Creek Valley Research Articles

A Woodland Period Goose Creek Plain, var. unspecified Sherd from 41WM1382 in Central Texas

41WM1382 is in the Brushy Creek valley in Williamson County, Texas, near the community of Normans Crossing. Brushy Creek is an eastward-flowing tributary of the San Gabriel River in the Blackland Prairie natural region in the Brazos River basin. The site’s principal archaeological deposits date to the Late Archaic period (between ca. 4000-1200 years B.P.), but one ca. A.D. 900-1200 Kiam Incised sherd has been found here (Perttula and Mikulencak 2018).

Debris flow hazard assessment by means of numerical simulations: implications for the Rotolon creek valley (Northern Italy)

On 4th November 2010, a debris flow detached from a large debris cover accumulated above the lowermost portion of the Rotolon landslide (Vicentine Pre-Alps, NE Italy) and channelized in the valley below within the Rotolon Creek riverbed. Such event evolved into a highly mobile and sudden debris flow, damaging some hydraulic works and putting at high risk four villages located along the creek banks. A monitoring campaign was carried out by means of a ground based radar interferometer (GB-InSAR) to evaluate any residual displacement risk in the affected area and in the undisturbed neighbouring materials. Moreover, starting from the current slope condition, a landslide runout numerical modelling was performed by means of DAN-3D code to assess the impacted areas, flow velocity, and deposit distribution of the simulated events. The rheological parameters necessary for an accurate modelling were obtained through the back analysis of the 2010 debris flow event. Back analysis was calibrated with all of the available terrain data coming from field surveys and ancillary documents, such as topographic, geomorphological and geological maps, with pre- and post-event LiDAR derived DTMs, and with orthophotos. Finally, to identify new possible future debris flow source areas as input data for the new modelling, all the obtained terrain data were reanalysed and integrated with the GB-InSAR displacement maps; consequently, new simulations were made to forecast future events. The results show that the integration of the selected modelling technique with ancillary data and radar displacement maps can be a very useful tool for managing problems related to debris flow events in the examined area.

Pennypack Creek Drainage Basin Erosion History: Bucks, Montgomery, and Philadelphia Counties, PA, USA

Topographic map evidence is used to interpret Pennypack Creek drainage basin erosion history in and north of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (USA). Southwest and west-southwest oriented through valleys crossing the south oriented Pennypack Creek drainage basin, barbed Pennypack Creek tributaries, and significant valley direction changes are used to determine that the Pennypack Creek valley eroded headward across massive southwest oriented floods. Initially floodwaters flowed on a low gradient topographic surface at least as high, if not higher, than the highest Pennypack Creek drainage basin elevations today. Shallow low gradient diverging and converging flow channels were eroded into the underlying bedrock surface predominantly along fault lines and other zones of easier to erode materials. Headward erosion of the much deeper Pennypack Creek valley across this anastomosing channel complex captured southwest oriented floodwaters and flow on northeast ends of beheaded channels was reversed so as to move toward the newly eroded and deeper Pennypack Creek valley. These reversed flow channels captured southwest oriented floodwaters still moving north of the actively eroding Pennypack Creek valley head. This captured water then moved in a northeast direction and eroded deep northeast oriented valleys headward from the newly eroded Pennypack Creek valley. These valleys today account for northeast and east oriented Pennypack Creek valley segments and northeast oriented (barbed) tributaries flowing to south oriented Pennypack Creek. The floodwater source cannot be determined from Pennypack Creek drainage basin evidence, but was from the northeast. Melting of a continental ice sheet could produce floods of sufficient volume and duration to overwhelm whatever drainage system previously existed and to erode new drainage basins in a manner similar to how the Pennypack Creek drainage basin was eroded.

