The River That Looks Like a Signature

I haven't posted on here in a long time ... I don't know why, I love this site. I've actually been using it for my class. Maybe this will get me posting again.

At the recommendation of @bedform on Twitter (sedimentologist / geomorphologist Dan Parsons) I was checking out Rio Bermejo, a tributary to Rio Parana, in Paraguay earlier tonight. This is a truly pathological river from head to toe. But one of the oddest parts of this river is this stretch that, to me, looks like someone's really sloppy signature. Or, maybe this is the autograph of  Rio Bermejo itself.

Awesome.

Images from GoogleEarth ---  lat/long: -25.716860°, -60.015136°

Pathological Oregon scenery....

Near Plush, Oregon: Some wacky wetlands with complex array of pluvial lake shorelines, lunettes, blowouts, dune fields, and much more water than usual.

Also, a couple of hyge landslides with impressive hummocky runouts; and some stellar block-fault controlled rectilinear drainages.

As I drove through this area a week or so ago, I had only an inkling as to its degree of pathological geomorphology.

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Pathological Nevada shots...

I did move from Nevada, but still have to fly over it every now and then. This was a particularly good day for photos from the plane.

Karst features in AZ, Sinkholes and dissolution tension cracks near Holbrook, AZ

There are numerous forms of karst processes on the Colorado Plateau in northern AZ including breccia pipes, shallow or surficial karst/cave formation, and salt karst. While breccia pipes have been in the headlines as of late due to the increased demand of Uranium, the sinkholes near Holbrook are interesting in their own way in part because their formation is ongoing. True breccia pipes in northern AZ form through the upward propogation of cavern collapse in the Redwall limestone. Salt karst or sinkhole formation near Holbrook is the result of salt and gypsum dissolution within the Supai Formation. Like breccia pipes, dissolution and collapse in the subsurface propogates upwards resulting in a sinkhole at the surface. Most sinkhole features in the Holbrook Basin are concentrated along the Holbrook Anticline (actually a monocline). Flexure along this feature is related to dissolution of deep salt beds. In addition to sinkholes, numerous tension cracks have formed due to the bending of rigid bedrock overlying zones of dissolution along the monocline. Overall, up to 500 sinkholes and fissures have been recognized between Springerville and Winslow (Neal, 1998).

A large cluster of sinkholes lies ~25 miles SSW of Holbrook (10 miles NNW of Snowflake) is known simply as "The Sinks". Dozens of sinkholes pockmark the landscape, some as large as 500 feet across. There are 2 main fields of sinkholes beginning just north of Hwy 277 west of Snowflake.

The holes in the McCauley Sinks locale below are up to 580 feet across. The pattern of sinkhole formation here approximates two concentric arcs. Perhaps this is a result of a larger scale of subsidence manifested by numerous smaller features. In addition to round sinkholes, numerous tension cracks due to subsidence are found near the sinkholes. One locale is creatively named "The Cracks". 

Some area wells have very high salinities indicating dissolution is still ongoing. How many sinkholes or tension cracks lie just below the surface? The Arizona Department of Water Resources has recently documented at least one area which has potential for new sinkhole formation. InSAR interferograms covering a cluster of sinkholes east of the McCauley Sinks shows two distinct areas of ground subsidence. The scale of these features closely matches existing sinkholes in the area. It seems likely that we are witnessing the incipient stages of sinkhole formation in this area.

Information from this post was largely derived from AZGS Open File Report 02-07, "A Review and Bibiography of Karst Features of the Colorado Plateau, Arizona" by Ray Harris. This report references Neal 1998, Variations in evaporite karst, Holbrook Basin, Arizona [abstract]: Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Program, Cordilleran Section, p.33. 

Thanks to Brian Conway at ADWR for sharing his InSAR data and figure.

A continental divide that runs through a valley

Now that's pathological.

Parts of the Upper Midwest are disappearing under spring floods. The Red River of the North is at major flood stage, again, and the Minnesota River flood crest is moving downstream. It's a pretty frequent occurrence in both of these river systems, and in part, flooding is a legacy of the glacial history of the area. The Red River flows to the north along the lake bed of Glacial Lake Agassiz, which is pathologically flat. The Minnesota River flows to the south along the channel of the Glacial River Warren, which was gouged out of the landscape by water draining from Lake Agassiz.

14,000 years ago there was direct connection between what is now the Red River basin and the Minnesota River basin. Today, there's a continental divide - with the Red flowing toward Hudson Bay and the Minnesota flowing toward the Mississippi and Gulf of Mexico. But what a strange continental divide it is - for it runs through the former outlet of Lake Agassiz, in what is now known as Brown's Valley or the Traverse Gap. This divide is not so much a high point in the landscape, but a just-not-quite-as-low area. The little community of Brown's Valley sits between Lake Traverse (flows to the North, forming the headwaters of the Red) and Big Stone Lake (flows to the south, forming the headwaters of the Minnesota).

Here's what it looks like on Google Earth. Note that I've set the terrain to 3x vertical exaggeration, so that you have some hope of seeing the subtle topography of this area.

This is a very, very cool oblique photo from Wikipedia. It shows the divide looking from north to south -- mostly covered by floodwaters in 2007. It's not every day you get to see a continental divide covered in water.