scholarly journals Using Map Interpretation Techniques for Relative Dating to Determine a Western North Dakota and South Dakota Drainage Basin Formation Sequence, Missouri River Drainage Basin, USA

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Eric Clausen
Keyword(s):  
South Dakota ◽  
Drainage Basin ◽  
Missouri River ◽  
River System ◽  
Topographic Maps ◽  
Drainage Basins ◽  
Flow Channels ◽  
Map Interpretation ◽  
River Valleys ◽  
North And South

Map interpretation techniques are used to determine the sequence in which western North and South Dakota erosion events occurred. The map interpretation techniques apply the principle of cross cutting relationships by studying asymmetric drainage divides, barbed tributaries, elbows of capture, drainage divide crossings, abandoned headcuts, and similar features on detailed topographic maps to determine the sequence in which drainage basins and valleys within those drainage basins formed. Detailed topographic maps covering western North and South Dakota show numerous closely spaced divide crossings along drainage divides separating the White, Bad, Cheyenne, Moreau, Grand, Cannonball, Heart, Knife, and Little Missouri Rivers. These divide crossings often form links between opposing northwest- and southeast-oriented tributary stream valleys and provide evidence of multiple closely spaced southeast-oriented flow channels that existed prior to formation of the deeper present day east-, northeast-, and north-oriented river valleys. Numerous barbed tributaries in the form of northwest-oriented tributaries to east- and northeast-oriented rivers (and major tributaries to the mentioned rivers) and southeast-oriented tributaries to the northeast- and north-oriented rivers (and tributaries to the mentioned rivers) suggest the deeper river (and tributary) valleys eroded headward across the southeast-oriented flow channels. Asymmetric drainage divides, barbed tributaries, abandoned headcuts, and elbows of capture demonstrate the southeast-oriented flow, which was most likely in the form of floods of ice-marginal melt water moving between the Black Hills uplift and a continental ice sheet’s southwest margin, was captured in sequence by headward erosion of the White, Bad, Cheyenne, Moreau, Grand, Cannonball, Heart, Knife, and Little Missouri River valleys. This erosion event sequence and its probable cause, determined from the map evidence, has major implications related to what is commonly considered to have been a much larger pre-glacial Bell River system, which included segments of each of the studied river valleys, and for all geologic and glacial history interpretations based on a Bell River system pre-glacial age interpretation. 

scholarly journals A Stepwise GIS Approach for the Delineation of River Valley Bottom within Drainage Basins Using a Cost Distance Accumulation Analysis

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 827
Author(s):  
Gasper L. Sechu ◽  
Bertel Nilsson ◽  
Bo V. Iversen ◽  
Mette B. Greve ◽  
Christen D. Børgesen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Data ◽  
Nutrient Loading ◽  
Drainage Basin ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Drainage Basins ◽  
Valley Bottom ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Cost Distance ◽  
River Valleys

River valley bottoms have hydrological, geomorphological, and ecological importance and are buffers for protecting the river from upland nutrient loading coming from agriculture and other sources. They are relatively flat, low-lying areas of the terrain that are adjacent to the river and bound by increasing slopes at the transition to the uplands. These areas have under natural conditions, a groundwater table close to the soil surface. The objective of this paper is to present a stepwise GIS approach for the delineation of river valley bottom within drainage basins and use it to perform a national delineation. We developed a tool that applies a concept called cost distance accumulation with spatial data inputs consisting a river network and slope derived from a digital elevation model. We then used wetlands adjacent to rivers as a guide finding the river valley bottom boundary from the cost distance accumulation. We present results from our tool for the whole country of Denmark carrying out a validation within three selected areas. The results reveal that the tool visually performs well and delineates both confined and unconfined river valleys within the same drainage basin. We use the most common forms of wetlands (meadow and marsh) in Denmark’s river valleys known as Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems (GDE) to validate our river valley bottom delineated areas. Our delineation picks about half to two-thirds of these GDE. However, we expected this since farmers have reclaimed Denmark’s low-lying areas during the last 200 years before the first map of GDE was created. Our tool can be used as a management tool, since it can delineate an area that has been the focus of management actions to protect waterways from upland nutrient pollution.