Late Pleistocene glaciation and deglaciation in the Crestone Peaks area, Colorado Sangre de Cristo Mountains, USA – chronology and paleoclimate

Cosmogenic 10Be surface-exposure dating and numerical glacier modeling are used to reconstruct glacial chronology and climate in the Colorado Sangre de Cristo Mountains during the local last glacial maximum (LLGM) and the subsequent deglaciation. Twenty-two surface-exposure ages on moraine boulders and polished-bedrock outcrops in the Willow Creek valley and ten in two adjacent valleys indicate that glaciers were at or near their maxima from ∼21 ka until 17–16 ka, and then retreated rapidly, nearly deglaciating the Willow Creek valley entirely by ∼14 ka. Coupled energy/mass-balance and flow modeling of two of the glaciers indicates that, if changing ice extent was driven only by temperature and insolation changes, temperature depressions of 5.0 and 5.1 °C from modern conditions, with an uncertainty of approximately +1.5/−1.0 °C, would have sustained the glaciers in mass-balance equilibrium at their LLGM extents. Doubling or halving of modern precipitation during the LLGM would have been associated with 2.7–3.0 °C and 6.9–7.0 °C temperature depression respectively. Approximately half of the subsequent LLGM–to-modern climate change was accomplished by ∼14 ka. If the rapid main phase of deglaciation between about 16 ka and 14 ka was driven solely by temperature and insolation changes, it would have been associated with a temperature rise of about 2.5 °C, at a mean rate of approximately 1.1 °C/ky. This new chronology of the last glaciation is generally consistent with others developed recently in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. The numerical modeling, however, suggests a lesser LLGM temperature depression from modern conditions than have most previous studies in Colorado.

Archaeological Investigations at the Walnut Branch (41CE47), Ross I (41CE485), and Ross II (41CE486) Sites, Cherokee County, Texas

The Walnut Branch site (41CE47) was recorded by George Kegley and Dan Witter in 1969 as part of an archaeological survey funded by the Texas Building Commission (now the Texas Historical Commission) in Cherokee County and adjacent counties. This ancestral Caddo site is located about six miles southwest of the city of Rusk, in the Box’s Creek valley in the Neches River basin; Box’s Creek is a generally southern-flowing tributary to the Neches River, and enters the river not far to the westnorthwest of the George C. Davis site (41CE19), otherwise known as Caddo Mounds State Historic Site. The landowner’s son had previously collected ceramic sherds and a ceramic pipe from the Walnut Branch site, and a Caddo burial (and associated ceramic vessel, about which nothing is known) had been found at the site in 1964. Kegley obtained surface collections of ceramic sherds and lithic tools from different parts of the Walnut Branch site, including a number of ceramic sherds (n=69) and one tool fragment from the Walnut Branch stream bed, a tributary to Box’s Creek; at that time, the bank of the stream was actively eroding, exposing artifacts on the surface. Kegley also excavated two small “test pits” or shovel tests at the site, and they contained a small number of ceramic sherds in the archaeological deposits. The sediments in those “test pits” had different zones of alluvial sands to a depth of at least 58 cm. In 2017, the junior author obtained permission to reexamine the Walnut Branch site, and determine its current condition and research significance. This work consisted of an intensive program of shovel testing across a large field and floodplain north of Walnut Branch and east of Box’s Creek, which is discussed below. He also obtained a substantial collection of ancestral Caddo ceramic vessel sherds from the Walnut Branch stream bed just below the Walnut Branch site and the Ross I site; this surface collection was taken before the shovel testing work was initiated. The intensive shovel testing has demonstrated that the large pasture that contains the Walnut Branch site also contains two other spatially related ancestral Caddo sites (Ross I, 41CE485 and Ross II, 41CE486) to the west and northeast, respectively, of the Walnut Branch site; the findings from these other sites will also be discussed in this article.

The Ancestral Caddo Ceramic Assemblage from the Will Odham Site (41CE42) in the Angelina River Basin, Cherokee County, Texas

The Will Odham site (ET-713) was recorded by Gus E. Arnold in March 1940 under the auspices of the WPA-sponsored archaeological survey of East Texas. The site was on an alluvial rise in the Big Turnpike Creek valley; Big Turnpike Creek is a tributary to Mud Creek in the Angelina River basin in the East Texas Pineywoods (Figure 1). The J. B. Maxwell site (41CE43), also recorded by Arnold, lies ca. 600 m northwest of the Odham site (Perttula 2017). Archaeological deposits were estimated to cover a 5 acre area, but were concentrated in a ca. 60 m diameter area. These deposits had animal bone, mussel shells, ceramic vessel sherds, ground stone tools, and human skeletal materials. Burials had been reported to have been plowed up previously by the landowner in the eastern half of the site; the only known funerary objects reported associated with these burials were ceramic pipes.

