The late Holocene flood history and associated channel changes were reconstructed for the Escalante River in south-central Utah. Analyses of flood deposits at 8 sites in the bedrock canyon indicate that the frequency of large floods was at a maximum 1100 to 900 yrs BP and in historic times in a 2000 year record. The largest flood occurred approximately 900 to 1000 yrs BP and was 7 times the largest flood recorded at a gaging station. The paleoflood discharges were close to the "maximum expected flood" derived from a regional flood envelope curve, and the 100-yr flood was increased 220% to 800 cubic meters per second (cms) with the addition of four historic flood discharges. Possible nonstationarity in the distribution due to channel changes and climatic shifts reduced the reliability of statistical flood-frequency analyses. The additional parameters of the "largest recorded flood" in 2000 years of paleoflood record -- 720 ems -- and the "maximum expected flood" -- 1180 cms -- were added to the flood-frequency summary. Channel changes in the upstream alluvial channel were related to flood-frequency changes. Valley-margin stratigraphy representing 1600 years of deposition indicated that after 1100 yrs BP, a time of increased frequency of large floods, a marshy floodplain was converted to a dry, fire-swept meadow and an arroyo 24-m wide and 2.5-m deep formed. This arroyo quickly filled with sediments between 500 and 400 yrs BP and a smaller channel then formed and persisted until settlement of the basin. Floods between 1909 and 1940 transformed the small channel into an arroyo up to 100-m wide and 17-m deep. The cause for flood-frequency and consequent channel changes on the Escalante River is complicated. Land-use practices caused pronounced changes in watershed and floodplain conditions. A subtle shift in climate increased the amount of summer precipitation and intensity of storms. The inability to test either the land-use practices or climatic shift hypotheses independently precludes the determination of a regional cause for arroyos.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Recent observations have highlighted the shortcomings of traditional thinking about faults and fault patterns. The slip model of faulting, developed by Ze'ev Reches, suggests that four sets of faults, arranged in orthorhombic symmetry about the principal strain axes, can accommodate general, three-dimensional strain. Classic conjugate faults are simply a special case of plane strain. Careful analysis of orthorhombic fault patterns and the tenets of the slip model has led to the development of a practical method for decoding the strain significance of fault systems developed in three-dimensional strain fields. The methods are implicit in a model here called the odd-axis model. This new model calls special attention to the odd axis: the one principal strain with sign opposite the other two, assuming a constant volume deformation. Odd-axis medel equations relate fault set geometry to principal strain magnitudes or ratios, the internal friction angle, φ, and the ratio of average fault slip to average spacing between faults of the same set, R. For systems where R < 0.1, the three principal strain ratios are given by tan²α, -sin²α, and -COS²α, where α is the strike of the fault set(s) measured in the plane perpendicular to the odd axis. The model also predicts slip vector orientations as functions of principal strain ratios and orientations. The kinematic implications of the odd-axis model are compatible with those of the slip model. In this first quantitative field test, both fault models are applied to the Chimney Rock array, a system of orthorhombic faults in the northern San Rafael Swell of central Utah. The odd-axis model uses fault plane and slip vector data from Chimney Rock to predict principal strain ratios (ε(y)/ε(x), ε(y)/ε(z), and ε(x)/ε(z)) of .20, -.16, and -.84. These compare extremely well with the observed values, based on fault separation measurements, of .17, -.15, and -.85. The value of ε(y)/ε(z) predicted by the slip model, -.16, matches exactly the value predicted by the odd-axis model and nearly matches the observed value, which is -.15. The success of the field test at Chimney Rock, and the conceptual agreement of both models, suggest that the new theory can accurately relate orthorhombic fault geometries and three-dimensional strain fields. Furthermore, the results underscore how important it is for geologists to recognize the sensitivity of fault geometry and kinematics to three-dimensional strain.

No description available.

No description available.