scholarly journals Insights into post-Miocene uplift of the western margin of the Colorado Plateau from the stratigraphic record of the lower Colorado River

Geosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 1826-1845 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan S. Crow ◽  
Keith A. Howard ◽  
L. Sue Beard ◽  
Philip A. Pearthree ◽  
P. Kyle House ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Colorado River ◽  
Grand Canyon ◽  
Lake Mead ◽  
Basalt Flow ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Continental Scale ◽  
The Past ◽  
River Deposits ◽  
Lower Colorado River

Abstract The spatial and temporal distribution of Pliocene to Holocene Colorado River deposits (southwestern USA and northwestern Mexico) form a primary data set that records the evolution of a continental-scale river system and helps to delineate and quantify the magnitude of regional deformation. We focus in particular on the age and distribution of ancestral Colorado River deposits from field observations, geologic mapping, and subsurface studies in the area downstream from Grand Canyon (Arizona, USA). A new 4.73 ± 0.17 Ma age is reported for a basalt that flowed down Grand Wash to near its confluence with the Colorado River at the eastern end of what is now Lake Mead (Arizona and Nevada). That basalt flow, which caps tributary gravels, another previously dated 4.49 ± 0.46 Ma basalt flow that caps Colorado River gravel nearby, and previously dated speleothems (2.17 ± 0.34 and 3.87 ± 0.1 Ma) in western Grand Canyon allow for the calculation of long-term incision rates. Those rates are ∼90 m/Ma in western Grand Canyon and ∼18–64 m/Ma in the eastern Lake Mead area. In western Lake Mead and downstream, the base of 4.5–3.5 Ma ancestral Colorado River deposits, called the Bullhead Alluvium, is generally preserved below river level, suggesting little if any bedrock incision since deposition. Paleoprofiles reconstructed using ancestral river deposits indicate that the lower Colorado River established a smooth profile that has been graded to near sea level since ca. 4.5 Ma. Steady incision rates in western Grand Canyon over the past 0.6–4 Ma also suggest that the lower Colorado River has remained in a quasi–steady state for millions of years with respect to bedrock incision. Differential incision between the lower Colorado River corridor and western Grand Canyon is best explained by differential uplift across the Lake Mead region, as the overall 4.5 Ma profile of the Colorado River remains graded to Pliocene sea level, suggesting little regional subsidence or uplift. Cumulative estimates of ca. 4 Ma offsets across faults in the Lake Mead region are similar in magnitude to the differential incision across the area during the same approximate time frame. This suggests that in the past ∼4 Ma, vertical deformation in the Lake Mead area has been localized along faults, which may be a surficial response to more deep-seated processes. Together these data sets suggest ∼140–370 m of uplift in the past 2–4 Ma across the Lake Mead region.

scholarly journals Realignments of the Colorado River by ~2 m.y. of rotational bedrock landsliding: The Surprise Valley landslide complex, Grand Canyon, Arizona

Geosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesse E. Robertson ◽  
Karl E. Karlstrom ◽  
Matthew T. Heizler ◽  
Laura J. Crossey
Keyword(s):  
Cross Sections ◽  
Colorado River ◽  
Grand Canyon ◽  
Geologic Mapping ◽  
River Level ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
Seismic Triggering ◽  
Depositional Age ◽  
Deer Creek

The Surprise Valley landslide complex is the name used here for a group of prominent river-damming landslides in Grand Canyon (Arizona, USA) that has shifted the path of the Colorado River several times in the past 2 m.y. We document a sequence of eight landslides. Three are Toreva-block landslides containing back-rotated but only mildly disrupted bedrock stratigraphy. The largest of these landslides, Surprise Valley landslide, is hypothesized to have dammed the Colorado River, cut off a meander loop through Surprise Valley, and rerouted the river 2.5 km south to near its present course at the Granite Narrows. Another bedrock landslide, Poncho’s runup, involved a mass detachment from the north side of the river that drove a kilometer-scale bedrock slab across the river and up the south canyon wall to a height of 823 m above the river. A lake behind this landslide is inferred from the presence of mainstem gravels atop the slide that represent the approximate spillway elevation. We postulate that this landslide lake facilitated the upriver 133 Mile slide detachment and Toreva block formation. The other five landslides are subsequent slides that consist of debris from the primary slides; these also partially blocked and diverted the Colorado River as well as the Deer Creek and Tapeats Creek tributaries into new bedrock gorges over the past 1 m.y. The sequence of landslides is reconstructed from inset relationships revealed by geologic mapping and restored cross-sections. Relative ages are estimated by measuring landslide base height above the modern river level in locations where landslides filled paleochannels of the Colorado River and its tributaries. We calculate an average bedrock incision rate of 138 m/m.y. as determined by a 0.674 ± 0.022 Ma detrital sanidine maximum depositional age of the paleoriver channel fill of the Piano slide, which has its base 70 m above the river level and ~93 m above bedrock level beneath the modern river channel. This date is within error of, and significantly refines, the prior cosmogenic burial date of 0.88 ± 0.44 Ma on paleochannel cobbles. Assuming steady incision at 138 m/m.y., the age of Surprise Valley landslide is estimated to be ca. 2.1 Ma; Poncho’s runup is estimated to be ca. 610 ka; and diversion of Deer Creek to form modern Deer Creek Falls is estimated to be ca. 400 ka. The age of the most recent slide, Backeddy slide, is estimated to be ca. 170 ka based on its near-river-level position. Our proposed triggering mechanism for Surprise Valley landslides involves groundwater saturation of a failure plane in the weak Bright Angel Formation resulting from large volumes of Grand Canyon north-rim groundwater recharge prior to establishment of the modern Deer, Thunder, and Tapeats springs. Poncho’s and Piano landslides may have been triggered by shale saturation caused by 600–650 ka lava dams that formed 45 river miles (73 river km; river miles are measured along the Colorado River downstream from Lees Ferry, with 1 river mile = 1.62 river kms) downstream near Lava Falls. We cannot rule out effects from seismic triggering along the nearby Sinyala fault. Each of the inferred landslide dams was quickly overtopped (tens of years), filled with sediment (hundreds of years), and removed (thousands of years) by the Colorado River, as is also the potential fate of modern dams.

scholarly journals Will Earth’s Grandest Canyon Keep Getting Grander?