41AG9 and 41AG10: Ancestral Caddo Sites on Percella Creek in the Angelina River Basin in East Texas

Both 41AG9 (ET-609) and 41AG10 (ET-610) were identified and recorded by Gus E. Arnold in late 1939-early 1940 under the auspices of the very successful WPA University of Texas archaeological survey of East Texas; they are only ca. 400 m apart. The sites are on elevated alluvial landforms in the Percella Creek valley; Percella Creek is an eastward-flowing tributary to the Angelina River, and joins the river about 3 km to the east of the sites (Figure 1). During Arnold’s archaeological survey, he collected substantial numbers of ceramic vessel sherds from both sites, and the sites were in plowed fields with good surface visibility. 41AG9 was estimated to cover ca. 1.5 acres, and had midden deposits, as well as disturbed remnants of Caddo burial features. Midden deposits and remnants of possible disturbed Caddo burial features were also noted at 41AG10, and the core of the site covered a ca. 60 x 60 m area (ca. 0.9 acres).

A Caddo Ceramic Vessel Sherd Collection from a Site in the Upper Neches River Basin, Anderson County, Texas

Frank H. Watt (1889-1981) was a well-known and well-respected avocational archaeologist that lived in the Waco, Texas, area and studied the archaeology of the central Brazos River valley. He made forays into other parts of the state, however, including the Caddo archaeological area of East Texas. At an unknown date, probably in the 1950s or 1960s, Watt investigated an ancestral Caddo site on the Dennis Farm six miles northwest of the community of Neches, in the upper Neches River basin (probably in the Walnut Creek valley), in Anderson County. He collected 42 sherds from Caddo ceramic vessels from the site, and these collections are in the holdings of the Mayborn Museum Complex at Baylor University.

Southwestern Pottery Sherd from the Caddo Creek Valley in the Upper Neches River Basin of East Texas

There are material culture remains found on East Texas sites that provide direct evidence of farflung contacts between East Texas’s native American peoples and native American communities in the Southwest (see Baugh 1998). Such material culture items include obsidian from the Jemez Mountains of New Mexico (Perttula and Hester 2016), turquoise from New Mexico sources (Walters 2006), and sherds from ceramic vessels made in the Puebloan Southwest (Hayner 1955; Jurney and Young 1995; Krieger 1946:Plate 6j). Such artifacts, however, are rarely recovered in East Texas archaeological sites. In this article, we discuss a sherd found from an archaeological site in the Caddo Creek valley in the upper Neches River basin of East Texas.

The M. S. Roberts Site (41HE8): Archaeological Investigations at a Caddo Mound Site in the Upper Neches River Basin in East Texas

The first archaeological investigations at the M. S. Roberts site in the Caddo Creek valley of the upper Neches River basin in East Texas (Figure 1) was by University of Texas (UT) archaeologists in 1931 (Perttula 2016). In that work, UT archaeologists excavated a trench of unknown size in the ancestral Caddo mound at the site, and gathered a surface collection from the plowed cotton field around the mound.

Reevaluation of the Age and Provenance of the GiantPalmichnium kosinskiorumEurypterid Trackway, from Elk County, Pennsylvania

Palmichnium kosinskiorum Briggs and Rolfe, 1983, is a fossil trackway recovered from sandstones of the purported marine Shenango Formation along the banks of Spring Creek, in Elk County, Pennsylvania. Discovered in 1948, the type specimen is interpreted as a trail made by a lower Mississippian eurypterid. Recent field work has disclosed that the trackway of P. kosinskiorum was recovered from an allocthonous block of pebbly sandstone inconsistent with the character of the surrounding Shenango Formation. The P. kosinskiorum block is one of more than a dozen out-of-place giant boulders that train up the valley wall. These boulders can be traced back to an outcrop of the Pennsylvanian Pottsville Group located several hundred feet up the side of the Spring Creek Valley. Thus, it can be demonstrated that P. kosinskiorum originated from lower Pennsylvanian, not lower Mississippian bedrock.Palmichnium kosinskiorum was recovered from the top of a trough cross-bedded conglomeratic sequence, indicating that it was deposited in a high-energy fluvial environment of the Olean Conglomerate, a formation of the Pottsville Group. This purported depositional environment is consistent with other Upper Carboniferous eurypterid discoveries.

