Fire, climate, and alluvial system dynamics: A Holocene record from Yellowstone National Park
- Univ. of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM (United States). Dept. of Geology
- Univ. of California, Riverside, CA (United States). Dept. of Earth Sciences
- Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ (United States). NSF-Arizona Accelerator Facility For Isotope Dating
Many large debris-flow, hyperconcentrated-flow, and flood-streamflow sediment transport events have been produced in steep basins that were burned in the 1988 fires in northeaster Yellowstone National Park. The charcoal- and fines-rich character of fire-related debris-flow deposits and the abundance of similar facies in Holocene fan sections have allowed them to construct a [sup 14]C-dated chronology of fire-related sedimentation in the Soda Butte and Slough Creek drainages for the last 3500 years. Major periods of fire-related alluvial fan aggradation are interpreted as drought-dominated with the support of local paleoenvironmental data and statistical analyses of historical climate-fire relations; however, some fire-related events may occur due to high climatic variability and severe short-term drought within generally moist intervals. The last major episode of fire-related debris-flow activity encompasses the Medieval Warm Period of 900--1300 AD and peaks ca. 1150 AD; a prior episode culminates ca. 350--100 BC. Wetter periods contain minimal fire-related fan sedimentation; however, floodplain broadening and aggradation occurs along axial streams. Higher average snowmelt runoff discharges are probably involved, such that the dominant alluvial activity shifts to removal of sediment from alluvial fan storage and transport to downstream floodplains. The Little Ice Age (ca. 1300--1900 AD) contains minimal fire-related debris0flow activity and is associated with floodplain aggradation of the T4 terrace, and independent evidence suggests substantially wetter conditions during T3 aggradation ca. 350--650 AD. Thus, small-scale climate changes of the late Holocene effectively control the dominant mode of alluvial activity.
- OSTI ID:
- 5807429
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-921058-; CODEN: GAAPBC
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 24:7; Conference: 1992 annual meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA), Cincinnati, OH (United States), 26-29 Oct 1992; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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