Grand Canyon

The origin of the name “Grand Canyon” is unknown. It was not the neological invention of John Wesley Powell in 1869, as is often retold. Earlier in the 19th century it was known as “Big Canyon” and “Great Canyon,” perhaps the translation of the term by which French-speaking mountain men may have described it—un grand cañon. Both appellations inattentively survived the coming of “Grand Canyon,” but only for a couple of decades. The earliest known non-Indigenous term, Puerto de Bucareli, was conferred in the diary of the Franciscan friar Francisco Garcés when he visited the Havasupai people in 1776, the first non-Native person known to have reached the Grand Canyon since a party of Spanish conquistadores arrived on the rim 236 years earlier, in 1540 (who are not recorded as having given it a name). Ingenious misspellings of the puerto appeared on manuscript and printed maps in the 18th and 19th centuries but its association as Garcés’s mountain pass for the Colorado River was never remembered, nor did it label an entire canyon. The origins for each “Canyon” name, though, remain mysteries, including the first known appearance of “Grand Canyon” in 1857 that disappointingly lacked an admission of neologism or credit to another source. This has not dissuaded travelers and writers from exploiting the name for other landscapes around the world or from exercising it in a superfluity of analogies and metaphors. In the end, an answer to the question, “Who named the Grand Canyon?” may be unessential, given that Native peoples have had words from time immemorial that affirm long spiritual and cultural associations with the canyon.

There’s a cultural bias that nothing happened here, and hardly anyone lived here, before 1620, or more precisely before 1673 in the town I live in.      There’s a deep cultural bias that often shockingly boils down to “New England Indians were too stupid and lazy to build with stone” that simply is not true – and would make this cultural group unique in the world as the only people who didn’t construct things with the stone available to them.
    Just as my friend Diane Dix says, “Because of this deep cultural bias, the lithic remains of the Native Americans of New England remained hidden in plain view for centuries.  Many of these features are constructed with stone and blend quietly and reverently into the natural surroundings. Yet, once one awakens to their presence they seem to be everywhere. Most were constructed hundreds, even thousands of years ago, when the Indians burned much of the land to control the vegetation and foliage did not obstruct the sightlines. Often these monuments lead the eyes to the place where the earth meets the sky.”

The Cambrian Tonto Group of the Grand Canyon was used by Edwin McKee in 1945 to make an insightful visual representation of how sedimentary facies record transgression across a craton-a common conceptual framework still used in geologic education. Although the tenets of McKee's facies diagram persist, the integration of new stratigraphy, depositional models, paleontology, biostratigraphy, and other data is refining the underlying dynamics of this cratonic transgression. Instead of McKee's interpretation of one major transgression with only minor regressions, there are at least five stratigraphic sequences, of which the lower three are separated by disconformities. These hiatal surfaces likely represent erosion of previously deposited Cambrian sediments that were laid down on the tropical, pre-vegetated landscape. Rather than being fully marine in origin, these sequences were formed by a mosaic of depositional environments including braided coastal plain, eolian, marginal marine, and various shallow marine environments. McKee, not having the insights of sequence stratigraphy and plate tectonics, concluded that the preservation of these sediments were due to predepositional topography and subsidence of the "geosyncline." Our modern interpretation is that accommodation space was a result of eustasy and differential subsidence on the continental margin. Our modified depositional model provides a more effective teaching tool for fundamentals and nuances of modern stratigraphic thinking, using the Tonto Group as a stillinfluential type location for understanding transgressive successions.

The Kaibab Plateau of northern Arizona, once (and occasionally still informally) called the Buckskin Mountains, is part of the traditional homeland of the Paiute peoples, who know it as (in translation here) the Mountain Lying Down. The broadly arched plateau lies more or less at 8,000 feet in elevation, with its apex over 9,200 feet. The Kaibab’s structural geology is the stuff of textbooks, beyond the scope of this bibliography. But its ecology is a differently enthralling story. Unlike the canyons and plateaus that surround it, the Kaibab is heavily forested and set with open parklands that divulge karstic limestone areas that are the source of numerous springs in Marble and Grand Canyons. This is home to the indigenous Kaibab squirrel and to herds of common mule deer, whose own ecological story has been the keen interest of environmental biologists for decades, after their environment was astonishingly altered by humans out to “protect” them. A protracted effort was made with the consent—the insistence even—of federal forest agencies to eradicate the top-of-the-food-chain animals, specifically wolves and mountain lions, that preyed on the deer, disastrously resulting in a significant irruption of deer. The “lesson of the Kaibab” has been a mainstay of environmental education for a century, thus it is worthwhile to present here a separate chronological bibliography of the Kaibab deer literature. With it, the lesson’s historical track can be traced more easily through its publications, year by year, and from which an idea can also be grasped as to the lesson’s international breadth of interest. Also of more recent interest is the relatively new presence and management concerns relating to the Kaibab bison herd (hybrid “cattelo” actually). This comprehensive bibliography offers a complete record of published studies and stories that are relative to Grand Canyon National Park’s north rim and to the Kaibab National Forest’s North Kaibab Ranger District. No such ecologically focused research bibliography has been available before.

In recent years there has been increased attention to the groundwaters of the Grand Canyon and the surrounding region. Hydrogeological investigators have made significant inroads toward understanding how the complex system of “plumbing” works in this area, a subject that was, frankly, relatively basic just a generation ago. There are growing concerns about the effect of human activities, especially through breccia-pipe uranium mining, on the channeling of groundwaters to the rare springs of the Grand Canyon and on the chemical and health qualities of the water. The impacts are on humans and the wildlife that depend upon those springs. One source in particular, Roaring Springs, which comes from the Kaibab Plateau karst systems, provides 100 percent of the waters used by millions of visitors and residents yearly on the South and North Rims both. Yet even more concerning is how human-caused changes may affect the sources that are important to Native Americans who have lived here for millenia. These waters shape the livelihoods of these people and, more notably, affects their time-honored cultural and spiritual relationships with the very lands that contribute these waters. Concerns over the deterioration of water flows and their contamination, and the cultural impacts this has on Native American peoples, have been addressed to agencies at federal and state levels, which administer the laws and policies established for the utilization of lands in and about the Grand Canyon and the protection of natural resources there.