Using topographic map interpretation methods to determine Tookany (Tacony) Creek erosion history upstream from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Topographic map interpretation methods are used to determine erosional landform origins in and adjacent to the Tookany (Tacony) Creek drainage basin, located upstream from and adjacent to Philadelphia, PA. Five wind gaps notched into the Tookany-Wissahickon Creek drainage divide (which is also the Delaware-Schuylkill River drainage divide), a deep through valley crossing the Tookany-Pennypack Creek drainage divide, a Tookany Creek elbow of capture, orientations of Tookany Creek tributary valleys, a narrow valley carved in erosion resistant metamorphic bedrock, and the relationship of a major Tookany Creek direction change with a Pennypack Creek elbow of capture and a Pennypack Creek barbed tributary are used along with other evidence to reconstruct how a deep south oriented Tookany Creek valley eroded headward across massive southwest oriented flood flow. The flood flow origin cannot be determined from Tookany Creek drainage basin evidence, but may have been derived from a melting continental ice sheet, and originally flowed across the Tookany Creek drainage basin region on a low gradient topographic surface equivalent in elevation to or higher than the highest present day Tookany Creek drainage divide elevations with the water flowing in a complex of shallow diverging and converging channels that had formed by scouring of less resistant bedrock units and zones. William Morris Davis, sometimes referred to as the father of North American geomorphology, spent much of his boyhood and several years as a young man living in the Tookany Creek drainage basin and all landforms discussed here were within walking distance of his home and can be identified on a topographic map published while he was developing and promoting his erosion cycle ideas. Davis never published about Tookany Creek drainage basin erosion history, but he developed and promoted uniformitarian and erosion cycle models that failed to recognize the significance of Tookany Creek drainage basin erosional landform features providing evidence of the immense floods that once crossed present day drainage divides and eroded the Tookany Creek drainage basin.

Evidence for Gap Flows in the Birch Creek Valley, Idaho

Abstract A field study was conducted of flows in the Birch Creek Valley in eastern Idaho. There is a distinct topographic constriction in the Birch Creek Valley that creates two subbasins: an upper and lower valley. The data were classified into one of three groups based on synoptic influence (weak/absent, high wind speeds, and other evidence of synoptic influence). Gap flows commonly developed downwind of the constriction in association with the weak/absent group but also occurred in association with the two synoptic groups suggesting the potential for more diverse origins. In general, the frequency and strength of gap flows appeared to be linked to the development of the requisite thermal regime and minimization of any synoptically driven southerly winds that would suppress outflows. Gap flows were characterized by high wind speeds with jetlike vertical profiles along the axis of the lower valley. For all three groups the morning transition in the upper valley and western sidewall usually proceeded slightly ahead of the lower valley, consistent with the principles of the topographic amplification factor. The persistence of southerly winds in the lower valley past evening transition inhibited the development of gap flows, promoted strong nighttime inversions, and delayed the onset of morning transition relative to the upper valley. Nocturnal temperature inversions in the lower valley were largely eliminated with the onset of strong gap flows resulting in earlier morning transitions there. The form for a method of predicting gap flow wind speeds is proposed.

