Quick
Search: 		  
advanced search
 GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help 
GSA Bulletin Signup for GSW Email News
JOURNAL HOME HELP CONTACT PUBLISHER SUBSCRIBE ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
GSA Bulletin; December 2002; v. 114; no. 12; p. 1550-1563; DOI: 10.1130/0016-7606(2002)114<1550:VFADTL>2.0.CO;2
© 2002 Geological Society of America
This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Hereford, R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
GeoRef
Right arrow GeoRef Citation

Valley-fill alluviation during the Little Ice Age (ca. A.D. 1400–1880), Paria River basin and southern Colorado Plateau, United States

Richard Hereford{dagger},1

1 U.S. Geological Survey, 2255 North Gemini Drive, Flagstaff, Arizona 86001, USA

Valley-fill alluvium deposited from ca. A.D. 1400 to 1880 is widespread in tributaries of the Paria River and is largely coincident with the Little Ice Age epoch of global climate variability. Previous work showed that alluvium of this age is a mappable stratigraphic unit in many of the larger alluvial valleys of the southern Colorado Plateau. The alluvium is bounded by two disconformities resulting from prehistoric and historic arroyo cutting at ca. A.D. 1200–1400 and 1860–1910, respectively. The fill forms a terrace in the axial valleys of major through-flowing streams. This terrace and underlying deposits are continuous and interfinger with sediment in numerous small tributary valleys that head at the base of hillslopes of sparsely vegetated, weakly consolidated bedrock, suggesting that eroded bedrock was an important source of alluvium along with in-channel and other sources. Paleoclimatic and high-resolution paleoflood studies indicate that valley-fill alluviation occurred during a long-term decrease in the frequency of large, destructive floods. Aggradation of the valleys ended about A.D. 1880, if not two decades earlier, with the beginning of historic arroyo cutting. This shift from deposition to valley entrenchment near the close of the Little Ice Age generally coincided with the beginning of an episode of the largest floods in the preceding 400–500 yr, which was probably caused by an increased recurrence and intensity of flood-producing El Niño events beginning at ca. A.D. 1870.

Key Words: alluvial deposits • arroyos • climate effects • El Niño • geomorphology • Holocene




This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Geological Society of America BulletinHome page
D. H. Mann and D. J. Meltzer
Millennial-scale dynamics of valley fills over the past 12,000 14C yr in northeastern New Mexico, USA
Geological Society of America Bulletin, November 1, 2007; 119(11-12): 1433 - 1448.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Geological Society of America BulletinHome page
M. C. Reheis, R. L. Reynolds, H. Goldstein, H. M. Roberts, J. C. Yount, Y. Axford, L. S. Cummings, and N. Shearin
Late Quaternary eolian and alluvial response to paleoclimate, Canyonlands, southeastern Utah
Geological Society of America Bulletin, July 1, 2005; 117(7-8): 1051 - 1069.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

Home page
 Progress in Physical GeographyHome page
E. S.J. Dollar
Fluvial geomorphology
Progress in Physical Geography, September 1, 2004; 28(3): 405 - 450.
[PDF]


JOURNAL HOME HELP CONTACT PUBLISHER SUBSCRIBE ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 2009 by Geological Society of America