This research bibliography displays the breadth of interest and activities in the ecology of Grand Canyon’s springs and the hydrogeology of the karst groundwaters that are their sources. Part 1 comprises publications that relate to the physical aspects of groundwaters in the plateaus that bound the Grand Canyon and of springflows at various heads. Part 2 contains publications that address human aspects of the groundwaters; specifically, matters relating to oversight by administrative entities and legislations, issues pertaining to the localized environments of springheads, and matters of concern to the cultural and spiritual activities of Native American peoples. Part 3 is a bibliography of springs ecology for sites in the Grand Canyon and vicinity.

This publication is a resource manager’s and historian’s reference work documenting species-level taxa of living organisms that were first scientifically named based wholly or in part on collections made at, in, or near the Grand Canyon. This historical resource is not a work of systematics nor of taxonomic revision.

The bibliography/checklist includes 335 species-level taxa named on type specimens collected in the greater Grand Canyon region of northwestern Arizona; 226 of those taxa are based at least in part on specimens from within, or are with good probability from within, the current boundaries of Grand Canyon National Park. Five taxonomic kingdoms are represented among them—animals, plants, fungi, photosynthetic eukaryotes, and protists.

This document provides federal and Native American resource managers and historians of the Grand Canyon region of northwestern Arizona with a census of living (neontological) organisms that had been scientifically named based on collections made wholly on, or in part from, the lands that these managers oversee. Federal administrative units to which this accounting may be of particular interest are: Grand Canyon National Park, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area (in that area near where it shares a boundary with the Grand Canyon park at Lees Ferry), Bureau of Land Management, Arizona Strip District; Grand Canyon–Parashant National Monument; U.S. Forest Service, Kaibab National Forest.  Jurisdictions of Native American peoples addressed pertain to: Havasupai Tribe, Hualapai Indian Tribe, Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians, Navajo Nation.

Hypomimia is a condition in the early stages of the progression of Parkinson's disease that limits the movement of facial muscles, restricting accurate depiction of facial expressions. Also known as facial masking, this condition is an early symptom of Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder that affects movement. To date, no specific test exists to diagnose the disease. Instead, doctors rely on the patient's medical history and symptoms to confirm the onslaught of the disease, delaying treatment. This study aims to develop a diagnostic tool for Parkinson's disease utilizing the Facial Action Coding System, a comprehensive system describing all facially discernible movement. In addition, this project generates image datasets by simulating faces or action unit sets for both Parkinson's patients and non-affected individuals through coding. Accordingly, the model is trained using supervised learning and neural networks. The model's efficiency is compared using Convolutional Neural Network and Vision Transformer models and later tested with a test program by passing an Parkinson's disease affected image as input. The future goal is to develop a self-determining mobile application (PDiagnosis) by utilizing the model to determine the probability of Parkinson's progression.

There is probably no more historically significant or culturally pivotal event in the history of the south-western USA than the ambitious expedition of Francisco Vazquez de Coronado. Although the exploits of Coronado’s army have been examined for hundreds of years, new information has emerged from on-going studies of surviving documents and field work. This paper presents a new hypothesis and supportive evidence which suggest that a dispatch of Coronado’s men (led by Don Garcia Lopez de Cardenas) with the goal of discovering the Colorado River, likely did not descend off the south rim of Grand Canyon near the present day Desert View area in eastern Grand Canyon, as proposed by Bartlett in 1940. Surviving documents indicate that the Cardenas Expedition traveled 20 days and 130 miles before attempting a descent into the canyon; only three or four days of travel are needed to arrive at the Desert View area from the Hopi Village of Awat’ovi (the starting location of the Cardenas expedit...

The upper carbonate member of the Kaibab Formation in northern Arizona (USA) was subaerially exposed during the end Permian and contains fractured and zoned chert rubble lag deposits typical of karst topography. The karst chert rubble has secondary (authigenic) silica precipitates suitable for estimating continental weathering temperatures during the end Permian karst event. New oxygen and hydrogen isotope ratios of secondary silica precipitates in the residual rubble breccia: (1) yield continental palaeotemperature estimates between 17 and 22 °C; and, (2) indicate that meteoric water played a role in the crystallization history of the secondary silica. The continental palaeotemperatures presented herein are broadly consistent with a global mean temperature estimate of 18.2 °C for the latest Permian derived from published climate system models. Few data sets are presently available that allow even approximate quantitative estimates of regional continental palaeotemperatures. These d...