Origin of placer gold and other heavy minerals from fluvial Cenozoic sediments in close proximity to Rote Fäule-related Au mineralisation in the North Sudetic Trough, SW Poland

Detailed morphological and geochemical studies of placer gold grains and other heavy minerals from Cenozoic fluvial clastic sediments in the area of the Zimnik Creek drainage basin (North Sudetic Trough, Lower Silesia) allowed the description of their specific features: shape and morphology, flatness index, internal textural features and chemical composition of the gold grains. It enables an estimation of the distance from the source area and determination of the source of the ore mineralisation, along with establishing the feeder areas for placer mineralisation including Rote Faule-related gold hosted by Rotliegend-Zechstein transitional sediments. The comparison of the heavy mineral contents of placer grains from the Zimnik Creek drainage basin makes it possible to identify the area of origin for the gold particles. The crystalline Au-Ag-Pd-Hg (polymetallic) alloy grains of fluvial gold are assumed to come from the transitional sediments between the Rotliegend and the Zechstein in the North Sudetic Basin. The morphological and geochemical features of the polymetallic grains strongly suggest that the grains from the upper course of the Zimnik Creek valley sediments represent what has eroded from the local gold mineralisation and this mineralisation is probably in the vicinity of the upstream sampling site. The bimodal chemical composition of the Au-Ag-Pd-Hg alloy grains with electrum and medium-Ag grains (<15 wt.% Ag) found in the study area is typical of the Rote Faule and Kupferschiefer-related gold mineralisation on the southern side of the North Sudetic Trough and the Sieroszowice-Polkowice copper mining district of the Fore-Sudetic Monocline. The study of the Ag contents of placer grains from the Zimnik Creek drainage basin highlights the contrast between the placer gold grains derived from Paleozoic orogenic gold mineralisation in the Sudetes (typically simple Au-Ag alloys containing between 5 and 20 wt.% of Ag) and the one formed by the oxidizing chloride hydrothermal systems. The grains identified in this manner as originating from the oxidizing hydrothermal system of the transitional zone can be distinguished from the placer gold derived from other styles of mineralisation, which are not Rote Faule-related. It is particularly important considering the ongoing reconnaissance exploration in the North Sudetic Trough (SW Poland), which employs gold grain analyses as a prospecting tool for the detection of potentially economic primary gold mineralisation.

Agropastoralism activities and hydro-pedological changes during the last Holocene in the eastern part of the Massif Central mountain range in France: the case of les barges creek valley

La tete de bassin versant des Barges, dans le sud du massif des Bois Noirs (Massif Central oriental), a fait l’objet d’une recherche interdisciplinaire combinant analyses polliniques, analyses diatomologiques, etudes pedologiques et datations par le radiocarbone. L’objectif etait de reconstituer l’evolution environnementale des derniers millenaires en essayant, en particulier, de caracteriser et de caler chronologiquement les principales etapes du processus d’anthropisation. Les Indices Polliniques d’Anthropisation (IPA) et des indices diatomologiques, revelateurs de la mise en place du systeme agro-pastoral, apparaissent soudainement au milieu du VIIe siecle ap. J.-C. Auparavant, seuls les changements hydro-pedologiques caracterises par l’apparition de petites tourbieres basses minerotrophes a partir de 2 750 cal. BP (Hallstatt) suggerent un impact plus ancien de l’activite des societes. L’accentuation de l’emprise humaine s’affirme nettement au XIe siecle qui apparait comme, d’une part, l’acme de cette phase d’installation du systeme agro-pastoral et, d’autre part, une periode determinante dans la genese des paysages des Bois Noirs. Enfin, le diagramme pollinique livre un certain nombre d’indices forts d’un recul des activites agricoles au cours des XVIIe et XVIIIe siecles qui semble correle au Petit Âge de Glace.

Carbon sequestration in managed temperate coniferous forests under climate change

Abstract. Management of temperate forests has the potential to increase carbon sinks and mitigate climate change. However, those opportunities may be confounded by negative climate change impacts. We therefore need a better understanding of climate change alterations to temperate forest carbon dynamics before developing mitigation strategies. The purpose of this project was to investigate the interactions of species composition, fire, management, and climate change in the Copper–Pine Creek valley, a temperate coniferous forest with a wide range of growing conditions. To do so, we used the LANDIS-II modelling framework including the new Forest Carbon Succession extension to simulate forest ecosystems under four different productivity scenarios, with and without climate change effects, until 2050. Significantly, the new extension allowed us to calculate the net sector productivity, a carbon accounting metric that integrates aboveground and belowground carbon dynamics, disturbances, and the eventual fate of forest products. The model output was validated against literature values. The results implied that the species optimum growing conditions relative to current and future conditions strongly influenced future carbon dynamics. Warmer growing conditions led to increased carbon sinks and storage in the colder and wetter ecoregions but not necessarily in the others. Climate change impacts varied among species and site conditions, and this indicates that both of these components need to be taken into account when considering climate change mitigation activities and adaptive management. The introduction of a new carbon indicator, net sector productivity, promises to be useful in assessing management effectiveness and mitigation activities.