Eos ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 100 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary Morton
Keyword(s):  
Colorado River ◽  
Grand Canyon ◽  
Geologic Time ◽  
The Past

Living in Geologic Time: Rafting through the past, present, and future of the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon.

scholarly journals Calibration of basal melt on past ice discharge lowers projections of Antarctica’s sea level contribution

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eveline C. van der Linden ◽  
Dewi Le Bars ◽  
Erwin Lambert ◽  
Sybren Drijfhout
Keyword(s):  
Sea Level ◽  
Greenhouse Gas Emission ◽  
Response Functions ◽  
Sea Level Changes ◽  
Model Combination ◽  
Gas Emission ◽  
Model Studies ◽  
Continental Scale ◽  
The Past ◽  
Earth System Models

Abstract. Antarctic mass loss is the largest contributor to uncertainties in sea level projections on centennial timescales. In this study the contribution of Antarctica’s ice discharge to future sea level changes is computed with ocean thermal forcing from 14 earth system models and linear response functions from 16 ice sheet models for three greenhouse gas emission scenarios. Different than in previous studies, basal melt was calibrated on observed Antarctic ice discharge rather than on basal melt itself with an iterative approach. For each model combination, a linear and quadratic melt dependency were calibrated both regionally (in five Antarctic sectors) and at the continental scale. Projections using all model combinations show that the variation in basal melt computation methods affect the projected sea level more than the scenario variations (SSP1-2.6 to SSP5-8.5). After calibration, a high number of model pairs still underestimated ice discharge in hindcasts over 1979–2017. Therefore top 10 % best-performing model combinations were selected for each method. A comparison between these model selections shows that the quadratic melt parameterisation with Antarctic-wide calibration performs best in reproducing past ice discharge. We conclude that calibration of basal melt on past ice discharge combined with model selection makes projections of Antarctic ice discharge (more) consistent with observations over the past four decades. Moreover, calibration of basal melt on past ice discharge results in lower basal melt sensitivities and thus lower projections of Antarctica’s sea level contribution than estimates of previous multi-model studies.

Cyclic Aggradation and Downcutting, Fluvial Response to Volcanic Activity, and Calibration of Soil-Carbonate Stages in the Western Grand Canyon, Arizona

2000 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivo Lucchitta ◽  
Garniss H. Curtis ◽  
Marie E. Davis ◽  
Sidney W. Davis ◽  
Brent Turrin
Keyword(s):  
Colorado River ◽  
Grand Canyon ◽  
Stage Iv ◽  
River Channel ◽  
Sediment Supply ◽  
Basalt Flow ◽  
Fluvial Terraces ◽  
Soil Carbonate ◽  
Current Cycle ◽  
Fluvial Response

AbstractIn the western Grand Canyon, fluvial terraces and pediment surfaces, both associated with a Pleistocene basalt flow, document Quaternary aggradation and downcutting by the Colorado River, illuminate the river's response to overload and the end of overload, and allow calibration of soil-carbonate stages and determination of downcutting rates. Four downcutting–aggradation cycles are present. Each begins with erosion of older deposits to form a new river channel in which a characteristic suite of deposits is laid down. The current cycle (I) started ∼700 yr B.P. The oldest (IV) includes the 603,000 ± 8000 to 524,000 ± 7000 yr Black Ledge basalt flow, emplaced when the river channel was ∼30 m higher than it is now. The flow is overlain by basalt–cobble gravel and basalt sand. Soils reach the stage V level of carbonate development. Calibrated ages for soil stages are Stage V, ∼525,000 yr; stage IV, <525,000 yr, ≥250,000 yr; stage III, <250,000 yr, ≥100,000 yr. The monolithologic basalt sand beds represent overloading by volcanic ash produced by an eruption 30–50 km upstream. The basalt–cobble beds signal breaching and rapid destruction of lava dams and erosion of flows. These deposits show that the Colorado River responds to overload by aggrading vigorously during the overload and then downcutting equally vigorously when the overload ends. The overall downcutting rate for the interval studied is 1.6 cm/1000 yr, much lower than rates upstream. The current downcutting rate, 11–14 m/1000 yr, likely is a response both to the end of late Pleistocene and early Holocene overload and to the reduction of sediment supply caused by Glen Canyon Dam.

scholarly journals Cenozoic incision history of the Little Colorado River: Its role in carving Grand Canyon and onset of rapid incision in the past ca. 2 Ma in the Colorado River System

Geosphere ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
K.E. Karlstrom ◽  
L.J. Crossey ◽  
E. Embid ◽  
R. Crow ◽  
M. Heizler ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Colorado River ◽  
Grand Canyon ◽  
River System ◽  
The Past ◽  
History Of
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