The federal government owns roughly 640 million acres of land, about 28% of the 2.27 billion acres in the United States. This land is managed by numerous agencies, but four agencies administer about 95% of federal land, with somewhat differing management emphases. These agencies are the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and National Park Service (NPS) in the Department of the Interior (DOI), and the Forest Service (FS) in the Department of Agriculture. Most federal land is in the West, including Alaska. The total amount of money the federal government spends managing land is not readily available. However, the appropriations for the four major land management agencies totaled $15.47 billion for FY2016. Federal land ownership began when the original 13 states ceded title to more than 40% of their "western" lands to the central government. Subsequently, the federal government acquired lands from foreign countries through purchases and treaties. The Property Clause of the U.S. Constitution, Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2, gives Congress authority over the lands, territories, or other property of the United States. This provision provides Congress broad authority over lands owned by the federal government. The U.S. Supreme Court has described this power as "without limitations." When Congress exercises its authority over federal land, federal law overrides conflicting state laws under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, Article VI, Clause 2. States can obtain authority to own and manage federal lands within their borders only by federal, not state, law. Congress's broad authority over federal lands includes the authority to dispose of lands, and Congress can choose to transfer ownership of federal land to states. States have legal authority to manage federal lands within their borders to the extent Congress has given them such authority. As an example, Congress has to a large extent allowed states to exercise management authority over wildlife as a traditional area of state concern. Congress could give states authority to manage certain other activities, resources, or other aspects of federal lands. Congress also could give federal agencies authority to delegate or assign responsibility for aspects of federal land management to states or other partners. Currently, some states are seeking more state and local control over federal lands and resources. Accordingly, some are considering measures to provide for or express support for the transfer of federal lands to states, to establish task forces or commissions to examine federal land transfer issues, and to assert management authority over federal lands. A collection of efforts from the late 1970s and early 1980s, known as the Sagebrush Rebellion, sought to foster divestiture of federal lands. However, this effort did not succeed. State efforts to claim control of federal lands, without express approval of Congress, are likely to run afoul of the Constitution. Opinions differ about the extent to which the federal government should own and manage land, and whether Congress should transfer some degree of ownership and management of land to states. These are policy choices for Congress. Recent Congresses have considered, and in some cases enacted, measures related to disposal, acquisition, and management of federal lands. A variety of bills sought to provide for ownership and management of particular parcels by states, individuals, and other entities. At the same time, diverse proposals sought to provide for acquisition of lands for federal ownership and management. Still other proposals focused on establishing or amending agency authorities to dispose of or acquire land.

Analyses of stratigraphic sequences within the paleocanyons of the Hualapai Plateau, Arizona, are important because these deposits offer the only evidence for the Paleogene-Neogene geological history of the Grand Canyon area. In this paper, we focus on the origins and paleoenvironmental significance of the West Water Formation, located within the Milkweed and West Water paleocanyons on the Hualapai Plateau. We propose that the supposed "limestone unit" of the West Water Formation at and near its type section is not a limestone; rather, it is a 21 m-thick valley calcrete, overprinted by a ~1-2 m-thick pedogenic calcrete, and subsequently dolomitized in its upper-to-middle sections, with a superimposed 4 m-thick red paleosol. We also propose that this unit is not coeval in age or origin with the Long Point limestone on the Coconino Plateau, and that the presence of a complex calcretedolocrete-paleosol alters previous interpretations associated with this unit. Evidence for a calcrete-paleosol origin, beyond the West Water Formation's lack of fossils, includes: its predominantly micritic calcite-palygorskite composition; its textures characteristic of valley and pedogenic calcrete deposits (as exhibited by thin section, SEM, and TEM analyses); and its association with a relatively thick overlying red paleosol that also contains abundant palygorskite. Stable carbon and oxygen isotope values from carbonate cements are also within the range expected of a near-surface calcrete. Carbonate minerals within the calcrete-dolocrete were precipitated at or near the water table in a valley setting due to evaporation and/or CO2 degassing in a semi-arid to arid environment of deposition. High 87 Sr/ 86 Sr values within the calcrete were inherited from groundwater infiltrating through Music Mountain Formation arkosic sediments, which were derived from a Precambrian source terrane to the south and

What began in September 1974 as a bibliography of Grand Canyon geology went on to consume a good part of my life. It's been an interesting evolution. The bibliography soon was all-encompassing, containing everything concerning the Grand Canyon and the Lower Colorado River country from Glen Canyon Dam to the sea. The ever-expanding volume appeared in paperback in 1981; in concomitant loose-leaf, microfiche, and digital disk versions in 1990 and 1993; as an interactive database online from 2000 to 2021; and as several ballooning editions of a book-format, searchable PDF file first on CD and DVD disks (2012, 2015) then downloadable from a website (2019, 2022, and 2025 forthcoming, with liberal reproduction and fair use provisions to encourage its use and longevity). This personal essay follows the many lives of "Bibliography of the Grand Canyon and Lower Colorado River", which now flourishes in multiple volumes as "The Grand Canon" on the Raven's Perch Media website (https://ravensperch.org).

“Too Numerous To Name” is an annotated biographical bibliography that cites published works which contain biographically relevant information about individuals who were present, or who undertook activities, at the Grand Canyon or on the Colorado River in the canyon. This is not a comprehensive bibliography of works by these people, nor does it direct to unpublished source materials. Compendia of publications by or about these people that are fundamentally less personal in nature, such as scholarly works and commonplace publications, are available elsewhere. Pertinent cross-references to some of those compendia are occasionally supplied herein.
The people in this annotated biographical bibliography are parts of the history of the Grand Canyon or the Colorado River, regardless of how widely or not they are recognized. While many of them realized significant, even life-long, activities here, others were simply “famous visitors” passing through. Statements about such visits have often been made without providing sources for that information. This volume helps to resolve that deficiency.
There are as well individuals who are only tiny historical cogs of peculiar or passing interest—yet they appeared in print. Some of them will be new even to Grand Canyon historians and aficionados, for the reason that they were noticed fleetingly, perhaps once or twice in a century or more of publications. Here they are recognized, eluding historical expiration.
Separate lists are provided for anthologies and retrospective collections. They help fill the gap between the publications cited herein and other, wide-ranging works that may intersperse biographically pertinent information. It is not the purpose of this bibliography to comprise a master index to all publications. It does, however, find many noteworthy people and discovers many who might never have been recognized as having had a place in the annals of the canyon and its river.
A biographical bibliography for the Grand Canyon has not existed before. This is a first-effort product, so some users surely will note omissions. There is much room for inspiration and growth.

