still not famous, but getting closer

[ilanarama]

I am ridiculously pleased that the local museum director has asked me to give a talk as part of their fall lecture series. Since I write a column on local weather history, I'm now the local expert, woo! So I'm giving a talk on the flood of 1911. Which I now have to research.

Comments

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Wow, nice! Congratulations!

[(Anonymous)]

You might take a look at "Through the Grand Canyon from Wyoming to Mexico" by the Kolb brothers; they reached Lee Ferry a couple weeks after the 1911 flood, which there reached more than >150 Kcfs, killing some people who were using the ferry.

Most of the stations on the streams of the 5-rivers country (San Juan, Dolores, San Miguel, Conejos, Chama, Rio Grande, Piedra, Los Pinos - I never can figure out which Stegner meant) postdate l911, but see

http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/discharge?site_no=08313000&agency_cd=USGS&begin_date=1911%2F10%2F01&end_date=1911%2F10%2F15&format=gif&set_logscale_y=1&date_format=YYYY-MM-DD&rdb_compression=file&submitted_form=brief_list

Of course the hydrograph of most interest is Animas at Durango 09361500

http://nwis.waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/discharge?site_no=09361500&agency_cd=USGS&begin_date=1911%2F10%2F01&end_date=1911%2F10%2F15&format=gif&set_logscale_y=1&date_format=YYYY-MM-DD&rdb_compression=file&submitted_form=brief_list

which is blank. Damn their eyes!

It's of interest that the Upper Green and Colorado contributed practically nothing to this flood. If there had been a basin-wide rain like this one, we would not have only paleotraces of a flow of 2 million cfs at Lee Ferry; they'd be grandparent-fresh.

When once you raft past the mouths of Chinle Creek and Comb Wash, traversing the abrupt flatirons of Halgaito Shale and entering the canyon between Bluff and Mexican Hat, you can still find traces of the great flood, in the form of large-diameter driftwood 50 feet above your head. A hundred years of desiccation have lightened some of these so much that you can shoulder whole logs and tote them about. Height above water correlates with recurrence interval. At the mouth of the dual washes that cause 8-foot Rapid, there is a single sand deposit some 50 - 60 feet above all normal stages, which was emplaced in the 3 days of the flood and is still largely untouched.

keep up the good work!

[myschka.livejournal.com]

Small steps, and soon a large career. Great news!