Pliocene-Pleistocene stability of the Queen Creek drainage in the Basin and Range Province, eastern Phoenix metropolitan area, Central Arizona

Abstract

Queen Creek exemplifies a moderately-sized tributary drainage of the Salt River, central Arizona, USA. In contrast to the exoreic Salt River and its immediate neighbor to the south, the exoreic Gila River, Queen Creek has remained an ephemeral stream, losing its discharge as it debouched from its mountain drainage basin throughout the late Pliocene and Quaternary. As a result, only the largest discharge events extended out into the center of the endorheic Higley Basin and then, later, to the Salt River. Data presented here demonstrate that the Queen Creek drainage existed long before the arrival of the Salt River in the Higley Basin, and continued to exist after aggradational piracy diverted the early Salt River around the north side of South Mountain. Thus, Queen Creek not only provides information about the history of internal drainage within the Higley Basin, but it also provides valuable insight about how a local endoreic stream reacts to drainage integration.