Since 1885, Emma Augusta Ayer (née Burbank, 1845–1932), wife of Edward Everett Ayer (1841–1927, owner of the Ayer Lumber Co. of Flagstaff), has been credited with having been the first non-Indigenous woman to descend to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. In mid-May, probably guided by Grand Canyon’s William Hull, Mr. and Mrs. Ayer, with Edward’s brother, Henry, went on a mini-expedition to the Colorado River on the Old Hance Trail, apparently the first such guided canyon trail trip. Mrs. Ayer’s adventure was commemorated by the naming of Ayer’s Peak nearby, but which was later officially named Coronado Butte. However, the inner canyon’s Ayer Point (the northward topographic extension of the base of Coronado Butte) does today acknowledge her canyon accomplishment. Ayer’s historical credit was not attributed by attentive historians after the fact, but was given to her almost immediately by a local newspaper editor. In the May 23 issue of the Weekly Champion (Flagstaff, A.T.) published a short article, “The Ayer Trip to the Grand Canon,” in which the writer pointedly declared: “Mrs. Ayer is the first lady who ever attempted the [inner canyon] trip, and she stood the terrible journey, as told by her companions, even better than those accompanying her. It is a great undertaking, and she is deserving of credit.” And ever since, she has been held up as the first lady of the Grand Canyon. Now, after 139 years, we must withdraw Mrs. Ayer’s “first woman” credentials. In fact, she is now in “third place” among non-Indigenous women venturers to the canyon bottom.

All:
I am announcing a new article on my website, #130, with the title:  The Big Hurricanes Theory, the Great Unconformity, and a Supposed Worldwide Flood.  It is 29 pages long and has 14 figures.  After attempting to publish it in a shorter version in  four refereed geology journals and two science magazines and in two Christian magazines and one Christian journal and being denied by editors of the geology journals and two science magazines, presumably because it had too much controversial religion topics in it, and by editors of the Christian magazines and one Christian journal because it had too much science in it, I have given up on getting it published in some place for general readership by the public or geologists.  On that basis, I decided to expand it a bit and summarize both the science and the evidence that a worldwide Noah’s flood is not possible in order to have this information in one article instead of in several articles.  It includes a closing statement that shows that Christians can accept it with full endorsement because it meets the requirement that Jesus expects when he says: “Come follow me!”
I hope that you will share it with many people.
The article can be accessed at this link:
Nr130BigHTheory3.pdf (csun.edu)
Lorence (Larry) Collins (professor of geology emeritus, CSUN)

LOCATION (MRDS, 2011)

T.21S R.59E Sec 32 36.08329 -115.3989

HISTORY AND OWNERSHIP

The Mateucci Gypsum mine is a northern extension of the Blue Diamond Mine. Aerial photographs show it is vegetated suggesting that the Mateucci pit is part of an older era of Blue Diamond mine development. The early Arden mine and later Blue Diamond Mine both used tramways to take gypsum ore off the mountain and transport it to processing plants.

The Blue Diamond mine is in the Ardan Gypsum District. Major gypsum producers in this district include the Arden, Bard, Blue Diamond, Honey Comb, Last Chance and Mateucci mines. Descriptions of them are found in Murphy (1954, Fig. 2), Longwell (1965:154-209), Hewett and others (1936:167, 169), USBOM, (1932, 1937, 1950), Minobras, (1973:10), and NDM (1991).

MINE GEOLOGY


Mining was originally room and pillar underground operation. It later became an open pit quarry

An oval-shaped hill, approximately 500 feet high and three-quarters of a mile in length, the longer axis trending northwest, is underlain by gypsum. The following section is exposed at the southern end of the hill (Jones and Stone, 1920:155):

Limestone, massive, dull gray, cherty, the chert in thin bands and lenses forming one-third of the mass; both chert and limestone with abundant poorly preserved fossils, the greater number being fragments of Productus and Athyris, bryozoans, and corals. 125± feet (Jones and Stone, 1920:155).

Shales, red and green, gypsiferous, with thin beds of gray limestone in places and including a bed of gypsum ranging from 25 to 80 feet in thickness.: 85 ± feet (Jones and Stone, 1920:155).

Limestone, gray massive with rare chert nodules; thickness unknown (Jones and Stone, 1920:155).

The strata dip gently to the east, and there probably is a fault along the eastern side of the hill. A transverse fault about a quarter of a mile northwest of the quarry apparently has cut off the gypsum. The gypsum ranges from 20 to nearly 90 feet thick, the upper surface being very irregular, as shown in figure 11 (Jones and Stone, 1920:155).

West of Arden, on the east side of the Spring Mountains, the gypsum is in the Permian red beds and the overlying Toroweap and Kaibab Formations (Moore, in Hewett and others, 1936, p. 167). The gypsum beds are commonly 5 to 15 feet thick, but locally may reach 75 feet in thickness. At a depth of 50 to 1oo feet from the surface the gypsum passes into anhydrite. Gypsum has been mined since 1925 in the hills near and east of Blue Diamond (fig. 20). Present production is chiefly from the upper (Harrisburg) member of tbc Kaibab Formation. Recent production is estimated to be more than 300,000 tons of gypsum annually. The reserves are large and exploration will probably reveal other large deposits. The Blue Diamond Co., a division of the Flintkote Co., operates a quarry, a plaster mill, and a gypsum lath and wallboard plant (Longwell and others, 1965:143-154).

LOCATION (MRDS, 2011)

T.21S R.59E Sec 32 MDM 36.07693 -115.395 Blue Diamond Quarry
T.21S R.59E Sec 32 MDM 36.07919 -115.3994 Blue Diamond Pit and Mill
T.22S R.60E Sec 07 MDM 36.04919 -115.3008 (Arden Quarry)

PREVIOUS NAMES

Honey Comb (Arden Deposit)

HISTORY AND OWNERSHIP

The Blue Diamond mine is in the Ardan Gypsum District. Major gypsum producers in this district include the Arden, Bard, Blue Diamond, Honey Comb, Last Chance and Mateucci mines. Descriptions of them are found in Murphy (1954, Fig. 2), Longwell (1965:154-209), Hewett and others (1936:167, 169), USBOM, (1932, 1937, 1950), Minobras, (1973:10), and NDM (1991).