Rock-avalanche dynamics revealed by large-scale field mapping and seismic signals at a highly mobile avalanche in the West Salt Creek valley, western Colorado

On 25 May 2014, a rain-on-snow–induced rock avalanche occurred in the West Salt Creek valley on the northern flank of Grand Mesa in western Colorado (United States). The avalanche mobilized from a preexisting rock slide in the Green River Formation and traveled 4.6 km down the confined valley, killing three people. The avalanche was rare for the contiguous United States because of its large size (54.5 Mm 3 ) and high mobility (height/length = 0.14). To understand the avalanche failure sequence, mechanisms, and mobility, we conducted a forensic analysis using large-scale (1:1000) structural mapping and seismic data. We used high-resolution, unmanned aircraft system imagery as a base for field mapping, and analyzed seismic data from 22 broadband stations (distances

Three-Dimensional Geologic Model of Glacial Outwash in Mclean County, Illinois, Based on Seismic Refraction Studies

Seven two-dimensional (2-D) seismic refraction lines were used to determine the thickness and geometry of a valley train outwash deposit of the Quaternary Henry Formation near Heyworth in southern McLean County, Illinois. These refraction data were collected and processed in 2-D, then imported into a Petrel, a three-dimensional (3-D) geological modeling software package. The 3-D geologic model was built using the velocity attribute of the seismic refraction data. The 3-D velocity model was then verified manually by moving a cross-section through the velocity model at 20 m increments. These selected data points were used to create 3-D horizons, surfaces, and contacts constraining the target Henry Formation from the overlying alluvium of the Cahokia Formation and the underlying Delavan Till. Results of the 3-D model show the Henry Formation outwash trends about S10°E, which is oblique to S55°W-trending modern Kickapoo Creek valley. The Henry Formation outwash is confined to the Kickapoo valley, and consists of well-stratified sand and gravel at that is as much as 25 m in thickness in the channel. The thickness of the Henry Formation in the terrace is 8–10 m. The Cahokia Formation is everywhere about 2 m in thickness. The Henry Formation here is interpreted to be deposited in a subglacial tunnel valley that was deposited about 20,000 years ago as the Laurentide ice sheet retreated from its maximum southerly extent.

The Caddo Archaeological Record in the Saline Creek and County Line Creek Valleys in Cherokee and Smith Counties, Texas

Both the Saline and County Line creeks in the upper Neches River basin were habitats where significant numbers of Caddo peoples lived in ancestral times. As with recent studies of the ancestral Caddo archaeology of the nearby Caddo Creek valley and the San Pedro Creek valley, the purpose of this consideration of the known archaeological record of Caddo settlement in the Saline and County Line creek valleys is to explore the nature of their permanent use during the lengthy native history of Caddo peoples in East Texas between ca. A.D. 900-1838.

41SM150: A Middle Caddo Period Site in the Angelina River Basin, Smith County, Texas

Site 41SM150 is an ancestral Caddo settlement and cemetery in the headwaters of the Angelina River basin in East Texas. The site was recorded by Jan Guy in 1983 as part of a University of Texas at Austin Field School, when a collector who was working at the site shared information about what he, and others, had been finding there. Apparently the site had been worked by collectors for approximately 30 years by that time. The current condition of the site is not known. The site, including both habitation and cemetery areas, is located just south of a large knoll on an alluvial terrace on the north side of the Kickapoo Creek valley. Kickapoo Creek is a westward-flowing tributary of Mud Creek in the Angelina River basin. The site area had been cultivated in the past, but in 1983 was overgrown, with weeds and pine trees.