Stable Isotope Analyses of Snow in the Wasatch and Bear River Ranges, Utah
Location
ECC 216
Event Website
http://water.usu.edu/
Start Date
4-5-2007 6:45 PM
End Date
4-5-2007 6:50 PM
Description
Grand Canyon is home to hundreds of archaeological sites recording the history and prehistory of Native Americans over thousands of years. Along the Colorado River corridor, these sites are being eroded away due to gullying. Conventional means to halt erosion cannot be used as Grand Canyon National Park is managed as a wilderness. Recent research has focused on the effectiveness of low-technology efforts to slow the destructive effects of gullying and provide more time to researchers studying endangered archaeological sites. Initial indications are that the current means of erosion-control through the use of stone linings and brush check dams has mixed success. This research attempts to build and calibrate an experimental drainage at the Utah Water Research Laboratory, replicating the overland flow and resultant gullies found in semiarid landscapes, such as Grand Canyon. Now constructed and calibrated, this experimental drainage is being used to evaluate the effectiveness of native-material designs for erosion-control structures. Field data collected from six archaeological sites in Grand Canyon have been analyzed and used to parameterize and calibrate the experimental drainage. These data include survey profiles of gullies, sediment shear strength, particle-size analysis by hydrometer and sieving, saturated hydraulic conductivity, and precipitation. Within the 1.2x1.8x5.5 m experimental box, a gully drainage develops in a substrate material closely matching the texture of that found in Grand Canyon. An artificial soil crust is developed with a mixture of Portland cement and sand which is sprinkled onto the inclined substrate surface, wetted and allowed to cure. Overland flow in the experimental drainage is produced by the use of a perforated pipe connected to an orifice plate which measures the discharge. Gullies form and propagate up-slope by changing baselevel at the downstream end of the experimental drainage. Through the calibration process of the experimental drainage these gullies are now characteristic of those found in Grand Canyon.
Stable Isotope Analyses of Snow in the Wasatch and Bear River Ranges, Utah
ECC 216
Grand Canyon is home to hundreds of archaeological sites recording the history and prehistory of Native Americans over thousands of years. Along the Colorado River corridor, these sites are being eroded away due to gullying. Conventional means to halt erosion cannot be used as Grand Canyon National Park is managed as a wilderness. Recent research has focused on the effectiveness of low-technology efforts to slow the destructive effects of gullying and provide more time to researchers studying endangered archaeological sites. Initial indications are that the current means of erosion-control through the use of stone linings and brush check dams has mixed success. This research attempts to build and calibrate an experimental drainage at the Utah Water Research Laboratory, replicating the overland flow and resultant gullies found in semiarid landscapes, such as Grand Canyon. Now constructed and calibrated, this experimental drainage is being used to evaluate the effectiveness of native-material designs for erosion-control structures. Field data collected from six archaeological sites in Grand Canyon have been analyzed and used to parameterize and calibrate the experimental drainage. These data include survey profiles of gullies, sediment shear strength, particle-size analysis by hydrometer and sieving, saturated hydraulic conductivity, and precipitation. Within the 1.2x1.8x5.5 m experimental box, a gully drainage develops in a substrate material closely matching the texture of that found in Grand Canyon. An artificial soil crust is developed with a mixture of Portland cement and sand which is sprinkled onto the inclined substrate surface, wetted and allowed to cure. Overland flow in the experimental drainage is produced by the use of a perforated pipe connected to an orifice plate which measures the discharge. Gullies form and propagate up-slope by changing baselevel at the downstream end of the experimental drainage. Through the calibration process of the experimental drainage these gullies are now characteristic of those found in Grand Canyon.
https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/runoff/2007/AllPosters/4