The five-point Rb-Sr whole-rock isochron age of 1.07 Ga for the diabase sill at Bass Rapids, Grand Canyon, has been regarded for 20 years as an excellent example of the application of conventional radioisotopic dating. Initial thorough isotopic mixing within the sill is ideal for yielding concordant whole-rock isochron and mineral isochron ages. However, our new K-Ar, Rb-Sr, Sm-Nd, and Pb-Pb radioisotope data from 11 whole-rock samples (eight diabase, three granophyre) and six mineral phases separated from one of the whole-rock diabase samples yield discordant whole-rock and mineral isochron "ages." These isochron "ages" range from 841.5±164 Ma (whole-rock K-Ar) to 1375±170 Ma (mineral Sm-Nd). Although significant discordance exists between the K-Ar, Rb-Sr, Sm-Nd, and Pb-Pb radioisotope methods, each method appears to yield concordant "ages" internally between whole rocks and minerals. Internal concordance is best illustrated by the Rb-Sr whole rock and mineral isochron "ages" of 1055±46 Ma and 1059±48 Ma, respectively. It is therefore argued that only changing radioisotope decay rates in the past could account for these discordant isochron "ages" for the same geologic event. Furthermore, these data are consistent with alpha decay having been accelerated more than beta decay, and with the longer the present halflife the greater being the acceleration factor.

For more than twenty years it has been known that the Rb-Sr and K-Ar systems give discordant "ages" for Cardenas Basalt and associated Proterozoic diabase sills and dikes of Grand Canyon. Thirteen new K-Ar analyses of Proterozoic mafic rocks of Grand Canyon are added to nine published K-Ar analyses. We report a new fourteen-point K-Ar isochron "age" of 516 ± 30 Ma which is strongly discordant with the published Rb-Sr isochron "age" of 1.07 ± 0.07 Ga for Cardenas Basalt. By more than doubling the K-Ar data set we can test explanations for why the discordance exists. Advocates of the Rb-Sr isochron, recognizing the strong geochemical similarity of rubidium and potassium, have not argued for significant potassium addition to these rocks. Addition of potassium during alteration of these rocks would explain the anomously young K-Ar age, but it would also add rubidium and invalidate the Rb-Sr isochron age. Instead, advocates of the Rb-Sr isochron have argued only for significant argon loss. Two argon loss models (episodic loss and continuous loss) are tested in an attempt to explain why these altered rocks have about half the 40 Ar required by the conventional Rb-Sr interpretation. Both argon loss models, although attempting to maintain the assumptions of conventional geochronology, fail to explain the data, especially the new data we offer. Three models are proposed as alternatives to argon loss models, but these invalidate using the K-Ar system as conventional geochronology would assume.

DigitalCommons@Cedarville provides a publication platform for fully open access journals, which means that all articles are available on the Internet to all users immediately upon publication. However, the opinions and sentiments expressed by the authors of articles published in our journals do not necessarily indicate the endorsement or reflect the views of DigitalCommons@Cedarville, the Centennial Library, or Cedarville University and its employees.

In ecology textbooks prior to the 1970s, Aldo Leopold's classic story of predator control, overpopulation of deer, and habitat degradation on the Kaibab Plateau during the 1920s epitomized predator regulation of herbivore populations. However, the story disappeared from texts in the late 20th century after several papers noted uncertainties in estimations of the deer population and provided alternative explanations. We reexamined the case study by determining the age structure of aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) on the plateau. Aspen comprises the majority of deer browse in the summer, and the absence of a normal cohort of aspen from the 1920s would indicate deer overpopulation. The number of aspen (at 1.4 m) dating to the 1920s was an order of magnitude lower than the null expectation. Other periods of unusual numbers of aspen included high numbers of aspen dating to the 1880s and 1890s (when regular surface fires ceased), few aspen dating from 1953 to 1962 (after a second irruption of the deer population), and very high numbers from 1968 to 1992 (coincident with widespread logging). These convergent lines of evidence support the idea of extreme deer herbivory in the 1920s, consistent with food limitation of deer at high populations (bottom-up control) and predation limitation at low deer populations (top-down control). Some uncertainty remains within the overall story, and this level of ambiguity is common in case studies that involve population ecology, land management, and people at the scale of 1,000 km 2 and 100 years. A complete version of the Kaibab deer story and its history would be a valuable, realistic case study for ecology texts.

The structural norm approach was combined with the Potential for Conflict Index to define recreation streamflow needs for the Colorado River in Utah and Colorado. An online survey was completed by 128 commercial and non-commercial boaters, who evaluated a range of flows for whitewater boating. For the Cataract Canyon reach, respondents rated the quality of their recreation experience of specific flows, describing the quality of boating opportunities across the full range of historical streamflows. Ranges for both acceptable and optimum flows were defined, as well as thresholds for unacceptable flows. These ranges were then evaluated against historical hydrologic records to quantify the timing, frequency, and duration of days when defined whitewater flows exist across different year types (i.e. average boatable days). Results indicated that on average, a total of 257 boatable days existed in dry years, and 353 total boatable days occurred in dry-typical years. In wet and wet-typical years, 362 and 365 total boatable days respectively, occurred on average. Results of the boatable days' analysis indicated that over the 23-year period of record, whitewater boating opportunities occurred nearly every day of the year in all but the driest year types. Results from this study provide resource managers with information which can be used in the development of annual operating plans for the Colorado River Basin and help managers understand how changes in flow impact the quality of recreational opportunities. This application demonstrates the value of analysing boatable days on any river where recreation management is a priority.

I n t r o d u c t I o n Grand Canyon (Figure 1) is one of the most impressive erosional features on planet Earth. Within the dramatic exposures of its scorching rocks, generations of geoscientists have labored to find out how this section of the vast Colorado River system came to be and how fast it eroded. Young-earth creationists (YECs) also flock to Grand Canyon, but with a very different agenda than scientists. For YECs, Grand Canyon is a prime target for promotion of their idea that the Earth is only a few thousand years old. While geoscientists know that F I g u r e 1. Map of Arizona-Utah area showing Grand Canyon, nearby plateaus, the Colorado River, and its tributaries. Map reprinted with permission from Bronze Black. Collins When Was Grand Canyon Carved?

