Letter from Mary Morton Kimball Kehew, Ashland, Massachusetts, to Anne Whitney, 1906

https://repository.wellesley.edu/whitney_correspondence/1851/thumbnail.jp

Letter from Mary Morton Kimball Kehew, Boston, Massachusetts, to Anne Whitney, Shelburne, New Hampshire, 1913 September 9

https://repository.wellesley.edu/whitney_correspondence/1852/thumbnail.jp

Reconstruction of a flash flood with large wood transport and its influence on hazard patterns in an ungauged mountain basin

The reconstruction of past flash floods in ungauged basins leads to a high level of uncertainty, which increases if other processes are involved such as the transport of large wood material. An important flash flood occurred in 1997 in Venero Claro (Central Spain), causing significant economic losses. The wood material clogged bridge sections, raising the water level upstream. The aim of this study was to reconstruct this event, analysing the influence of woody debris transport on the flood hazard pattern. Because the reach in question was affected by backwater effects due to bridge clogging, using only high water mark or palaeostage indicators may overestimate discharges, and so other methods are required to estimate peak flows. Therefore, the peak discharge was estimated (123±18 m3 s–1) using indirect methods, but one-dimensional hydraulic simulation was also used to validate these indirect estimates through an iterative process (127± 33 m3 s–1) and reconstruct the bridge obstruction to obtain the blockage ratio during the 1997 event (~48%) and the bridge clogging curves. Rainfall–Runoff modelling with stochastic simulation of different rainfall field configurations also helped to confirm that a peak discharge greater than 150 m3 s–1 is very unlikely to occur and that the estimated discharge range is consistent with the estimated rainfall amount (233± 27 mm). It was observed that the backwater effect due to the obstruction (water level ~7 m) made the 1997 flood (~35-year return period) equivalent to the 50-year flood. This allowed the equivalent return period to be defined as the recurrence interval of an event of specified magnitude, which, where large woody debris is present, is equivalent in water depth and extent of flooded area to a more extreme event of greater magnitude. These results highlight the need to include obstruction phenomena in flood hazard analysis. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, LtdWe express our gratitude to the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation for financial support. This work was funded by the MAS Dendro-Avenidas project (CGL2010-19274) and the Geological Survey of Spain (IGME). We are grateful to the Tagus Water Authority, Environment Department of Castilla y Leon in avila, Caja avila, Asocio de avila and Navaluenga Council for their collaboration. Our special thanks to forester Jose Luis Galan for his assistance in the field. We would also like to mention Juan Ballesteros, Ignacio Gutierrez, Tasio Fernandez, Leticia Salas, Carolina Guardiola and angel Prieto for contributing suggestions and interesting discussions that significantly improved this paper. Thanks to the contribution of two anonymous reviewers, which improved the quality of the early version of this manuscript.Ruiz-Villanueva, V.; Bodoque, J.; Díez-Herrero, A.; Eguíbar Galán, MÁ.; Pardo-Igúzquiza, E. (2012). Reconstruction of a flash flood with large wood transport and its influence on hazard patterns in an ungauged mountain basin. Hydrological Processes. (9433):1-14. https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.9433S114943

Integrated time-lapse geoelectrical imaging of wetland hydrological processes

Wetlands provide crucial habitats, are critical in the global carbon cycle, and act as key biogeochemical and hydrological buffers. The effectiveness of these services is mainly controlled by hydrological processes, which can be highly variable both spatially and temporally due to structural complexity and seasonality. Spatial analysis of 2D geoelectrical monitoring data integrated into the interpretation of conventional hydrological data has been implemented to provide a detailed understanding of hydrological processes in a riparian wetland. This study shows that a combination of processes can define the resistivity signature of the shallow subsurface, highlighting the seasonality of these processes and its corresponding effect on biogeochemical processesthe wetland hydrology. Groundwater exchange between peat and the underlying river terrace deposits, spatially and temporally defined by geoelectrical imaging and verified by point sensor data, highlighted the groundwater dependent nature of the wetland. A 30 % increase in peat resistivity was shown to be caused by a nearly entire exchange of the saturating groundwater. For the first time, we showed that automated interpretation of geoelectrical data can be used to quantify shrink-swell of expandable soils, affecting hydrological parameters, such as, porosity, water storage capacity, and permeability. This study shows that an integrated interpretation of hydrological and geophysical data can significantly improve the understanding of wetland hydrological processes. Potentially, this approach can provide the basis for the evaluation of ecosystem services and may aid in the optimization of wetland management strategies

Evaluation of factors influencing the groundwater chemistry in a small tropical island of Malaysia.

