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Keck Geology Consortium: Projects 2010-2011 Short Contributions— Front Range, CO INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES IN THE CRITICAL ZONE, BOULDER CREEK CATCHMENT, FRONT RANGE, COLORADO Project Faculty: DAVID P. DETHIER: Williams College, WILL OUIMET: University of Connecticut CORING A 12KYR SPHAGNUM PEAT BOG: A SEARCH FOR MERCURY AND ITS IMPLICATIONS ERIN CAMP, Amherst College Research Advisor: Anna Martini EXAMINING KNICKPOINTS IN THE BOULDER CREEK CATCHMENT, COLORADO EVAN N. DETHIER, Williams College Research Advisor: David P. Dethier THE DISTRIBUTION OF PHOSPHORUS IN ALPINE AND UPLAND SOILS OF THE BOULDER CREEK, COLORADO CATCHMENT HAYLEY CORSON-RIKERT, Wesleyan University Research Advisor: Timothy Ku RECONSTRUCTING THE PINEDALE GLACIATION, GREEN LAKES VALLEY, COLORADO KEITH M. KANTACK, Williams College Research Advisor: David P. Dethier CHARACTERIZATION OF TRACE METAL CONCENTRATIONS AND MINING LEGACY IN SOILS, BOULDER COUNTY, COLORADO ELLEN M. MALEY, Smith College Research Advisor: Amy L. Rhodes ASSESSING EOLIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO SOILS IN THE BOULDER CREEK CATCHMENT, COLORADO JAMES A. MCCARTHY, Williams College Research Advisor: David P. Dethier USING POLLEN TO UNDERSTAND QUATERNARY PALEOENVIRONMENTS IN BETASSO GULCH, COLORADO COREY SHIRCLIFF, Beloit College Research Advisor: Carl Mendelson STREAM TERRACES IN THE CRITICAL ZONE – LOWER GORDON GULCH, COLORADO KATHLEEN WARRELL, Georgia Tech Research Advisor: Kurt Frankel METEORIC 10 BE IN GORDON GULCH SOILS: IMPLICATIONS FOR HILLSLOPE PROCESSES AND DEVELOPMENT CIANNA E. WYSHNYSZKY, Amherst College Research Advisor: Will Ouimet and Peter Crowley Keck Geology Consortium Pomona College 185 E. 6 th St., Claremont, CA 91711 Keckgeology.org
24th Annual Keck Symposium: 2011 Union College, Schenectady, NY INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES IN THE CRITICAL ZONE, BOULDER CREEK CATCHMENT, FRONT RANGE, COLORADO DAVID P. DETHIER, Williams College WILL OUIMET, University of Connecticut INTRODUCTION Processes in the critical zone, the life-sustaining surficial mantle of the earth, involve weathered geologic materials, water, and the biosphere, mediated by atmospheric processes that are controlled by changing climate. Field and laboratory studies that investigate geologic, hydrologic and geochemical components of the critical zone provide valuable data about processes and the physical basis for their integration into models of short and long-term geomorphic, hydrologic and biochemical response. The Keck Colorado Project is working in cooperation with a large interdisciplinary study of the critical zone (Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory: Weathered profile development in a rocky environment and its influence on watershed hydrology and biogeochemistry— Suzanne Anderson, PI, Institute for Arctic and Alpine Studies, University of Colorado). The observatory (CZO) consists of 3 small, instrumented catchments in the Boulder Creek basin, Colorado Front Range: (1) Green Lakes Valley (GLV; el. 3400 m)--a steep, glacially scoured alpine area in the City of Boulder watershed; (2) Gordon Gulch (el. 2600 m)--a forested, mid-elevation catchment that exposes isolated bedrock remnants (tors) developed on a surface of low relief; and (3) Betasso gulch (el. 1950 m)--a steep, thinly forested basin that preserves thick regolith in the upper catchment and exposes extensive bedrock outcrops at lower elevations (Fig. 1). The glaciated GLV, low relief surface, and bedrock canyons are developed in granitic or gneissic rocks and are influenced by the strong gradient in elevation, climate and vegetation from west to east. Variation in critical-zone development in these different environments allows us to test models of weathering and regolith generation, elemental cycling, slope evolution and sediment transport in an accessible field setting. Land-use, vegetation and hydrologic response 93 in each CZO catchment also reflect changes produced by anthropogenic activities such as mining and timber harvest over the past 150 years. Keck Colorado field studies focus on using a variety of techniques to map and characterize the geologic history, near-surface geologic materials and geochemical properties for each of the study catchments. Figure 1. Perspective view looking west across the Front Range from Boulder, Colorado, showing Middle Boulder Creek and location of Betasso, Gordon Gulch and Green Lakes Valley catchments, Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory. White filled area shows approximate extent of latest Pleistocene glaciers (after Madole et al., 1999). SETTING The middle Boulder Creek catchment (Fig. 1) extends from the glaciated alpine zone of the Continental Divide east to the semi-arid western edge of the Great Plains. The high-relief zone of cirques and deep, Ushaped valleys in the glaciated area become shallower eastward through a zone of low relief and relatively low slopes. To the east, valleys deepen into steep, narrow bedrock canyons as they pass knickzones, and flatten to lower channel slopes near the piedmont margin. Small glaciers and late-persisting snowfields dot the alpine zone, which exposes bedrock and relatively thin deposits related to the latest Pleistocene Pinedale glaciation and to Holocene erosion. The forested zone
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