Author

Earth Surface Processes and Landforms↗
USGS2006

Neotectonic effects on sinuosity and channel migration, Belle Fourche River, Western South Dakota

Short-term instability in the behaviour of a small, meandering alluvial channel is identified from the relation between sinuosity and either floodplain slope or channel slope within 17 reaches along an 81-kilometre section of the Belle Fourche River in western South Dakota. In reaches 1 to 4 and 11 to 17 the channel is relatively stable and sinuosity varies inversely with channel slope. In reaches 5 to 10, sinuosity is positively related to floodplain slope. Sinuosity increases markedly in reaches 5, 6, and 7 (which are immediately downstream from a discontinuity in the long profile of the floodplain) in association with an increase in floodplain slope. Immediately upstream from the discontinuity, bankfull channel depth and sinuosity decrease and the area of the floodplain reworked by meander migration between 1939 and 1981 increases, in association with a decrease in floodplain slope. Channel behaviour in reaches 5 to 10 is best explained as a consequence of neotectonic activity, as indicated by changes in elevation recorded along geodetic survey lines that cross lineaments that may delimit the eastern boundary of the Black Hills uplift. Sinuosity acts as a barometer of the effects of neotectonic activity on alluvial channels. Initial indications of channel and floodplain instability due to neotectonic activity may be derived from evidence of anomalously active channel migration, as documented from photographic or topographic sources.

South Dakota↗
USGS2006

Floodplain storage of mine tailings in the Belle Fourche river system: a sediment budget approach

Arsenic‐contaminated mine tailings that were discharged into Whitewood Creek at Lead, South Dakota, from 1876 to 1978, were deposited along the floodplains of Whitewood Creek and the Belle Fourche River. The resulting arsenic‐contaminated floodplain deposit consists mostly of overbank sediments and filled abandoned meanders along White‐wood Creek, and overbank and point‐bar sediments along the Belle Fourche River. Arsenic concentrations of the contaminated sediments indicate the degree of dilution of mine tailings by uncontaminated alluvium. About 13 per cent of the 110 × 10 6 Mg of mine tailings that were discharged at Lead were deposited along the Whitewood Creek floodplain. Deposition of mine tailings near the mouth of Whitewood Creek was augmented by an engineered structure. About 29 per cent of the mine tailings delivered by Whitewood Creek were deposited along the Belle Fourche River floodplain. About 60 per cent of that sediment is contained in overbank deposits. Deposition along a segment of the Belle Fourche River was augmented by rapid channel migration. The proportions of contaminated sediment stored along Whitewood Creek and the Belle Fourche River are consistent with sediment storage along the floodplains of perennial streams in other, similar sized watersheds.

Earth Surface Processes and Landforms↗
USGS2006

The effects of Hurricane Hugo on suspended-sediment loads, Lago Loiza Basin, Puerto Rico

In the two main tributaries that enter Lago Loiza, Rio Grande de Loiza and Rio Gurabo, 99 600 tonnes of suspended sediment was transported by 58.2??106 m3 of runoff in a 48 h period. The storm-average suspended-sediment concentration in the Rio Grande de Loiza for Hurricane Hugo was 2290 mgl-1, the second lowest for the 12 storms that have been monitored at this site. In Rio Gurabo the storm-average suspended-sediment concentration was 1420 mg l -1, the sixth lowest recorded out of 15 monitored storms. In Quebrada Salvatierra, a small tributary to Rio Grande de Loiza, suspended-sediment concentrations were as low as 33 mg l-1 during peak runoff of 20m3s-1. Normally the suspended-sediment concentrations at this discharge are 300 mg l-1. Hurricane force winds seem to be the most important factor contributing to the lower than expected suspended-sediment loads. High winds caused vegetation and debris to be dislodged and displaced. Debris accumulated on hillslopes and in small channels, blocked bridges and formed debris dams. These dams caused local backwater effects that reduced stream velocities and decreased suspended-sediment loads. -from Author

Earth Surface Processes and Landforms↗
USGS2012

Developing a new stream metric for comparing stream function using a bank-floodplain sediment budget: a case study of three Piedmont streams

A bank and floodplain sediment budget was created for three Piedmont streams tributary to the Chesapeake Bay. The watersheds of each stream varied in land use from urban (Difficult Run) to urbanizing (Little Conestoga Creek) to agricultural (Linganore Creek). The purpose of the study was to determine the relation between geomorphic parameters and sediment dynamics and to develop a floodplain trapping metric for comparing streams with variable characteristics. Net site sediment budgets were best explained by gradient at Difficult Run, floodplain width at Little Conestoga Creek, and the relation of channel cross-sectional area to floodplain width at Linganore Creek. A correlation for all streams indicated that net site sediment budget was best explained by relative floodplain width (ratio of channel width to floodplain width). A new geomorphic metric, the floodplain trapping factor, was used to compare sediment budgets between streams with differing suspended sediment yields. Site sediment budgets were normalized by floodplain area and divided by the stream's sediment yield to provide a unitless measure of floodplain sediment trapping. A floodplain trapping factor represents the amount of upland sediment that a particular floodplain site can trap (e.g. a factor of 5 would indicate that a particular floodplain site traps the equivalent of 5 times that area in upland erosional source area). Using this factor we determined that Linganore Creek had the highest gross and net (floodplain deposition minus bank erosion) floodplain trapping factor (107 and 46, respectively) that Difficult Run the lowest gross floodplain trapping factor (29) and Little Conestoga Creek had the lowest net floodplain trapping factor (–14, indicating that study sites were net contributors to the suspended sediment load). The trapping factor is a robust metric for comparing three streams of varied watershed and geomorphic character, it promises to be a useful tool for future stream assessments.

Piedmont;Difficult Run;Little Conestoga Creek;Ling↗
USGS2013

Velocity Mapping Toolbox (VMT): a processing and visualization suite for moving-vessel ADCP measurements

The use of acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCP) for discharge measurements and three-dimensional flow mapping has increased rapidly in recent years and has been primarily driven by advances in acoustic technology and signal processing. Recent research has developed a variety of methods for processing data obtained from a range of ADCP deployments and this paper builds on this progress by describing new software for processing and visualizing ADCP data collected along transects in rivers or other bodies of water. The new utility, the Velocity Mapping Toolbox (VMT), allows rapid processing (vector rotation, projection, averaging and smoothing), visualization (planform and cross-section vector and contouring), and analysis of a range of ADCP-derived datasets. The paper documents the data processing routines in the toolbox and presents a set of diverse examples that demonstrate its capabilities. The toolbox is applicable to the analysis of ADCP data collected in a wide range of aquatic environments and is made available as open-source code along with this publication.

Earth Surface Processes and Landforms↗