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Research about Henry Mountains

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including Henry Mountains.

4 recordsLinked to original sources
USGS2009

Transport slopes, sediment cover, and bedrock channel incision in the Henry Mountains, Utah

[1] Field data from channels in the Henry Mountains of Utah demonstrate that abundant coarse sediment can inhibit fluvial incision into bedrock by armoring channel beds (the cover effect). We compare several small channels that share tributary junctions and have incised into the same sedimentary bedrock unit (Navajo Sandstone) but contain differing amounts of coarse diorite clasts owing to the spatial distribution of localized sediment sources. Bedrock channels that contain abundant clasts (diorite-rich) have steeper longitudinal slopes than tributaries of these channels with smaller drainage areas and less sediment (diorite-poor). The diorite-poor tributaries have incised more deeply to lower average slopes and have more reach-scale slope variability, which may reflect bedrock properties, longitudinal sediment sorting, and incision at lower sediment supply. Diorite-rich channels have less bedrock exposed and smoother longitudinal profiles than diorite-poor channels. We find that (1) coarse sediment can mantle bedrock channel beds and reduce the efficiency of incision, validating the hypothesized cover effect in fluvial incision models; (2) the channel slope needed to transport the sediment load can be larger than that needed to erode bedrock, suggesting that the slope of incising bedrock channels can become adjusted to the sediment load; (3) when abundant sediment is available, transport capacity rather than thresholds of motion can be dominant in setting bedrock channel slope; and (4) cover effects can be important even when moderate amounts of bedrock are exposed in channel beds.

Utah↗
USGS1877

Geology of the Henry Mountains

If these pages fail to give a correct account of the structure of the Henry Mountains the fault is mine and I have no excuse. In all the earlier exploration of the Rocky Mountain Region, as well as in much of the more recent survey, the geologist has merely accompanied the geographer and has had no voice in the determination of either the route or the rate of travel. When the structure of a mountain was in doubt he was rarely able to visit the points which should resolve the doubt, but was compelled to turn regretfully away. Not so in the survey of the Henry Mountains. Geological exploration had shown that they were well disposed for examination, and that they promised to give the key to a type of structure which was at best obscurely known; and I was sent by Professor Powell to make a study of them, without restriction as to my order or method. I was limited only in time, the snow stopping my work two months after it was begun. Two months would be far too short a period in which to survey a thousand square miles in Pennsylvania or Illinois, but among the Colorado Plateaus it proved sufficient. A few comprehensive views from mountain tops gave the general distribution of the formations, and the remainder of the time was spent in the examination of the localities which best displayed the peculiar features of the structure. So thorough was the display and so satisfactory the examination, that in preparing my report I have felt less than ever before the desire to revisit the field and prove my conclusions by more extended observation.

Utah↗
USGS1877

Report on the geology of the Henry Mountains

The Henry Mountains have been visited only by the explorer. Previous to 1869 they were not placed upon any map, nor was mention made of them in any of the published accounts of exploration or survey in the Rocky Mountain region. In that year Professor Powell while descending the Colorado River in boats passed near their foot, and gave to them the name which they bear in honor of Prof. Joseph Henry, the distinguished physicist. In 1872 Prof. A. H. Thompson, engaged in the continuance of the survey of the river, led a party across the mountains by the Penellen Pass, and climbed some of the highest peaks. Frontiersmen in search of farming and grazing lands or of the precious metals have since that time paid several visits to the mountains; but no survey was made of them until the years 1875 and 1876, when Mr. Walter H. Graves and the writer visited them for that purpose. They are situated in Southern Utah, and are crossed by the meridian of 110° 45' and the thirty-eighth parallel. They stand upon the right bank of the Colorado River of the West, and between its tributaries, the Dirty Devil and the Escalante.

Utah↗