Zuni Salt Lake

During the Silurian period, approximately 420 million years ago the rock bed central New York sits on was formed. In comparison the soils in the area only date 12 to 14 thousand years back in comparison. This resulted because archeological evidence shows that the Tully Valley as we know it today used to be underwater 500-300million years ago (Baldauf, 2003). One effect of this is there are a lot of trapped salt minerals that built up over the years and lithified to become rock. During the last glacial event about 8,000 years ago Tully was cut into the “U” shaped valley we recognize today. After the warming event and the ice receded moraines and kames, glacial land forms became visible in the till left in the valley. The Tully was a lake for a while similar to the Finger Lakes running north to south (Baldauf, 2003). Contrarily to the Finger Lakes the Tully Valley sits higher above sea level and it eventually drained. Today only two main creeks are the only remaining water in the valley, Rainbow, and Rattle Snake which flow along the 1200ft incline.

The aim is to identify and associate landforms, rock types and soils to the natural environment and its plants and animals and also to investigate the history of the local environment, comprising human impacts over the last 50 years. The impact of human alterations to the environment includes increased soil erosion and changes in river flows.

First, we must examine the sedimentary formations; when they were formed, how they were formed, and what materials they consist of. About ninety-three to one hundred million years ago, the Western Interior Seaway rolled through the North American continent, eventually reaching the geographical area of today’s Mesa Verde National Park (National Park Service 2005). This sea deposited a thick, hard sandstone base that is called Dakota Sandstone, although this layer is not exposed in the park

Around 650 A.D., the Mesa Verdean peoples initiated construction of apartment-style homes, termed by Spanish explorers as pueblos. The Puebloan architecture is original in that it utilized the local stone and mud deposits of the region to maintain the structural integrity of their burgeoning developments. As this community evolved into the twelfth century, Mesa Verdeans further integrated the geology of their environment into their lifestyles by building homes, known as cliff dwellings, within the naturally formed alcoves of Mesa Verde. By the thirteenth century, the Mesa Verdeans vacated this region due to severe droughts and subsequent social instability. Despite the later abandonment of their cliff dwellings, it is clear that the geology of Mesa Verde National Park impacted the lives of the Ancestral Puebloans significantly. The following sections provide detailed information regarding the rock formations that make up the geological

The Waucoba Wash Quadrangle, California cross section begins with the deposition of the Cambrian layers such as the Campito Formation, Poleta Formation (upper and middle members and undivided), Harkless Formation, Saline Valley Formation (lower and upper members), Mule Spring Limestone, Monola Formation (lower and upper members), and the Bonanaza King dolomite (dominantly limestone and undivided). These Cambrian rocks are followed by rock layers from the Devonian period, thus meaning that an unconformity occurred between the layers. The Devonian dolomite rock layers include the Hidden Valley dolomite and the Lost Burro Formation (cherty dolomite). These are followed by the Mississippian

The Coso Mountain Range is located at the intersection of the Great Basin and California culture area just above the eastern California desert. This region was left with arroyo walls, lava flows and pyroclastic boulders covered with petroglyphs of zoomorphic and anthropomorphic images (127). Petroglyphs are images created by carving, pecking or incising images into rock surfaces. The most common rock art element found in the Coso Range is that of bighorn sheep (129). Although bighorn sheep images were common in other parts of the Great Basin and the Southwest, these elements were seen in far greater quantities in the Coso Range. The bighorn sheep image represents more than half of the 100,000 rock art elements discovered in this region. Many

Weathering, geologic processes such as erosion, and climatic shifts allow for this immense desert ecosystem to continually evolve and change which has taken place for millions of years. This geologically wealthy environment is composed of alternating flat-lying layers of soft and hard deposits of mostly sedimentary rocks. Interchanging slopes and cliffs along the landscape helped form these layers of rock which can be seen fully exposed in areas of the mesa. Deposition of this landscape mainly occurred during the Permian, Pennsylvanian, Triassic and Jurassic time periods. The assortment of warm hues of sandstone were produced by varying levels of iron oxide minerals during formation.

During the late Holocene, the Cienega Amarilla and nearby Cottonwood Canyon floodplains underwent dramatic geomorphic changes, experiencing periods of rapid high-energy deposition, slow low-energy deposition, stability and soil formation, and deep channel entrenchment and subsequent infilling. Many of these shifts likely represent geomorphic responses of hillslope and valley subsystems to climate change and variability. Cienega Amarilla became a groundwater discharge dominated system from ~2.3–1.6 ka, and then transitioned back to a runoff-dominated system by ~1 ka. In this section, I examine possible linkages between these hydrological and geomorphic changes and paleoclimatic variation.