Invertebrate biodiversity and conservation in Tasmanian caves. Memoirs of the Museum of Victoria 56(2) 649-653. Tasmanian caves support a diverse invertebrate fauna, representing the richest known assemblages of cave obligate species in temperate Australia. Current studies have yielded much valuable and unusual information regarding spider, amphipod and cricket species in particular, while highlighting their sensitivity to environmental disturbance.

Harry Rieseberg (1892-1970) was most well known for his mid-20th century, contrived books about marine treasure-hunting, but in his early career as a government clerk he signed his name to poems about the Grand Canyon that had been written by others, and which originally were not about Grand Canyon at all. He submitted these for publication in the Santa Fe Railway's own organ, "Santa Fe Magazine". His early piratical avocation is noticed here for the first time.

They’re legendary, those mules. For well more than a century, “everyone” has heard about “the Grand Canyon mules” even if they have not been to the Canyon. Riding into the Canyon was something to aspire to. Ride a Grand Canyon mule and die. A lot of riders thought that was their fate once they were on the way down the trail, or so they reported afterward, for heroic effect, or perhaps truthfully—we might never know. Riding into the Canyon was not to be missed for the world, they said, but never again. And even so, mules are not the only quadrupeds to tromp into the chasm. Horses have a history here, too, though the mules have won out in the heavy-lift and most inner canyon tourist categories. The “Miniature Horse Hoax” provides an amusingly interesting diversion. Occasionally, burros and donkeys wandered into the scene as well. Though they are one and the same, many people see them as different animals, perhaps because of the names or perceptions of their uses. One also should never overlook the Canyon’s most special burro, Brighty, who deserves his own chapter. The equid history of the Grand Canyon furthermore contains fossil and feral equines, a vigorous and sometimes contemptuous history of the activities of humans, their helpers, and maybe the one-time indigenous equid population. So it’s not just the mules—the Grand Canyon mules—that are rounded up in this annotated bibliography. Their many assistants, associates, and ancestors play as well in this small and sometimes just plain fun slot in Grand Canyon’s history. Climb aboard anywhere and see.

We examined subadult humpback chub densities along 24 kms of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon to: (1) identify geomorphic conditions in the study area; (2) determine associations between subadult humpback chub (B 200 mm TL) habitat use and geomorphic differences; and (3) determine how discharge, during base flow conditions, was related to subadult humpback chub habitat conditions. Habitat was categorized at two nested spatial scales: geomorphic reach and shoreline type. Within reaches, shoreline types were categorized according to geomorphology. We measured water depth, velocity and cover attributes along all shoreline types over a range of discharges to determine if habitat quality of reaches and shoreline types varied with discharge. Reaches 1 and 3 had narrow, deep corridors, whereas Reach 2 was a wide, shallow reach. Among shoreline types, depth, velocity and cover varied; however, differences were not consistent between reaches. Fish densities also varied among shoreline types and reaches. Vegetation, talus and debris fan shorelines had the highest densities of subadult humpback chub in a pattern similar to that of cover. In addition, subadult humpback chub presence was associated with a high frequency of cover regardless of shoreline designation. However, these relationships explained little of the overall variation in subadult densities. Lack of a strong association between fish density and geomorphology may be partially due to effects of discharge on habitat quality. The overall trend among shorelines (without regard to type) showed that cover decreased with increasing discharge, whereas depth and velocity increased. However, no consistent pattern between discharge and depth, velocity and cover among individual shoreline types was evident. Vegetated shorelines, consisting mainly of non-native tamarisk (Tamarix chinensis), had nearly twice the fish densities of talus and debris fan. Reasons are discussed as to why subadult humpback chub occupy naturalized habitat like vegetated shorelines in greater densities than natural habitats. The relationships observed in this study have important implications for humpback chub recovery and management of the Colorado River through Grand Canyon.

Temperature in degrees Celsius (°C) may be converted to degrees Fahrenheit (°F) as follows: °F= (1.8×°C) +32. vii Specific conductance is given in microsiemens per centimeter at 25 degrees Celsius (µS/cm at 25°C). Concentration units for chemical constituents in water are milligrams of solute per liter of solution (mg/L). Concentration units for dissolution of a mineral in water are millimoles of dissolved mineral per kilogram of water (mmol/kg). Concentration units for chemical constituents in rock are milligrams of constituent per kilogram of rock (mg/kg). Concentration units for excess air dissolved in water are cubic centimeters per liter (cm 3 /L). Concentration units for chlorofluorocarbon concentrations dissolved in water are picograms of chlorofluorocarbon per kilogram of water (pg/kg). Datums Vertical coordinate information is referenced to the North American Vertical Datum of 1929 (NAVD 29). Horizontal coordinate information is referenced to North American Datum of 1983 (NAD 83). Altitude, as used in this report, refers to distance above the vertical datum.

New detrital zircon U-Pb age distributions from 49 late Cenozoic sandstones and Holocene sands (49 samples, n = 3922) record the arrival of extraregional early Pliocene Colorado River sediment at Grand Wash (western USA) and downstream locations ca. 5.3 Ma and the subsequent evolution of the river's provenance signature. We define reference age distributions for the early Pliocene Colorado River (n = 559) and Holocene Colorado River (n = 601). The early Pliocene river is distinguished from the Holocene river by (1) a higher proportion of Yavapai-Mazatzal zircon derived from Rocky Mountain basement uplifts relative to Grenville zircon from Mesozoic supracrustal rocks, and (2) distinctive (~6%) late Eocene-Oligocene (40-23 Ma) zircon reworked from Cenozoic basins and volcanic fields in the southern Rocky Mountains and/or the eastern Green River catchment. Geologic relationships and interpretation of 135 published detrital zircon age distributions throughout the Colorado River catchment provide the interpretative basis for modeling evolution of the provenance signature. Mixture modeling based upon a modified formulation of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic indi cate a subtle yet robust change in Colorado River provenance signature over the past 5 m.y. During this interval the contribution from Cenozoic strata decreased from ~75% to 50% while pre-Cretaceous strata increased from ~25% to 50%. We interpret this change to reflect progressive erosional incision into plateau cover strata. Our finding is consistent with geologic and thermochronologic studies that indicate that maximum post-10 Ma erosion of the Colorado River catchment was concentrated across the eastern Utahwestern Colorado region.

