Sediment samples and channel-geometry data, lower Platte River watershed, Nebraska, 2010

Abstract

The relation between channel width and stream physical habitat in the lower Platte River in eastern Nebraska was studied as part of the lower Platte River Cumulative Impact Study. The purpose of this component was to document the grain-size distribution of sediment deposited as specific types of physical features, such as sandbars, banks, and stream beds within different hydraulic habitats, within the lower Platte River system. In so doing, the major sources of sediment for sandbar creation downstream are described. Sediment samples were collected from 11 reaches of the lower Platte River from Silver Creek, Nebraska, to the mouth of the Platte River, and from 4 tributary streams. Two bed-material samples, 2 bank-material samples, and 3 sandbar-material samples were collected at main-stem sampling sites, and 1 sample each of bed material and bank material was collected at each tributary sampling site. Aspects of channel geometry, such as channel width, sandbar height and width, and bank height, were measured at each sampled site. This report presents the channel-geometry results and documents the sample-collection methods.

Suitability of river delta sediment as proppant, Missouri and Niobrara Rivers, Nebraska and South Dakota, 2015

“…For the second method, used to sample unsaturated material, sediment samples were collected using a trowel or scoop as a bank scrape (figs. 5A-F; Schaepe and Alexander, 2011). Bank scrapes integrated the sediment grains of a freshly exposed (cleaned with trowel or scoop) vertical section along either the sandbar margin or an excavated pit because in such samples all strata are represented in approximate proportion to their thickness at the exposed section .…”