Peak discharge of a Pleistocene lava-dam outburst flood in Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA

The failure of a lava dam 165,000 yr ago produced the largest known flood on the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. The Hyaloclastite Dam was up to 366 m high, and geochemical evidence linked this structure to outburst-flood deposits that occurred for 32 km downstream. Using the Hyaloclastite outburst-flood deposits as paleostage indicators, we used dam-failure and unsteady flow modeling to estimate a peak discharge and flow hydrograph. Failure of the Hyaloclastite Dam released a maximum 11 × 10⁹ m³ of water in 31 h. Peak discharges, estimated from uncertainty in channel geometry, dam height, and hydraulic characteristics, ranged from 2.3 to 5.3 × 10⁵ m³ s⁻¹ for the Hyaloclastite outburst flood. This discharge is an order of magnitude greater than the largest known discharge on the Colorado River (1.4 × 10⁴ m³ s⁻¹) and the largest peak discharge resulting from failure of a constructed dam in the USA (6.5 × 10⁴ m³ s⁻¹). Moreover, the Hyaloclastite outburst flood is the oldest documented Quaternary flood and one of the largest to have occurred in the continental USA. The peak discharge for this flood ranks in the top 30 floods (>10⁵ m³ s⁻¹) known worldwide and in the top ten largest floods in North America.     

Seismic Hazards Assessment for Radioactive Waste Disposal Sites in Regions of Low Seismic Activity

A comparative tectonic quiescence and lack of earthquakes make the stable centres of continents attractive for siting long-term radioactive waste storage facilities. The low rates of deformation in such regions, however, make it difficult to characterize their long-term seismotectonic behaviour, leading to uncertain estimates for the very low probability hazard estimates required by society. In an attempt to overcome the deficiency of both contemporary seismicity and paleoseismic data in central Canada, we have used earthquake histories from regions with similar seismotectonic characteristics from around the world. Substituting space for time, we estimate a long-term rate per 10⁶ km² of 0.004 magnitude ≥6 earthquakes per annum, of which 33–100% might rupture to the surface.     

Modelling phosphorus transport in a surface irrigation drain

Understanding phosphorus (P) transport from agricultural land is essential to the development of effective management strategies that reduce the impact of agriculture on inland water quality. This paper describes the development and application of a process based model describing P transfer down a farm scale irrigation drain.     

Late Pleistocene outburst flooding from pluvial Lake Alvord into the Owyhee River, Oregon

At least one large, late Pleistocene flood traveled into the Owyhee River as a result of a rise and subsequent outburst from pluvial Lake Alvord in southeastern Oregon. Lake Alvord breached Big Sand Gap in its eastern rim after reaching an elevation of 1292 m, releasing 11.3 km³ of water into the adjacent Coyote Basin as it eroded the Big Sand Gap outlet channel to an elevation of about 1280 m. The outflow filled and then spilled out of Coyote Basin through two outlets at 1278 m and into Crooked Creek drainage, ultimately flowing into the Owyhee and Snake Rivers. Along Crooked Creek, the resulting flood eroded canyons, stripped bedrock surfaces, and deposited numerous boulder bars containing imbricated clasts up to 4.1 m in diameter, some of which are located over 30 m above the present-day channel.Critical depth calculations at Big Sand Gap show that maximum outflow from a 1292- to 1280-m drop in Lake Alvord was  10,000 m³ s^− 1. Flooding became confined to a single channel approximately 40 km downstream of Big Sand Gap, where step-backwater calculations show that a much larger peak discharge of 40,000 m³ s^− 1 is required to match the highest geologic evidence of the flood in this channel. This inconsistency can be explained by (1) a single 10,000 m³ s^− 1 flood that caused at least 13 m of vertical incision in the channel (hence enlarging the channel cross-section); (2) multiple floods of 10,000 m³ s^− 1 or less, each producing some incision of the channel; or (3) an earlier flood of 40,000 m³ s^− 1 creating the highest flood deposits and crossed drainage divides observed along Crooked Creek drainage, followed by a later 10,000 m³ s^− 1 flood associated with the most recent shorelines in Alvord and Coyote Basins.Well-developed shorelines of Lake Alvord at 1280 m and in Coyote Basin at 1278 m suggest that after the initial flood, postflood overflow persisted for an extended period, connecting Alvord and Coyote Basins with the Owyhee River of the Columbia River drainage. Surficial weathering characteristics and planktonic freshwater diatoms in Lake Alvord sediment stratigraphically below Mt. St. Helens set Sg tephra, suggest deep open-basin conditions at  13–14 ka (¹⁴C yr) and that the flood and prominent shorelines date to about this time. But geomorphic and sedimentological evidence also show that Alvord and Coyote Basins held older, higher-elevation lakes that may have released earlier floods down Crooked Creek.     