Fine pm•ic!e anti total akbome particle. samples were ccfilectext dnring August 1989 within the Grand Canyon (Indian Gardens (IG)) and on its south rim (Hopi Point (HP)) to define summertime organic aerosol concentration and composition as a function of elevation at Grand Canyon National Park. Inorganic chemical constituents were analyzed also to help place the relative importance of organics in perspective. Fine particle organic aerosols were approximately equal in concentration to sulfate aerosols at both sites. Monthly average mass concentrations for fine aerosol organics ranged from 1.1 gg m-3 (IG) to 1.3 gg m-3 (HP), while the organic aerosol concentration within total suspended particulate matter samples ranged from 1.9 Bg m-3 (IG) to 2.1 Bg m-3 (HP). Aerosol organics that could be evaluated by gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC-FID) (elutable organics) constituted 27% to 53 % of the total organics mass collected as fine or total aerosol. At each site, roughly half of the elutable organics fine aerosol fraction was composed of highly polar organic compounds. Distributions of the elutable organics were compared to Los Angeles fine aerosol samples and to distributions of authentic sources of aerosol organics. It was found that the Grand Canyon organic aerosol during August 1989 did not resemble diluted aged Los Angeles organic aerosol, indicating that most of the organic particulate matter at the Grand Canyon at the time studied originated from other sources.

When we read history for instruction as well as pleasure, it is often to assess the follies of past leaders and failed policies. When we read environmental history, our assessment of past follies has a twist. In a typical historical narrative, the hubris behind a king's or a pope's diplomacy is typically visible to contemporary observers. An empire-in-decline announces itself by the actions of desperate governments to quell rebellions, improve finances, and battle adversaries. The paradox of environmental history is that the seeds of disaster are often planted when times are best. In fact contemporaries view the planting as a high achievement. So it is with dams and river management infrastructure. The engineering prowess required to construct the great dams of the American West, Hoover, Grand Coulee, Bonneville and Glen Canyon, was truly breathtaking. To build Hoover Dam during the early 1930's, the Colorado River had to be diverted through tunnels in the canyon walls that supported the growing dam. Atop these canyon walls, vast volumes of liquid concrete were mixed and conveyed via cable down to the growing structure, where pipes embedded within the firming blocks cooled the concrete as it cured. Hoover Dam, the largest single construction job up to that point, was finished two years ahead of schedule, and prompted Franklin Roosevelt at its dedication to proclaim it as "another great achievement of American resourcefulness, skill and determination." By the end of the 20th century, the operators of the dam were scrambling to manage the allocation of its water to thirsty communities and farmers downstream, having already consigned natural ecosystems downstream to an inconsistent trickle of once abundant riverflow. The unintended consequences of Hoover Dam and, especially, the infrastructure projects that followed it, are the subjects of a highly readable new book by James Lawrence Powell, Dead Pool: Lake Powell, Global Warming, and the Future of Water in the West. The author Powell opens the book with a breathless recounting of two crises that struck the Glen Canyon Dam soon after Lake Powell filled behind it between 1963 and 1980. In 1983 an unanticipated surfeit of water in the upper Colorado River catchment nearly breached the dam; friction from water diverted into spillway tunnels tore away car-sized chunks of concrete and portions of the canyon wall. Within two more decades, a persistent drought in the same river catchment threatened Lake Powell with stagnation, its level falling near the "dead pool" level, at which its water no longer could be used to generate hydroelectric power, or even to be distributed beyond the dam. (Because silt will eventually accumulate behind a dam and displace the lowest reaches of its lake, a dam's water outlets lie well above its base, 237 feet above the original riverbed for the Glen Canyon Dam.) Within 40 years of its construction, the Glen Canyon Dam had seen riverflow conditions that had challenged its design parameters at both the high and low extremes. How could this bad outcome elude the careful plans of civil engineers, hydrologists, and policymakers? At this point historical factors take center stage. Powell steps back into the 19th century, to an age when optimistic western expansionists hypothesized that "rain would follow the plow" and encouraged legions of new settlers to farm land that the Plains Indians (and their buffalo) rarely lingered upon for more than a season. After a generation of futility, efforts to manage the surface waters of the American West with a system of dams, both massive and modest, seized the public imagination in the early 20th century. Geology demanded that these dams be sited in challenging locations, typically the steep-walled mouths of long canyons. Hydrologists

A bstra ct Mountain sheep Ovis canadensis respond dramatically to helicopter disturbance. Significantly more animals abandoned sampling blocks and moved farther during helicopter surveys than on nonsurvey days throughout the year. Likewise, mountain sheep changed the vegetation type they occurred in more often after than before helicopter surveys; however, this difference was only significant during spring. Mountain sheep did not habituate or become sensitized to repeated heficopter overflights." time since capture was not related to their movements. The negative influence of the helicopter was extreme and may override variables that might otherwise be correlated with movement patterns of mountain sheep: this outcome also may hold for other ungulates. Further, sampling with helicopters may result in the violation of fundamental assumptions of population estimators routinely employed in conservation efforts for large mammals. The consequences of disturbing mountain sheep, such as altering use of habitat, increasing susceptibility to predation, or increasing nutritional stress, need additional study. These factors all have ramifications for the conservation of mountain sheep and other large mammals disturbed by helicopter sampling.

