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Hydraulic and channel characteristics of selected streams in the Kantishna Hills area, Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, 1982-84

Open-File Report 88-325
By:  and 
https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr88325

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Abstract

The Kantishna Hills area of the Denali National Park and Preserve contains extensive placer gold deposits. In order to develop plans for the management of this natural resource, and to assess the effects of placer mining on aquatic systems, documentation of the physical characteristics of the streams in the area is needed. Channel morphology, streamflow and streambed composition data were collected at 14 stream reaches in the Kantishna Hills area in September 1982 and in June, July, August , and September of 1983 and 1984. The reaches selected include locations of historical and current mining activity and locations which are undisturbed. The data indicate only minor differences in the physical properties of the streams in mined and unmined drainage basins. The composition of streambeds below mined areas tended to consist of finer sized particles and exhibited less variation in mean particle size than streambed in unmined basins. This may be due in part to the natural sorting of material in stream channels because mined areas, and thus study reaches below them, tended to be located relatively farther downstream (nearer the stream mouth) than were study reaches in basins where no mining has occurred. Changes in the physical properties of the streams which could be directly attributed to mining activity were noted at only one location, Rainy Creek near Kantishna, where the stream had been diverted from its natural channel by the construction of settling ponds. (Author 's abstract)

Suggested Citation

Van Maanen, J., and Solin, G., 1988, Hydraulic and channel characteristics of selected streams in the Kantishna Hills area, Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, 1982-84: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 88-325, iii, 105 p. :ill., maps ;28 cm., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr88325.

ISSN: 2331-1258 (online)

Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Hydraulic and channel characteristics of selected streams in the Kantishna Hills area, Denali National Park and Preserve, Alaska, 1982-84
Series title Open-File Report
Series number 88-325
DOI 10.3133/ofr88325
Year Published 1988
Language ENGLISH
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey,
Description iii, 105 p. :ill., maps ;28 cm.
Additional publication details