Field measurements of horizontal forward motion velocities of terrestrial dust devils: Towards a proxy for ambient winds on Mars and Earth

Dust devils – convective vortices made visible by the dust and debris they entrain – are common in arid environments and have been observed on Earth and Mars. Martian dust devils have been identified both in images taken at the surface and in remote sensing observations from orbiting spacecraft. Observations from landing craft and orbiting instruments have allowed the dust devil translational forward motion (ground velocity) to be calculated, but it is unclear how these velocities relate to the local ambient wind conditions, for (i) only model wind speeds are generally available for Mars, and (ii) on Earth only anecdotal evidence exists that compares dust devil ground velocity with ambient wind velocity. If dust devil ground velocity can be reliably correlated to the ambient wind regime, observations of dust devils could provide a proxy for wind speed and direction measurements on Mars. Hence, dust devil ground velocities could be used to probe the circulation of the martian boundary layer and help constrain climate models or assess the safety of future landing sites.We present results from a field study of terrestrial dust devils performed in the southwest USA in which we measured dust devil horizontal velocity as a function of ambient wind velocity. We acquired stereo images of more than a 100 active dust devils and recorded multiple size and position measurements for each dust devil. We used these data to calculate dust devil translational velocity. The dust devils were within a study area bounded by 10 m high meteorology towers such that dust devil speed and direction could be correlated with the local ambient wind speed and direction measurements.Daily (10:00–16:00 local time) and 2-h averaged dust devil ground speeds correlate well with ambient wind speeds averaged over the same period. Unsurprisingly, individual measurements of dust devil ground speed match instantaneous measurements of ambient wind speed more poorly; a 20-min smoothing window applied to the ambient wind speed data improves the correlation. In general, dust devils travel 10–20% faster than ambient wind speed measured at 10 m height, suggesting that their ground speeds are representative of the boundary layer winds a few tens of meters above ground level. Dust devil ground motion direction closely matches the measured ambient wind direction.The link between ambient winds and dust devil ground velocity demonstrated here suggests that a similar one should apply on Mars. Determining the details of the martian relationship between dust devil ground velocity and ambient wind velocity might require new in situ or modelling studies but, if completed successfully, would provide a quantitative means of measuring wind velocities on Mars that would otherwise be impossible to obtain.     

Holocene vegetation dynamics and hydrological variability in forested peatlands of the Clay Belt,eastern Canada,reconstructed using a palaeoecological approach

Forested peatlands are widespread in boreal regions of Canada, and these ecosystems, which are major terrestrial carbon sinks, are undergoing significant transformations linked to climate change, fires and human activities. This study targets millennial‐scale vegetation dynamics and related hydrological variability in forested peatlands of the Clay Belt south of James Bay, eastern Canada, using palaeoecological data. Changes in peatland vegetation communities were reconstructed using plant macrofossil analyses, and variations in water‐table depths were inferred using testate amoeba analyses. High‐resolution analyses of macroscopic charcoal >0.5 mm were used to reconstruct local fire history. Our data showed two successional pathways towards the development of present‐day forested peatlands influenced by autogenic processes such as vertical peat growth and related drying, and allogenic factors such as the occurrence of local fires. The oldest documented peatland initiated in a wet rich fen around 8000 cal. a BP shortly after land emergence and transformed into a drier forested bog rapidly after peat inception that persisted over millennia. In the second site, peat started to accumulate from ~5200 cal. a BP over a mesic coniferous forest that shifted into a wet forested peatland following a fire that partially consumed the organic layer ~4600 cal. a BP. The charcoal records show that fires rarely occurred in these peatlands, but they have favoured the process of forest paludification and influenced successional trajectories over millennia. The macrofossil data suggest that Picea mariana (black spruce) persisted on the peatlands throughout their development, although there were periods of more open canopy due to local fires in some cases. This study brings new understanding on the natural variability of boreal forested peatlands which may help predict their response to future changes in climate, fire regimes and anthropogenic disturbances.     

