Sedimentation in the Colorado River delta and Upper Gulf of California after nearly a century of discharge loss

Abstract

Human intervention in the hydrologic basin of the Colorado River has eliminated water discharge and sediment supply to the river's mouth and its delta. After ∼95 years of applying strong flow control policies, the previous sedimentary budget in the delta has changed, the delta now being entirely exposed to the hydrodynamic forces in its basin. In order to assess the anthropogenic impact of water diversion on deltaic sedimentary processes and short-term delta geomorphic evolution, textural and mineralogical analyses were performed on 68 sediment samples collected from the river, estuary, beach, continental shelf, delta plain and desert. The results show a consistent NE to SW textural gradient on the shallow-marine platform adjacent to the Colorado River delta (an area known as the Upper Gulf of California), and a net cross-basinal sediment transport occurring in the same direction. Two opposing littoral transport components exist along the Sonoran and Baja Californian coasts: (1) net sediment transport from SE to NW along the Sonoran coast delivers sediments from the ocean into the estuarine basin through the Sonora channel of the deltaic system of the Colorado River; and (2) sediment transport from N to S along the Baja Californian coast removes sediments from the estuarine basin of the Colorado River into the Northern Gulf of California (NGC). The residual sediment transport pattern observed suggests a counterclockwise path of exchange of materials between the estuarine basin of the Colorado River and the NGC. Multivariate cluster and factor analyses of the heavy-mineral data reveal the existence of a sedimentary system dominated by two end-members, representing two heavy-mineral sedimentary provinces: (1) the Sonora province is characterized by a heavy-mineral suite of garnet and zircon (G–Z), whose sediment supply originates from the sandy sediments of the Sonora Mesa deposits and Sonora's Gran Desierto; and (2) the Baja California province is characterized by a hornblende–epidote–pyroxene (H–E–P) suite, whose sediments originate from the earlier supply of the Colorado River. Since the Colorado River is no longer supplying sediments from its drainage basin, the H–E–P-rich sediments now actively dispersed in the system have mainly originated through intense reworking of the delta. Moreover, G–Z-rich sediments are starting to invade areas previously dominated by H–E–P sediments. On the basis of the prevailing hydraulic regime, textural and mineralogical characteristics of the sediments, and hydrographic and bathymetric information from the region, a hypothetical sediment dynamics model for the delta region is proposed, in which the tidally influenced, wave-dominated, sediment-reworked, slightly eroding Sonoran coast changes into a tide-dominated, depositional, very slowly prograding Baja Californian coast. This study shows that human intervention of the hydrologic basin of the Colorado River is not only responsible for inducing drastic hydrologic changes in its estuary (i.e., from brackish to hypersaline), but also for inducing drastic changes in the hydrographic circulation of the receiving basin (i.e., from long-basinal to cross-basinal). These changes are ultimately responsible for the relocation of massive volumes of the delta's sediment inventory, and for the serious ecological impact of habitat loss of indigenous species, such as the now endangered Totoaba ( Totoaba macdonaldi) and Vaquita ( Phocoena sinus).