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Abstract
Alluvial sandbars occur in lateral recirculation zones (eddies) along the Colorado River in Grand Canyon National Park (Schmidt, 1990). Resource managers periodically release controlled floods from the upstream Glen Canyon Dam to rebuild these bars (Grams et al., 2015), which erode during fluctuating dam releases, and by hillslope runoff and wind deflation (Hazel et al., 2010). Because the dam blocks upstream sediment, episodic floods from tributaries provide the only supply to replace eroded sand; and much of this sand originates from a single tributary (Topping et al., 2000). Here, we present new evidence for the downstream translation of the sand component of these sediment inputs as discontinuous sand pulses. Improved understanding of the behaviour of these sand pulses may be used to adjust the timing, magnitude, and duration of controlled floods to maximize potential for deposition on sandbars in different segments of the 450 km-long Grand Canyon.
| Publication type | Conference Paper |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | Conference Paper |
| Title | Sand pulses and sand patches on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon |
| Year Published | 2017 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | University of Trento - Italy |
| Contributing office(s) | Southwest Biological Science Center |
| Description | 1 p. |
| Larger Work Type | Book |
| Larger Work Subtype | Conference publication |
| Larger Work Title | RCEM 2017 – Back to Italy—The 10th Symposium on River, Coastal and Estuarine Morphodynamics |
| First page | 183 |
| Last page | 183 |
| Conference Title | RCEM 2017 – Back to Italy—The 10th Symposium on River, Coastal and Estuarine Morphodynamics |
| Conference Location | Trento-Padova, Italy |
| Conference Date | September 15-22, 2017 |
| Country | United States |
| Other Geospatial | Colorado River, Grand Canyon |
| Google Analytic Metrics | Metrics page |