scholarly journals Topographic Map Analysis of High Elevation Black Hills Through Valleys Linking Spearfish and Rapid Creek Headwaters Valleys, Lawrence County, South Dakota, USA

2017 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 8
Author(s):  
Eric Clausen
Keyword(s):  
South Dakota ◽  
Drainage Basin ◽  
Water Source ◽  
High Elevation ◽  
Black Hills ◽  
Topographic Map ◽  
Drainage Basins ◽  
Converging Channel ◽  
Lawrence County ◽  
Map Analysis

The Spearfish-Rapid Creek drainage extends from elevations greater than 7130 feet (2173 meters) roughly in a north direction across the northern Black Hills upland to where it becomes the Spearfish-Whitewood Creek drainage divide at an elevation of approximately 6440 feet (1963 meters) and separates north-oriented Spearfish Creek headwaters from southeast- and east-oriented Rapid Creek headwaters. This study used detailed topographic maps to investigate through valleys (and wind gaps) now crossing the Spearfish-Rapid Creek drainage divide, which is one of the Black Hills’ highest drainage divides. Through valley (or wind gap) floor elevations were determined and ranged from approximately 6150 feet (1875 meters) to approximately 7050 feet (2149 meters) and through valley (and wind gap) depths were also calculated and ranged from approximately 30 feet (9 meters) to about 290 feet (88 meters). Map evidence suggesting these through valleys (and wind gaps) originated as components of diverging and converging complexes of bedrock-walled channels is described and suggests large and prolonged southeast-oriented floods once flowed from or across the Spearfish Creek drainage basin to the Rapid Creek drainage basin. Based on today’s topography there is no upland Black Hills region capable of generating the large and prolonged floods required to erode the observed through valleys (and wind gaps) and their associated diverging and converging channel complexes so the erosion is interpreted to have taken place while the Black Hills were just beginning to emerge as the topographic high they are today. A water source could not be determined from map evidence, but large and prolonged southeast-oriented floods across the region are consistent with a recently proposed hypothesis that massive southeast-oriented (continental ice sheet) ice-marginal melt water floods eroded what are today western South Dakota and North Dakota river drainage basins. 

The Southern Cult in the Northern Plains

1953 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 130-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
James H. Howard
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
South Dakota ◽  
North Dakota ◽  
Southeastern United States ◽  
Missouri River ◽  
Geographic Area ◽  
Northern Plains ◽  
The North ◽  
Platform Mounds ◽  
River Valleys

Recently renewed interest has been focused upon the occurrence in the Plains area of the archaeological complex often termed the “Southern cult.” This complex is found over a wide geographic area and in association with varied cultures. It occurs throughout the southeastern United States, and extends north and west along the Mississippi and Missouri River valleys. It has been found in eastern South Dakota, eastern North Dakota, and in the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan in Canada. The complex is characterized by specific art motifs and ceremonial objects, including masklike whelk shell gorgets, and the cross, forkedeye, and hand-and-eye motifs. The complex was apparently fundamentally dependent upon a horticultural base, and is associated in nearly every case with platform mounds. Sites often thought of in connection with the Southern cult are Etowah (Georgia), Moundville (Alabama), and Spiro (Oklahoma). The author has recently examined materials in the collections of the North Dakota State Historical Museum for artifacts related to the complex.

scholarly journals Size-Dependent Trophic Patterns of Pallid Sturgeon and Shovelnose Sturgeon in a Large River System

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
William E. French ◽  
Brian D. S. Graeb ◽  
Katie N. Bertrand ◽  
Steven R. Chipps ◽  
Robert A. Klumb
Keyword(s):  
South Dakota ◽  
Trophic Position ◽  
Fork Length ◽  
Missouri River ◽  
River System ◽  
Large River ◽  
Diet Shift ◽  
Fish Prey ◽  
Shovelnose Sturgeon ◽  
Pallid Sturgeon

