Geomorphic control of persistent mine impacts in a Yellowstone Park stream and implications for the recovery of fluvial systems

Marcus, W. Andrew; Meyer, Grant A.; Nimmo, Del Wayne R.

doi:10.1130/0091-7613(2001)029<0355:gcopmi>2.0.co;2

Cited by 59 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…There are almost no human modifications to the channels, although heavy metals from an upper basin tailings pond dam-break were emplaced in the floodplain areas of Soda Butte Creek in 1950 (Marcus, Meyer, and Nimmo 2001) and Tom Miner basin experiences some grazing. Holocene terrace materials show that major flood-induced modifications to the alluvial reaches of Soda Butte Creek may persist locally over periods greater than one hundred years (Meyer 2001).…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Organized Criticality in Riverbank Systems

Fonstad

Marcus

2003

Annals of the Association of American Geographers

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Where and when do natural rivers become unstable? To answer this question, we visually estimated bank-failure extent in 100-m increments along 180 km of riverbanks in three watersheds of the northern Yellowstone ecosystem. The riverbank data reveal precise power-law relationships between the number of bank failures of a given size throughout each watershed and the magnitude of those bank failures. The slopes of log-log graphs (i.e., the exponent t) of bank-failure magnitude versus failure frequency in alluvial reaches vary from 1.07 to 1.44, while t for all reaches combined (alluvial, colluvial, and bedrock) varies from 1.18 to 1.53, suggesting that lower-gradient, alluvial streams are more susceptible to large bank failures. Cellular automata simulations of riverbanks show similar power-law failure relationships, as do bank-erosion data from a long-term independent dataset from another location. These power-law structures can be interpreted as the spatial signal of a self-organized critical (SOC) system, in which local instabilities function to generate broader-scale order. SOC systems are considered to be at the ''edge of chaos,'' where local processes interact to make prediction of specific failure events impossible, although probability distribution prediction of the magnitude and spatial frequency of those events is possible. A critical structure of this sort is to be expected in bank failures along a stream given a nonlinear diffusive system such as a drainage basin. If riverbanks are, in fact, part of a critical system, then long-term local or watershed-wide stability is an unlikely or even impossible engineering or restoration goal. The existence of criticality in natural stream settings suggests that local human alterations designed to increase channel stability, while changing the local frequency of small failures, will only encourage an increase in the magnitude of system-wide, low-frequency large failures. A restoration or stabilization effort will not eliminate the bank instability. Instead, it will transfer that instability to neighboring riverbank areas.

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Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Organized Criticality in Riverbank Systems

Fonstad

Marcus

2003

Annals of the Association of American Geographers

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“…Where extensive, mine tailings may introduce geochemical changes (Lewin et al, 1977;Knox, 1987;Leenaers, 1989;Macklin, 1996;Lecce and Pavlowsky, 1997;Marcus et al, 2001;Hudson-Edwards et al, 2003;Macklin et al, 2006) as well as increased sediment loadings and morphological effects to fluvial systems downstream (Gilbert, 1917;Lewin et al, 1983). Study of the long-term fate of mine tailings as contaminants in fluvial systems involves an integrated geomorphological-geochemical approach.…”

Section: Mine Tailings and Tailings Dams Failuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Contaminated sediments from such failures persist long after mine closure, exemplified by metal contamination from sulfide ore mining in the headwaters of a creek in Yellowstone National Park. Although the tailings dam failure occurred in 1950, floods remove some sediment through bank erosion and bring new sediments from mine waste, causing no net change in concentrations (Marcus et al, 2001) and suggesting long-lasting impacts in similarly affected streams worldwide.…”

Section: Mine Tailings and Tailings Dams Failuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although there is geomorphic knowledge behind the restoration, and this is helpful in designing the form of new streams, re-establishing stream function is a bigger challenge and will take several more decades to monitor and improve, if funding and resources allow. In areas with metal contamination, such as Soda Butte Creek in Yellowstone National Park, contamination from a tailings dam failure has lasted several decades and is likely to continue for many more, such that the biota or function of the stream has a long road to recovery (Marcus et al, 2001). …”

Section: Geomorphology and Mine Reclamationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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13.6 Impacts of Mining on Geomorphic Systems

Mossa

James²

2013

Treatise on Geomorphology

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“…Over time, large flood events have eroded stockpiles, depositing acidic and metal-laden tailings in downstream floodplains (Merrington and Alloway 1994;Wielinga et al 1999). Metals from these fluvially deposited mine wastes can subsequently leach into rivers and streams for decades or centuries after mining activities have ceased (Marcus et al 2001;Modis et al 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%