T130 Sources, Sinks, Transport, and Storage of Sediment in Fluvial Systems

Monday, 16 October 2023
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
315 / 316

VIRTUAL VELOCITIES OF SAND- AND GRAVEL-SIZED MINE TAILINGS IN BIG RIVER, OZARK HIGHLANDS

Paper number: T130-13
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 4:30 PM – 4:45 PM

Authors

Abstract

Tailings materials produced by historical lead mining were used as tracers to estimate the virtual velocities of sand- and gravel-sized sediments in Big River (2,500 km2) which drains the Ozark Highlands of southeast Missouri. Intensive channel bed and bar sampling was used to quantify downstream patterns of sediment storage, grain size distributions, tailings abundance by grain counting, and geochemical signatures of finer particles. Transport distances typically ranged from 30-80 km over a monitoring period of about 100 years. Maximum virtual velocities of sediment transport decreased with grain size in the following order: 1-2 mm, 559 m/yr; 2-4 mm, 450 m/yr; 4-8 mm, 380 m/yr; and 8-16 mm, 245 m/yr. Virtual velocities tend to be lower than estimated sediment wave migration rates. Therefore, disturbance zone activity in Ozark river channels may be controlled more by local variations in channel storage or excess channel stream power than by gravel delivery rates from upstream over historical timescales.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 55, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2023AM-393252

© Copyright 2023 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.