Abstract This study compared patterns of δ15N and δ13C enrichment of pallid sturgeon Scaphirhynchus albus and shovelnose sturgeon S. platorynchus in the Missouri River, United States, to infer their trophic position in a large river system. We examined enrichment and energy flow for pallid sturgeon in three segments of the Missouri River (Montana/North Dakota, Nebraska/South Dakota, and Nebraska/Iowa) and made comparisons between species in the two downstream segments (Nebraska/South Dakota and Nebraska/Iowa). Patterns in isotopic composition for pallid sturgeon were consistent with gut content analyses indicating an ontogenetic diet shift from invertebrates to fish prey at sizes of >500-mm fork length (FL) in all three segments of the Missouri River. Isotopic patterns revealed shovelnose sturgeon did not experience an ontogenetic shift in diet and used similar prey resources as small (<500-mm FL) pallid sturgeon in the two downstream segments. We found stable isotope analysis to be an effective tool for evaluating the trophic position of sturgeons within a large river food web.

scholarly journals A stepwise GIS approach for the delineation of river valley bottom within drainage basins using a cost distance accumulation analysis

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gasper L. Sechu ◽  
Bertel Nilsson ◽  
Bo V. Iversen ◽  
Mette B. Greve ◽  
Christen D. Børgesen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Data ◽  
Nutrient Loading ◽  
Drainage Basin ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Drainage Basins ◽  
Valley Bottom ◽  
Management Actions ◽  
Cost Distance ◽  
River Valleys

Abstract. River valley bottoms have hydrological, geomorphological, and ecological importance and are buffers for protecting the river from upland nutrient loading coming from agriculture and other sources. They are relatively flat, low-lying areas of the terrain that are adjacent to the river and bound by increasing slopes at the transition to the uplands. These areas have under natural conditions, a groundwater table close to the soil surface. The objective of this paper is to present a stepwise GIS approach for the delineation of river valley bottom within drainage basins and use it to perform a national delineation. We developed a tool that applies a concept called cost distance accumulation with spatial data inputs consisting a river network and slope derived from a digital elevation model. We then used wetlands adjacent to rivers as a guide finding the river valley bottom boundary from the cost distance accumulation. We present results from our tool for the whole country of Denmark carrying out a validation within three selected areas. The results reveal that the tool visually performs well and delineates both confined and unconfined river valleys within the same drainage basin. We use the most common forms of wetlands (meadow and marsh) in Denmark's river valleys known as Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems (GDE) to validate our river valley bottom delineated areas. Our delineation picks about half to two-thirds of these GDE. However, we expected this since farmers have reclaimed Denmark's low-lying areas during the last 200 years before the first map of GDE was created. Our tool can be used as a management tool, since it can delineate an area that has been the focus of management actions to protect waterways from upland nutrient pollution.

scholarly journals Pennypack Creek Drainage Basin Erosion History: Bucks, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties, PA, USA

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 37
Author(s):  
Eric Clausen
Keyword(s):  
Drainage Basin ◽  
Drainage System ◽  
Topographic Map ◽  
Drainage Basins ◽  
Flow Channels ◽  
Erosion History ◽  
Converging Flow ◽  
The City ◽  
Headward Erosion ◽  
Basin Erosion

Topographic map evidence is used to interpret Pennypack Creek drainage basin erosion history in and north of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA). Southwest and west-southwest oriented through valleys crossing the south oriented Pennypack Creek drainage basin, barbed Pennypack Creek tributaries, and significant valley direction changes are used to determine that the Pennypack Creek valley eroded headward across massive southwest oriented floods. Initially floodwaters flowed on a low gradient topographic surface at least as high, if not higher, than the highest Pennypack Creek drainage basin elevations today. Shallow low gradient diverging and converging flow channels were eroded into the underlying bedrock surface predominantly along fault lines and other zones of easier to erode materials. Headward erosion of the much deeper Pennypack Creek valley across this anastomosing channel complex captured southwest oriented floodwaters and flow on northeast ends of beheaded channels was reversed so as to move toward the newly eroded and deeper Pennypack Creek valley. These reversed flow channels captured southwest oriented floodwaters still moving north of the actively eroding Pennypack Creek valley head. This captured water then moved in a northeast direction and eroded deep northeast oriented valleys headward from the newly eroded Pennypack Creek valley. These valleys today account for northeast and east oriented Pennypack Creek valley segments and northeast oriented (barbed) tributaries flowing to south oriented Pennypack Creek. The floodwater source cannot be determined from Pennypack Creek drainage basin evidence, but was from the northeast. Melting of a continental ice sheet could produce floods of sufficient volume and duration to overwhelm whatever drainage system previously existed and to erode new drainage basins in a manner similar to how the Pennypack Creek drainage basin was eroded.