Groundwater chemistry of small tropical islands is influenced by many factors, such as recharge, weathering and seawater intrusion, among others, which interact with each other in a very complex way. In this work, multivariate statistical analysis was used to evaluate the factors controlling the groundwater chemistry of Kapas Island (Malaysia). Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to 17 hydrochemical parameters from 108 groundwater samples obtained from 18 sampling sites. PCA extracted four PCs, namely seawater intrusion, redox reaction, anthropogenic pollution and weather factors, which collectively were responsible for more than 87% of the total variance of the island’s hydrochemistry. The cluster analysis indicated that three factors (weather, redox reaction and seawater intrusion) controlled the hydrochemistry of the area, and the variables were allocated to three groups based on similarity. A Piper diagram classified the island’s water types into Ca-HCO3 water type, Na-HCO3 water type, Na-SO4-Cl water type and Na-Cl water type, indicating recharge, mixed, weathering and leached from sewage and seawater intrusion, respectively. This work will provide policy makers and land managers with knowledge of the precise water quality problems affecting the island and can also serve as a guide for hydrochemistry assessments of other islands that share similar characteristics with the island in question

An updated radiocarbon-based ice margin chronology for the last deglaciation of the North American Ice Sheet Complex

The North American Ice Sheet Complex (NAISC; consisting of the Laurentide, Cordilleran and Innuitian ice sheets) was the largest ice mass to repeatedly grow and decay in the Northern Hemisphere during the Quaternary. Understanding its pattern of retreat following the Last Glacial Maximum is critical for studying many facets of the Late Quaternary, including ice sheet behaviour, the evolution of Holocene landscapes, sea level, atmospheric circulation, and the peopling of the Americas. Currently, the most up-to-date and authoritative margin chronology for the entire ice sheet complex is featured in two publications (Geological Survey of Canada Open File 1574 [Dyke et al., 2003]; ‘Quaternary Glaciations – Extent and Chronology, Part II’ [Dyke, 2004]). These often-cited datasets track ice margin recession in 36 time slices spanning 18 ka to 1 ka (all ages in uncalibrated radiocarbon years) using a combination of geomorphology, stratigraphy and radiocarbon dating. However, by virtue of being over 15 years old, the ice margin chronology requires updating to reflect new work and important revisions. This paper updates the aforementioned 36 ice margin maps to reflect new data from regional studies. We also update the original radiocarbon dataset from the 2003/2004 papers with 1541 new ages to reflect work up to and including 2018. A major revision is made to the 18 ka ice margin, where Banks and Eglinton islands (once considered to be glacial refugia) are now shown to be fully glaciated. Our updated 18 ka ice sheet increased in areal extent from 17.81 to 18.37 million km2, which is an increase of 3.1% in spatial coverage of the NAISC at that time. Elsewhere, we also summarize, region-by-region, significant changes to the deglaciation sequence. This paper integrates new information provided by regional experts and radiocarbon data into the deglaciation sequence while maintaining consistency with the original ice margin positions of Dyke et al. (2003) and Dyke (2004) where new information is lacking; this is a pragmatic solution to satisfy the needs of a Quaternary research community that requires up-to-date knowledge of the pattern of ice margin recession of what was once the world’s largest ice mass. The 36 updated isochrones are available in PDF and shapefile format, together with a spreadsheet of the expanded radiocarbon dataset (n = 5195 ages) and estimates of uncertainty for each interval

Constraining bedrock erosion during extreme flood events

The importance of high-magnitude, short-lived flood events in controlling the evolution of bedrock landscapes is not well understood. During such events, erosion processes can shift from one regime to another upon the passing of thresholds, resulting in abrupt landscape changes that can have a long lasting legacy on landscape morphology. Geomorphological mapping and topographic analysis document the evidence for, and impact of, extreme flood events within the Jökulsárgljúfur canyon (North-East Iceland). Surface exposure dating using cosmogenic 3He of fluvially sculpted bedrock surfaces determines the timing of the floods that eroded the canyon and helps constrain the mechanisms of bedrock erosion during these events. Once a threshold flow depth has been exceeded, the dominant erosion mechanism becomes the toppling and transportation of basalt lava columns and erosion occurs through the upstream migration of knickpoints. Surface exposure ages allow identification of three periods of rapid canyon cutting during erosive flood events about 9, 5 and 2 ka ago, when multiple active knickpoints retreated large distances (> 2 km), each leading to catastrophic landscape change within the canyon. A single flood event ~9 ka ago formed, and then abandoned, Ásbyrgi canyon, eroding 0.14 km3 of rock. Flood events ~5 and ~2 ka ago eroded the upper 5 km of the Jökulsárgljúfur canyon through the upstream migration of vertical knickpoints such as Selfoss, Dettifoss and Hafragilsfoss. Despite sustained high discharge of sediment-rich glacial meltwater (ranging from 100 to 500 m3 s-1); there is no evidence for a transition to an abrasion-dominated erosion regime since the last erosive flood: the vertical knickpoints have not diffused over time and there is no evidence of incision into the canyon floor. The erosive signature of the extreme events is maintained in this landscape due to the nature of the bedrock, the discharge of the river, large knickpoints and associated plunge pools. The influence of these controls on the dynamics of knickpoint migration and morphology are explored using an experimental study. The retreat rate of knickpoints is independent of both mean discharge, and temporal variability in the hydrograph. The dominant control on knickpoint retreat is the knickpoint form which is set by the ratio of channel flow depth to knickpoint height. Where the knickpoint height is five times greater than the flow depth, the knickpoints developed undercutting plunge pools, accelerating the removal of material from the knickpoint base and the overall retreat rate. Smaller knickpoints relative to the flow depth were more likely to diffuse from a vertical step into a steepened reach or completely as the knickpoint retreated up the channel. These experiments challenge the established assumption in models of landscape evolution that a simple relationship exists between knickpoint retreat and discharge/drainage area. In order to fully understand how bedrock channels, and thus landscapes, respond and recover to transient forcing, further detailed study of the mechanics of erosion processes at knickpoints is required