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Description of chronostratigraphic units preserved as channel deposits and geomorphic processes following a basin-scale disturbance by a wildfire in Colorado

Open-File Report 2017-1090
By:  and 
https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20171090

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Abstract

The consequence of a 1996 wildfire disturbance and a subsequent high-intensity summer convective rain storm (about 110 millimeters per hour) was the deposition of a sediment superslug in the Spring Creek basin (26.8 square kilometers) of the Front Range Mountains in Colorado. Spring Creek is a tributary to the South Platte River upstream from Strontia Springs Reservoir, which supplies domestic water for the cities of Denver and Aurora. Changes in a superslug were monitored over the course of 18 years (1996–2014) by repeat surveys at 18 channel cross sections spaced at nearly equal intervals along a 1,500-meter study reach and by a time series of photographs of each cross section. Surveys were not repeated at regular time intervals but after major changes caused by different geomorphic processes. The focus of this long-term study was to understand the evolution and internal alluvial architecture of chronostratigraphic units (defined as the volume of sediment deposited between two successive surveys), and the preservation or storage of these units in the superslug. The data are presented as a series of 18 narratives (one for each cross section) that summarize the changes, illustrate these changes with photographs, and provide a preservation plot showing the amount of each chronostratigraphic unit still remaining in June 2014.

The most significant hydrologic change after the wildfire was an exponential decrease in peak discharge of flash floods caused by summer convective rain storms. In response to these hydrologic changes, all 18 locations went through an aggradation phase, an incision phase, and finally a stabilization phase. However, the architecture of the chronostratigraphic units differs from cross section to cross section, and units are characterized by either a laminar, fragmented, or hybrid alluvial architecture. In response to the decrease in peak-flood discharge and the increase in hillslope and riparian vegetation, Spring Creek abandoned many of the nearly horizontal erosional and depositional surfaces and left a landscape consisting of a series of cut-and-fill terraces as a legacy of this wildfire disturbance. 

Suggested Citation

Moody, J.A., and Martin, D.A., 2017, Description of chronostratigraphic units preserved as channel deposits and geomorphic processes following a basin-scale disturbance by a wildfire in Colorado: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2017–1090, 73 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20171090.

ISSN: 2331-1258 (online)

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Table of Contents

  • Abstract
  • Introduction
  • Methods
  • Description of Chronostratigraphic Units and Geomorphic Processes
  • Acknowledgments
  • References Cited
  • Appendix 1. Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) Coordinates for Cross Sections in Spring Creek
Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Description of chronostratigraphic units preserved as channel deposits and geomorphic processes following a basin-scale disturbance by a wildfire in Colorado
Series title Open-File Report
Series number 2017-1090
DOI 10.3133/ofr20171090
Year Published 2017
Language English
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Publisher location Reston, VA
Contributing office(s) National Research Program - Central Branch
Description vi, 73 p.
Country United States
State Colorado
Online Only (Y/N) Y
Google Analytic Metrics Metrics page
Additional publication details