Evaluation of cosmogenic 3He and 21Ne production rates in olivine and pyroxene from two Pleistocene basalt flows,western Grand Canyon,AZ, USA

Combining cosmogenic ³He and ²¹Ne (³He_c and ²¹Ne_c) measurements on both pyroxene and olivine from the Pleistocene Bar Ten flows (85–107 ka) greatly increases our ability to evaluate the accuracy of ³He_c and ²¹Ne_c production rates and, therefore, ³He_c and ²¹Ne_c surface exposure ages. Comparison of ³He_c and ²¹Ne_c age-pairs yielded by experimentally determined production rates and composition-based model calculations indicates that the former give more accurate surface exposure ages than the latter in this study. However, experimental production rates should be adjusted to the composition of the minerals being analyzed to obtain the best agreement between ³He_c and ²¹Ne_c ages for any given sample. ²¹Ne_c/³He_c values are 0.400 ± 0.029 and 0.204 ± 0.014 for olivine and pyroxene, respectively, in Bar Ten lava flows, in agreement with previously published values, and indicate that ²¹Ne_c/³He_c in olivine and pyroxene is not affected by erosion and remains constant with latitude, elevation, and time (up to 10 Myr). Samples with ²¹Ne_c/³He_c that do not agree with these values may indicate the presence of non-cosmogenic helium and/or neon. The neon three-isotope diagram can also indicate whether or not all excess neon in mineral separates comes from cosmogenic sources. An error-weighted regression for olivine defines a spallation line [y = (1.033 ± 0.031)x + (0.09876 ± 0.00033)], which is indistinguishable from that for pyroxene (Schäfer et al., 1999). We have derived a production rate of 25 ± 8 at/g/yr for ²¹Ne_c in clinopyroxene (En_43–44) based on the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age of the upper Bar Ten flow. Our study indicates that the production rate of ²¹Ne_c in olivine may be slightly higher than previously determined. Cosmogenic ³He and ²¹Ne remain extremely useful, particularly when paired, in determining accurate eruption ages of young olivine- and pyroxene-rich basaltic lava flows.     

10Be and 26Al exposure‐age dating of bedrock surfaces on the Aran ridge,Wales: evidence for a thick Welsh Ice Cap at the Last Glacial Maximum

This paper presents results of the analysis of paired cosmogenic isotopes (¹⁰Be and ²⁶Al) from eight quartz‐rich samples collected from ice‐moulded bedrock on the Aran ridge, the highest land in the British Isles south of Snowdon. On the Aran ridge, comprising the summits of Aran Fawddwy (905 m a.s.l.) and Aran Benllyn (885 m a.s.l.), ²⁶Al and ¹⁰Be ages indicate complete ice coverage and glacial erosion at the global Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). Six samples from the summit ridge above 750–800 m a.s.l. yielded paired ¹⁰Be and ²⁶Al ages ranging from 17.2 to 34.4 ka, respectively. Four of these samples are very close in age (¹⁰Be ages of 17.5 ± 0.6, 17.5 ± 0.7, 19.7 ± 0.8 and 20.0 ± 0.7 ka) and are interpreted as representing the exposure age of the summit ridge. Two other summit samples are much older (¹⁰Be ages of 27.5 ± 1.0 and 33.9 ± 1.2 ka) and these results may indicate nuclide inheritance. The ²⁶Al/¹⁰Be ratios for all samples are indistinguishable within one‐sigma uncertainty from the production rate ratio line, indicating that there is no evidence for a complex exposure history. These results indicate that the last Welsh Ice Cap was thick enough to completely cover the Aran ridge and achieve glacial erosion at the LGM. However, between c. 20 and 17 ka ridge summits were exposed as nunataks at a time when glacial erosion at lower elevations (below 750–800 m a.s.l.) was achieved by large outlet glaciers in the valleys surrounding the mountains. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Seismic stratigraphy records the deglacial history of Jakobshavn Isbræ, West Greenland

Jakobshavn Isbræ is one of the largest ice streams in the Greenland Ice Sheet, presently draining c. 6.5% of the Inland Ice. Here we present high‐resolution Chirp and Sparker sub‐bottom profiles from a seismic survey conducted just outside of the Jakobshavn Isfjord, which provides detailed insight into the glacimarine sedimentary history of the Jakobshavn ice stream during the Holocene. We observe acoustically stratified and homogeneous sediments that drape an irregular substratum and were deposited between ～10 and c. 7.6k cal a BP. The stratified lower units are interpreted as the product of ice‐proximal glacimarine sedimentation deposited rapidly when the grounded ice margin was located close to depositional basins on topographic highs. The upper acoustically homogenous units reflect suspension settling of fine‐grained material and gravitational flows that were extruded from an increasingly unstable ice margin as the ice retreated into the fjord. Proximity to the ice margin and bedrock topography were the dominant controls on sediment accumulation during deglaciation although the 8.2‐ka cooling event probably influenced the position of the ice margin at the fjord mouth. The post‐glacial sedimentary record is characterized by glacimarine and hemipelagic rainout with an increased ice‐rafted detritus fraction that records sedimentation following ice stream retreat into Jakobshavn Isfjord sometime after c. 7.8k cal a BP. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.