The Painted Hills, a unit of the John Day Fossil Bed National Monuments, is a beautiful phenomenon exhibiting different time periods throughout Eastern Oregon's history. 40 million years ago,during the Eocene epoch, the creation of painted rocks began. At the time, weather condition were tropical/sun-tropical. This is validated by the consistent ash fall in the area which fossilized organisms like palm trees, avocados and crocodiles.This time is when the rocks/the Clarno formation were created throughout the Oligocene epoch, climate became temperate. Starting the Miocene epoch, climate changed dramatically due to the rising Cascades. The plants and animals were different than before. Oak trees and deer replaced the palms and crocodiles . Low silica eruptions occurred in this time covering the area

The study area was approximately 3,717 acres in size, of which 421 acres (11%) were sampled with field investigations. Sample blocks measuring 360x150 meters in size were distributed among 31 broad pedological units. Forty-nine (49) archaeological resources were investigated, including two that were previously recorded, 33 that were newly identified, and 14 isolated finds. As a result, six sites were recommended for avoidance or additional work to firmly evaluate them for the NRHP. Based on the sampling, a density of one site/nine acres was estimated for the intensive survey phase. This density compared well with the density observed for the western section (Abbott and Davis 1995:130). Two hypotheses were given for the high site density: 1) better preservation as a result of less severe erosion and 2) specific prehistoric/historic settlement

This site began its occupation during the Developed Periphrastic Period due to the pottery found in strata 25, 24, 23, and 22. The site was continually used until the Early Pleonastic which is found in strata 18, 17, and 16. The site was abandoned sometime between 1500 BC-800 BC because in stratum 16 there is Early Pleonastic pottery then in stratum 14 there is Late Chiastic pottery. Stratum 14 has Late Chiastic pottery, indicating the site has a population again. However, the stratum is clearly a hole that cuts through strata 15, 16, 17, and 18. In the stratum, burnt animal bones, seeds, broken pottery, and broken groundstones are found, possibly indicating nomadic people travelling through. The C-14 dates on the seeds are 720 ± 30 BC and

The icy wind howled through the trees as we walked down this terrifying, dark, leaf ridden, forest. The leaves crunching as we trudge deeper through this horrid, pungent place. I didn’t even want to come out here in the first place. I was perfectly fine sitting at home with my brand new Fallout 4 Game and my brand new gaming chair, but no. That didn’t matter whatsoever, everyone wanted to see where it happened. You know what happened, don’t you? That’s the worst part. There should have been no reason for those children to be playing all the way over there.They were such sweet children. Always so polite and never got in trouble, at least from what I can remember. It’s January for godsake. There is snow and ice covering everything we pass and

This dissertation is organized into three separate studies (appendices) that I plan to publish in peer-reviewed journals. The first appendix presents a study that establishes a latest Pleistocene age for volcanic eruptions at Zuni Salt Lake. The second appendix evaluates the hypothesis that the late Holocene hydroclimatic history of spring discharge at Cienega Amarilla is driven largely by variations in El Niño frequency and intensity and the resultant variations in winter precipitation. The third appendix examines the nature and timing of fluvial geomorphic change in mid-elevation valley and piedmont areas of the Carrizo Wash watershed and identifies the climatic factors driving this landscape change. Each of these appendices is described in more detail below.

The Grand Canyon has plenty of volcanic rocks near the bottom and the top. ICR, Institute for Creative Research, has been involved in a project for years to date these volcanic rocks. this study has come a long way to show that many of the Grand Canyon strata could have formed rapidly, and that the erosion of the Canyon by the Colorado River has not been going on for millions of years.

Alluvium postdating ~1 ka at Cienega Amarilla consists of floodplain facies indicating a shift from a spring-dominated fluvial system to one dominated by surface runoff. Arroyo cutting in Cottonwood Canyon initiated during the 1–0.8 ka interval resulted in downstream deposition of alluvium (IV) in the Cienega Amarilla area. This alluvium contains little groundwater gypsum or carbonate, implying further lowering of alluvial water tables and reduced spring discharge. It is possible that undocumented downstream channel entrenchment was a factor in these hydrological changes. A distinct burned layer with C4 grass macrofossils radiocarbon dated ~900–800 cal BP corroborates droughty conditions and lowered alluvial groundwater. A brief soil-forming period lasting less than a century was followed by another period of valley aggradation (V) from ~650–100 cal BP. In places, this unit is capped by recent sandy distributary fan alluvium (VI) deposited during historical-period arroyo cutting.