The Wind/Bighorn River basins are located in north-central to northwestern Wyoming located in 5 Wyoming counties encompassing nearly 23,000 square miles (fig.1). The Wind River is approximately 185 miles long before becoming the Bighorn River near Thermopolis Wyoming continuing 276 miles where it meets the Yellowstone River as a tributary. The Wind River basin and the Bighorn basin are often associated together due to the change of the name of the river while flowing northward in between the Owl Creek Mountains on the west and the Bridger Mountains to the east. The Wind River passes through the Wind River Canyon and becomes the Big Horn River at the Wedding of the Waters on the North side of the canyon. Annual precipitation in the basin comes …show more content…
primarily in the form of snowfall during the winter months and thunderstorms during spring and summer (Libra et al., 1981). Precipitation differs drastically due to the variations in elevation from 3,500ft in places on the basin floor to mountain peaks above 13,000ft in elevation (fig.2).
Precipitation is the source for both groundwater and surface water in the Basin. Most flow in perennial streams is from snowmelt and rejected recharge from Mesozoic through Precambrian aquifers in the surrounding mountains and irrigation return flows from Quaternary and Tertiary aquifers (Taucher et al., 2012). The basins consumptive uses make up 37% of surface and ground water use and is used for agriculture, stock water, domestic/municipal, industrial/mining water, and reservoir evaporation (Taucher et al., 2012). The flow of surface water alters throughout the year as well as ground water. The monthly changes in flow are heavily reliant on the amount of precipitation that the area had received throughout the year. The most obvious occurrence is between April and August for the Wind-Bighorn River when average monthly flow rises from around 300cfs in April to 1,600cfs in June, and back down to 300cfs in August. This large spike can mostly be attributed to the melting of snow in the high country. Ground water released by springs drive up peak flow during this time of the year increasing total
cfs. Tributary streams’ and creeks’ hydrograph’s look similar to that of the river they enter for similar reasons. In order to balance the flow of water throughout the year reservoirs are created (figs.3&4). The flow of the river can be altered post-reservoir in order to expand the growing season through irrigation and also create a reliable water source for domestic/municipal use. The use of reservoirs not only preserves water seasonally but also yearly, precipitation varies greatly from year to year (fig.5).
Case study: the flooding that occurred in Minden Hills in the spring of 2013, flooded the downtown core. The picturesque cottage town has the Gull River flowing through it. The river overflowed in April because of many reasons: a couple of days of rain, the third largest amount in over a century, but it also happened because the frost in the ground stopped the water from going into the Earth, the lakes and rivers being full from the spring thaw, and the rapid
Hydrosphere of the Mississippi River A Case Study of * River management * People interfering in the hydrosphere * A flood management scheme River Basin / Catchment area The source of the river is the eastern side of the Rocky Mountains and the Appalachian Mountains to the north. There are many hundreds of tributaries including the Red River, Missouri river and the river Ohio. The mountains form the river's watershed. From Minneapolis the river flows South-East into Iowa where it flows south as far as Davenport. At Davenport it is joined by more small tributaries.
In the book Storm Over Texas, by Joel H. Silbey the critical controversy of North vs. South is displayed. The book goes into great detail of the wild moments leading into the Civil War, the political dysfunction that ran throughout Texas, and many reasons the American Civil War sparked up in the first place. This book truly captives great Texas history and has valid information and points of our states different point of views on history.
E.K. Hornbeck through his language in “Inherit the Wind” (1955) tries to show the town of Hillsboro the way that their thoughts are harmful and wrong. Hornbeck backs that up by using a sarcastic tone to show them how ridiculous they are being, by using metaphors and similies to give the citizens context from the outside world that they might not always consider due to their closed mindedness, and by using syntax to prove that he is better than them and making himself and his views credible. His purpose is to get the town to change their viewpoint so they can see that they need to move forward with the time. He establishes a superior relationship with his audience of small town people with narrow viewpoints who need to learn to be more accepting.
