Abstract
Channel morphology along the Middle Fork of the South Platte River near Fairplay, Colorado has changed from 1859 to the present in association with placer gold mining. Based on the premise that mining destabilized channel-bed and bank sediments, we hypothesize that there will be a relation between mining and channel morphologic and sedimentologic characteristics. To quantify differences in channel morphology between mined and unmined reaches, four primary channel characteristics (shape, bed material, migration, and sinuosity) were examined. A discriminant function analysis showed no statistical difference in channel shape between mined and unmined reaches. Bed material in reaches where mining occurred in the channel can be distinguished from unmined reaches on the basis of mean grain-size, sorting, and skewness. Mean grain-size and sorting increase and the skewness of the distribution is nearly symmetrical in mined areas. Statistical differences in planimetric form also were observed. The channel has been...
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