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Abstract: Glacial Lake Wisconsin was a large proglacial lake that formed along the southern margin of the Laurentide Ice Sheet during the Wisconsin glaciation. It was formed when ice of the Green Bay Lobe came into contact with the Baraboo Hills in southwestern Wisconsin and blocked the south-flowing Wisconsin River. During early glacial recession, the ice dam failed catastrophically and the lake drained in about a week. Despite early recognition of the former lake and the likelihood that it failed catastrophically, outflow rates during the failure have not been previously evaluated. Estimates based on step-backwater modeling indicate that peak discharge was between 3.6 and 5.3×104 m3/s in the lower Wisconsin River. As an alternate method, we used a previously derived empirical relationship between lake volume and peak discharge for dam-break events. From a digital elevation model altered to incorporate isostatic depression, we estimated the lake volume to be 87 km3 just prior to dam breach, suggesting that the flooding magnitude was as high as 1.5×105 m3/s at the outlet. Adjusting these results for downstream flood wave attenuation gives a discharge of around 4.4×104 m3/s in the lower reach, which closely matches the results of the step-backwater modeling. These estimates of discharge from the catastrophic failure of ice-marginal lakes improve our understanding of the processes that have produced the morphology and behavior of present-day upper Midwest river systems. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Long-term variations in Holocene flood magnitude were quantified from the bankfull dimensions of abandoned channels preserved on floodplain surfaces in the northern Uinta Mountains of northeastern Utah. Cross-sectional areas of abandoned channels were reconstructed, and relationships derived from the modern gage records were used to estimate bankfull discharges from bankfull cross-section areas. The results indicate systematic (nonrandom) variations of bankfull floods in the northern Uinta Mountains. Large floods, as much as 10%-15% greater than modern, dominated from 8500 to 5000 calendar yr B.P., and again from 2800 to 1000 cal yr B.P. Small floods, as much as 15%-20% less than modern, characterize the periods from 5000 to 2800 cal yr B.P., and from 1000 cal yr B.P. to near present. The middle and late Holocene record of bankfull flood magnitude compares well with independent evidence for climatic variation in the area. The early Holocene record indicates that larger than modern bankfull floods coincide with warmer than modern mean annual temperature. We hypothesize that an increased range of magnitude for seasonal solar radiation during the early Holocene favored the accumulation and rapid melting of deep snowpacks in the high Uinta Mountains, thus producing large floods despite warmer mean annual temperatures. The episode of smaller than modern bankfull floods between 5000 and 2800 cal yr B.P. coincides with records of increased forest fire frequency in the northern Uintas. Larger than modern floods from 2800 to 1000 cal yr B.P. coincide with a local decrease in forest fire frequency and evidence for minor local glacial readvances. The decrease in flood magnitudes following 1000 cal yr B.P. corresponds to numerous local and regional records of warming during the Medieval Climatic Anomaly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Understanding the time scales and pathways for response and recovery of rivers and floodplains to episodic changes in erosion and sedimentation has been a long standing issue in fluvial geomorphology. Floodplains are an important component of watershed systems because they affect downstream storage and delivery of overbank flood waters, and they also serve as sources and temporary sinks for sediments and toxic substances delivered by river systems. Here, 14C and 137Cs isotopic dating methods are used along with ages of culturally related phenomena associated with mining and agriculture to determine rates of sedimentation and morphologic change for a reach of the upper Mississippi River and adjacent tributaries in southwestern Wisconsin and northwestern Illinois. The most important environmental change that influenced fluvial activity in this region during last 10,000 years involved the conversion of a late Holocene mosaic of prairie and forest to a landscape dominated by cropland and pastureland associated with Euro-American settlement. Results presented herein for the Upper Mississippi Valley (UMV) show that the shift from pre-agriculture, natural land cover to landscape dominance by agricultural land use of the last 175–200 years typically increased rates and magnitudes of floodplain sedimentation by at least an order of magnitude. Accelerated overbank flooding led to increased bank heights on tributary streams and, in turn, contributed to more frequent deep flows of high energy. These high energy flows subsequently promoted bank erosion and lateral channel migration, and the formation of a historical meander belt whose alluvial surface constitutes a new historical floodplain inset against the earlier historical floodplain. The new historical floodplain serves as a “flume-like” channel that provides efficient downstream transport of water and sediment associated with moderate and large magnitude floods. Floodplains on lower tributaries, however, continue to experience rates of overbank sedimentation that are of anomalously high magnitude given improved land cover and land conservation since about 1950. This lower valley anomaly is explained by minimal development of historical (agriculture period) meander belts because of relatively low stream power in these channel and floodplain reaches of relatively low gradient. In general, long-term pre-agriculture rates of vertical accretion between about 10,000 and 200 years ago averaged about 0.2 mm yr−1 in tributary watersheds smaller than about 700 km2 and about 0.9 mm yr−1 on the floodplain of the upper Mississippi River where the contributing watershed area increases to about 170,000 km2. On the other hand, rates of historical vertical accretion during the period of agricultural dominance of the last 200 years average between 2 and 20 mm yr−1, with short episodes of even higher rates during times of particularly poor land conservation practices. Significant hydrologic effects of mining and agricultural started by the 1820s and became widespread in the study region by the mid-19th century. The hydrologic and geomorphic influences of mining were relatively minor compared to those related to agriculture. High resolution dating of floodplain vertical accretion deposits shows that large floods have frequently provided major increments of sedimentation on floodplains of tributaries and the main valley upper Mississippi River. The relative importance of large floods as contributors to floodplain vertical accretion is noteworthy because global atmospheric circulation models indicate that the main channel upper Mississippi River should experience increased frequencies of extreme hydrologic events, including large floods, with anticipated continued global warming. Instrumental and stratigraphic records show that, coincident with global warming, a shift to more frequent large floods occurred since 1950 on the upper Mississippi River, and these floods generally contributed high magnitudes of floodplain sedimentation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Presents a 7,000-year geological record of overbank floods for upper Mississippi river tributaries in mid-continent North America, which provides concrete evidence for a high sensitivity of flood occurrence to changing climate. Geological record of Holocene overbank floods in southwestern Wisconsin; An example dimensionless rating curve for the Platte River near Rockville, Wisconsin; Details of the study; Conclusion.