Many will attest to the grandeur of the natural feature that exists in northern Arizona, but the formation of the Grand Canyon has befuddled geomorphologists to this day. This confusion can be attributed to the Kaibab Plateau, an anomaly considering the Colorado River traverses it seamlessly. Four prevalent hypotheses have been proposed since the 19th century, starting with the lake overflow proposition first brought up by John Newbury and then reinforced by Eliot Blackwelder. Newbury argued that a structure must have ponded an ancient lake causing an overspill to cut into the Grand Canyon. This argument holds that the river must have come after the plateau’s existence. Unbeknownst to Newbury, the structure would be the Kaibab Plateau.
The Hudson plains are in parts of Ontario and Manitoba. Their area is about 350 000 km squared. The west edge of the Hudson Plains is around Churchill in north Manitoba, the eastern edge is around Fort Rupert, the northern edge borders Hudson Bay and James Bay and the southern edge is near Kapuskasing, Manitoba. Moosonee and Churchill are major cities in the Hudson Plains area, and lesser known cities include Attawapiskat, Fort George, Eastmain, Fort Albany, Lake River, Winisk, Fort Severn, and Shamattawa.
“Little Bighorn, Battle Of The.” Encyclopedia Of The Great Plains. Pg 1. Web. 12 March. 2014.
To start, these names are the names of two big volcanos, both in Washington State, both deadly, but on different scales. Mt. Rainier’s last eruption was 150 years ago. Yellowstone’s last eruption was 640,000 years ago. Yellowstone’s reputation of being the ultimate super volcano versus Mt. Rainier, the most dangerous volcano in the country. The difference between these volcanos is looks, damage, stability and tourism.
In Montana, tall mountains create two distinct climate regions. To the west of the mountains, the weather is milder (Av2 books). Yellowstone National Park lies mostly in Wyoming, but three of the park’s entrances are located in southern Montana. People go to Yellowstone National park to see the view and the glaciers, some people go there to just go on a vacation to see the wildlife (Av2 books).
Another type of landform is river. Rivers are large natural streams of water flowing in a channel to the sea, lake, or another stream. A river that flows through Petrified Forest National Park is the Puerco River. The Puerco River is the main tributary of the Little Colorado River, and it flows through an area of about two thousand six hundred fifty-four square miles. It is one hundred sixty-seven miles long, and since its drainage basin is extremely dry, it has a low average discharge of less than seventy cubic feet per second. During most of the year, the river is a wash containing little or no water at all. However, flashfloods may occur when there are downpours.
With the changes coming from global warming and increased greenhouse gasses, there will be many impacts to Texas over the coming decades. One of these impacts is the effect on our water resources. Texas’ main source of fresh water is precipitation, coming almost completely from rainfall. With temperatures rising and with an expectation that precipitation levels will most likely drop in coming years, this combination will put great stress on our water reservoirs. If we continue our current usage rates of water and if recent climate changes continue to persist then we will see a huge decrease in our water reservoirs. Also, given that we are in a drought, it appears that conditions are getting worse every year, posing a serious problem for the future if this issue is not addressed now.
Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission, Watershed Management Division Regional assessment of water quality in the Rio Grande Basin Austin, TX. 1994. Search." Accessed December 3, 2013.
The amount of runoff depends on the surface of the Earth. If you have something like pavement you're prone to have more runoff. If you have something like soil, you're prone to have less runoff. Runoff can also be affected by slopes and the ground material.
The term “unusual condition” can be referred to as the first concept applied for variable saturated areas in a watershed. Subsequently Hoover and Hursh (1943) and Hursh (1944) described a “dynamic form of subsurface flow” contributing to storm flow generation in forest lands while Roessel (1950) emphasized the importance of sub surface flow and groundwater changes in streamside outflow. Cappus (1960) provided clear field evidence of subsurface storm flow within the context of the variable source areaVSA concept. Based on the study of sandy soil dominated
Timber harvesting activities tend to increase the water yields of a watershed. Evapotranspiration is decreased by the removal of vegetation. This decrease in ET causes the amount of soil water that is moving into the channel system to increase. Lower ET rates also increase the amount of water available for deep percolation that provides baseflow (Satterlund and Adams, 1992). The decrease in ET may be short lived. For example, when a stand is thinned, the remaining trees quickly capture the increase of resources that is made available through the thinning. Understory vegetation also increases growth after removal of the overstory. Therefore, timber harvesting should be viewed as a temporary reduction in ET rates.