Researchers have long debated whether a transient knickzone, accompanied by a wave of high incision, has migrated through the Grand Canyon in the geologically recent past or if, instead, canyon incision rate has been constant during the past several million years. Resolution of this debate has been hindered until recently by the absence of incision rate data for central Grand Canyon and the short duration (since 385 ka) of the eastern Grand Canyon rate history derived directly from river terraces. Here we constrain incision rate histories since ca. 500 ka at eastern Grand Canyon's Hermit Creek (river mile 96) and at river mile 159 in central Grand Canyon. At Hermit Creek, U/Th ages of travertine-cemented river terrace fill and other surficial deposits reveal an average incision rate of 519 +55-58 m/m.y. since 506 ± 33 ka and a maximum rate of 210 +42-49 m/m.y. since 394 ± 32 ka. These data require an incision rate of 1-4 km/m.y. between ca. 500 and 400 ka followed by at least a fivefold decrease after 400 ka. We attribute this decrease to the migration of a transient knickzone past Hermit Creek between 500 and 400 ka. These same deposits also record a 600-800 m/m.y. retreat rate for the Redwall-Muav escarpment since 500 ka. At river mile 159, we analyze the relative age relationship between intrusion of the basaltic "159-Mile Dikes" and cutting of the Muav Gorge. We conclude that the dikes intruded prior to cutting of the gorge, which requires an average river incision rate of 763 m/m.y. since ca. 520 ka. We interpret this rapid rate (compared to ~100-160 m/m.y. over shorter time scales) as independent evidence of knickzone passage through central and eastern Grand Canyon at ca. 500-400 ka. 1 We use the river miles of Martin and Whitis (2008) measured downstream from Lees Ferry.

The Hecla Hoek succession of northeastern Svalbard, Norway, is an~7 km thick Tonian-Ordovician sedimentary succession that overlies Stenian-Tonian felsic igneous and metasedimentary rocks. The carbonate-dominated upper Tonian-Ediacaran (ca. 820-600 Ma) Akademikerbreen and Polarisbreen groups have yielded important insights into Earth's Neoproterozoic climate, environment, and biological evolution. However, the underlying siliciclastic-dominated lower Tonian (ca. 950-820 Ma) Veteranen Group has garnered little attention despite the fact that it is remarkably well-preserved and hosts diverse microfossil assemblages. Here, we present the first detailed sedimentological analysis of the Veteranen Group from a continuous~4.4 km thick stratigraphic section at Faksevågen, Ny Friesland, Spitsbergen. Integrated facies analysis, sequence stratigraphy, and carbonate δ 13 C carb and δ 18 O carb chemostratigraphy elucidate the early depositional history of the Hecla Hoek basin and provide fundamental paleoenvironmental constraints for future investigations of this succession as an archive of Tonian Earth History. The Veteranen Group records a long-lived deltaic and storm-influenced marine sedimentary system that reveals dynamics of Precambrian clastic sedimentation prior to the evolution of land plants. Five asymmetric transgressive-regressive (T-R) sequences within the Veteranen Group thin upwards, providing support for the hypothesis that the contact with the Akademikerbreen Group represents a rift-to-drift transition. This complex record of Tonian deltaic and storm-influenced marine sedimentation along the Laurentian margin strengthens correlation between the Veteranen Group and coeval strata from East Greenland and sets the stage to better understand the Proterozoic tectonic evolution of the North Atlantic-circum-Arctic region following the Grenville orogeny.

The low summer steady flows (LSSF) experiment of 2000 further demonstrated that spike flows released from Glen Canyon Dam redistribute sand from the channel bed and lower elevation parts of eddy sandbars to channel-margin deposits and the higher elevation parts of eddy sandbars. Unfortunately, summer 2000 was a period of unusually low tributary influx of sediment and there was little fine sediment (i.e., sand and finer material) available for redistribution. Nevertheless, the low steady flows, which held releases from the dam steady at 230 m 3 /s (8,100 ft 3 /s), during the summer of 2000 effectively retained on the channel bed the little sediment that was supplied by tributaries, and a subsequent 4-day, 870 m 3 /s (30,700 ft 3 /s) spike flow caused modest increases in the area of the mid-elevation zone of eddy sandbars.

All:
I am announcing a new article on my website, #122, titled Resources.”  Many people have found with a Google search my article dealing with the origin and site of Noah’s flood in southeastern Mesopotamia in biblical times.  Yes, Noah’s Flood May Have Happened, But Not Over the Whole Earth  RNCSE25.5-6cdt (csun.edu)  But not many people are aware that I also have an article that gives a scientific explanation for the “fountains of the great deep.”  Fountains of the Great Deep and Noah's Flood  Nr64Fountains.pdf (csun.edu)
Also, many people are not aware of the extent to which I have articles on my website OPPOSITION TO YOUNG-EARTH CREATIONISM (csun.edu) covering many different subjects, such as biblical interpretations, Big Hurricanes Theory, oxygen, intelligent design, origin of oil, Sodom and Gomorrah, chalk, carbon-14 dating, Noah’s ark in eastern Turkey, Earth-moon system, evolution, to name a few.  On that basis, article #122 is a reference article to make it easy for people to find subjects of interest to them.  See this link to get the Resources:  Nr122Resources3.pdf (csun.edu)
Lorence (Larry) Collins  (professor of geology emeritus, CSUN)

This second volume, Southern Paiute History and Place Names, draws upon historical accounts, diaries, and oral histories to document Southern Paiute occupation and use of the Arizona Strip from the time of European and Euro-American contact until the middle of the twentieth century. It also includes Paiute names for 148 places on and in the vicinity of the Arizona Strip. These names were culled from written sources, matched where possible with a current official name (recorded in the United States Geological Survey Place Names database), and translated. All names were reviewed by a team of Paiute elders in the presence of a linguist and two ethnographers. Also included are stories related to some of the named places. The stories were taken from both archival sources and oral history interviews.