Palaeoflood hydrology of the Salt river,Arizona

Geomorphic evidence along bedrock-confined reaches of the Salt River in east-central Arizona provides a record of the river's largest flood events. Fine-grained flood slackwater deposits accumulated at channel margin irregularities several metres above the low-flow channel. Discharges associated with flow events responsible for the deposits were estimated by computer flow modelling. These estimates document flood magnitudes in excess of gauged historic streamflows. Relative and radiocarbon dating suggest that a flood record in excess of 600 y is preserved in the slackwater sequences. A prominent flood scar cut into grussy hillslope soils allows the extension of the prehistoric flood record to several thousand years. A maximum discharge estimate of 4600 m³s^?1 affixed to the flood scar represents the largest flood event in the record, and is given a minimum recurrence interval of 1000–2000 y. The 1952 flood is the largest historic flow event experienced along the study reach and is estimated at 2900 m³s^?1. Two palaeoflood events preserved in the slackwater stratigraphy exceed the 1952 event, and are given recurrence intervals of 300 and 600 y. The latter flood event had an estimated discharge of 3200 m³s^?1. It is apparent that discharge estimates affixed to these infrequent, large-magnitude flood events approach a maximum with decreased probabilities (large recurrence intervals). This suggests that a physical limit on discharge may exist within the Salt River drainage basin and is perhaps directly related to drainage basin size.     

Optimization strategies for sediment reduction practices on roads in steep,forested terrain

Many forested steeplands in the western United States display a legacy of disturbances due to timber harvest, mining or wildfires, for example. Such disturbances have caused accelerated hillslope erosion, leading to increased sedimentation in fish‐bearing streams. Several restoration techniques have been implemented to address these problems in mountain catchments, many of which involve the removal of abandoned roads and re‐establishing drainage networks across road prisms. With limited restoration funds to be applied across large catchments, land managers are faced with deciding which areas and problems should be treated first, and by which technique, in order to design the most effective and cost‐effective sediment reduction strategy. Currently most restoration is conducted on a site‐specific scale according to uniform treatment policies. To create catchment‐scale policies for restoration, we developed two optimization models – dynamic programming and genetic algorithms – to determine the most cost‐effective treatment level for roads and stream crossings in a pilot study basin with approximately 700 road segments and crossings. These models considered the trade‐offs between the cost and effectiveness of different restoration strategies to minimize the predicted erosion from all forest roads within a catchment, while meeting a specified budget constraint. The optimal sediment reduction strategies developed by these models performed much better than two strategies of uniform erosion control which are commonly applied to road erosion problems by land managers, with sediment savings increased by an additional 48 to 80 per cent. These optimization models can be used to formulate the most cost‐effective restoration policy for sediment reduction on a catchment scale. Thus, cost savings can be applied to further restoration work within the catchment. Nevertheless, the models are based on erosion rates measured on past restoration sites, and need to be updated as additional monitoring studies evaluate long‐term basin response to erosion control treatments. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On the calculation of total heat, salt and tracer fluxes from ocean hydrothermal events

Total heat, salt, and other tracer masses released during a hydrothermal event are shown to be proportional to, but not necessarily equal to, volume integrals of resulting water column anomalies. Proportionality coefficients depend on anomaly definition, on background hydrographic and tracer profiles, on expansion coefficients of the equation of state at an appropriate pressure, and on tracer to heat anomaly ratios at the venting source. For Gorda Ridge event plumes, which are described in other papers of this issue, volume integrals of conventionally defined heat anomalies underestimate actual released heat by a factor of 2.4 if the discharge is not anomalously saline. Under certain combinations of hydrographic and source anomaly conditions, not unlike those found on the East Pacific Rise at 10°N, the apparent total heat released during an event can be deceivingly zero. This analysis also establishes a linear relationship between the ratio of tracer anomaly to heat anomaly at any point in the plume to the same ratio at the source. One consequence is that the ratio of anomalous ³He to heat in Gorda Ridge event plumes is approximately 2.4 larger in the water column than it is at the source. Results are independent of the entrainment process involved in event plume formation, and they are shown to hold true even for background hydrographic profiles that do not vary linearly with depth.     

Thermokarst landforms and processes in Ares Vallis, Mars

With a length of 1500 km, Ares Vallis is one of the largest martian outflow channels, and is inferred to have been formed by cataclysmic floods of water conveyed from source areas, which are marked by chaotic terrain, to Chryse Planitia. Near its downstream outlet (14°N, 28°W), the floor of Ares widens to 100 km from its average 25 km width. This area of widened channel floor is marked by a complex of irregular terraces, elongated depressions, linear ridges, sinuous ridges, and other indicators of highly irregular dissection of a formerly continuous surface. Thermokarst processes, following either glacial or alluvial histories, seem best to explain these relationships. Various indicators of fluctuating discharge for water and sediment, ponding of debris, and prolonged flow suggest the emplacement of ice-rich debris in the anomalous reach of Ares Vallis. Post-flood or post-glacial thawing of the ice-rich sediments would then generate the thermokarst landscape. These processes, which are consistent with other indicators of anomalously warm climatic conditions, imply a profound change from the modern martian environment.     

Scaling the ivory towers

David Clements and Amanda Baker report on the RAS Careers Session at the NAM 2001, which examined barriers to progress from fixed-term contract posts.     

Oxygen isotope exchange between illite and water at 22°C

Oxygen isotope exchange experiments at 22°C have been made on a series of illites displaying a range of perfection of crystallinity and degree of interstratification. Structurally bound oxygen underwent significant non-equilibrium exchange in time periods ranging from 2 to 70 months. Exchange was found to be controlled by accessibility of water to the interlayer cation region.1000 In α appears to be in the general neighborhood of +23.4 at 22°C for the illite-water system; however, it was found that equilibrium fractionation cannot be represented by a single value for structurally and chemically distinct illites.