scholarly journals Origin of the Redwater River Drainage Basin Determined by Topographic Map Interpretation: Eastern Montana, USA

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 42
Author(s):  
Eric Clausen
Keyword(s):  
Drainage Basin ◽  
Missouri River ◽  
River Valley ◽  
Dry Valleys ◽  
Topographic Map ◽  
Yellowstone River ◽  
River Drainage ◽  
The North ◽  
Map Interpretation ◽  
River Drainage Basin

Topographic and geologic map interpretation strongly suggests the eastern Montana Redwater River valley eroded headward across large southeast-oriented ice-marginal melt water floods. The north-oriented Redwater River heads in an area to the south of recognized continental glaciation and flows into the recognized glaciated region before joining the east-oriented Missouri River. Detailed topographic maps show the eastern drainage divide is asymmetric with steeper slopes on the Redwater River side and is crossed by shallow dry valleys linking northwest-oriented Redwater River tributaries with southeast-oriented streams that flow as barbed tributaries to the northeast-oriented Yellowstone River. The western drainage divide is also crossed by shallow dry valleys linking northwest-oriented drainage routes to north-oriented Missouri River tributaries with southeast-oriented and barbed tributaries to the northeast- and north-oriented Redwater River. Alluvium from upstream Yellowstone River source areas found within the Redwater River drainage basin suggests the Redwater River and much longer Yellowstone River valleys eroded headward from a continental ice sheet margin as headward erosion of the larger Yellowstone River valley across the southeast-oriented flood flow was supplemented by northeast- and north-oriented flow moving at the present day Redwater-Yellowstone River drainage divide elevation.

DRAINAGE BASIN AS A COMPLEX SOCIO-NATURAL HIERARCHICAL SYSTEM

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 293-303
Author(s):  
VALERIY BONDAREV
Keyword(s):  
Drainage Basin ◽  
Temporal Analysis ◽  
Large River ◽  
Hierarchical Level ◽  
Effective Management ◽  
Drainage Basins ◽  
Time Intervals ◽  
Natural Systems ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Analysis ◽  
Entire Complex

The theoretical and methodological basis of the systems hierarchical spatial and temporal analysis of a drainage basin, which addresses the problems of effective management in socio-natural systems of different ranks, is considered. It is proposed to distinguish 9 orders of forms that are relevant to the analysis of drainage basins, where the first level is represented by individual aggregates and particles, and the last - by basins of large and the largest rivers. As part of the allocation of geological, historical and modern time intervals, the specificity of the implementation of processes in basins of different scales from changing states, through functioning to evolution is demonstrated. The interrelation of conditions and factors that determine the processes occurring within the drainage basins is revealed. It is shown that a specific combination of conditions and factors that determine processes in the drainage basin is associated with the hierarchy of the objects under consideration, i.e. the choice of a spatial-temporal hierarchical level is crucial for the organization of study within drainage basins. At one hierarchical level, some phenomenon can be considered as a factor, and at another - as a condition. For example, tectonic processes can be considered as an active factor in the evolution of large river basins in the geological perspective, but for small drainage basin, this is already a conservative background condition. It is shown that at the historical time the anthropogenic factor often comes to the fore, with the appearance of which in the functioning of the drainage basin, there is a need to take into account the entire complex of socio-environmental problems that can affect the sustainable state of various territories, especially in the field of water and land use. Hierarchical levels of managing subjects are identified, which are primarily responsible for effective management at the appropriate hierarchical level of the organization of the socio-natural system within the catchment area, starting from an individual to humankind as a whole.

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