Use of Topographic Map Evidence to Test a Recently Proposed Regional Geomorphology Paradigm: Wind River-Sweetwater River Drainage Divide Area, Central Wyoming, USA

Abstract

Topographic map evidence from the Wyoming Wind River-Sweetwater River drainage divide area is used to test a recently proposed regional geomorphology paradigm defined by massive south-and southeast-oriented continental ice sheet melt water floods that flowed across the entire Missouri River drainage basin. The new paradigm forces recognition of an ice sheet created and occupied deep "hole" and is fundamentally different from the commonly accepted paradigm in which a pre-glacial north-and northeast-oriented slope would have prevented continental ice sheet melt water from reaching or crossing the Wind River-Sweetwater River drainage divide. Divide crossings (or low points) are identified as places where water once flowed across the drainage divide. Map evidence is interpreted first from the accepted paradigm perspective and second from the new paradigm perspective to determine the simplest explanation. Both paradigm perspectives suggest south-oriented water crossed the drainage divide, although accepted paradigm interpretations do not satisfactorily explain the large number of observed divide crossings and are complicated by the need to bury the Owl Creek and Bridger Mountains to explain why the Wind River now flows in a north direction through Wind River Canyon. New paradigm interpretations explain the large number of divide crossings as diverging and converging channel evidence (as in flood-formed anastomosing channel complexes), Owl Creek and Bridger Mountain uplift to have occurred as south-oriented floodwaters carved Wind River Canyon, and a major flood flow reversal (caused by ice sheet related crustal warping and the opening up of deep "hole" space by ice sheet melting)

How a New Geology and Glacial Paradigm Explains Colorado South Platte-Arkansas River Drainage Divide Topographic Map Evidence, USA

“…This new paradigm interpretation implies that as deep "hole" rim uplift began large south-oriented meltwater floods also entered the Colorado River drainage basin. New paradigm demonstration papers not previously cited show south-oriented meltwater floods also flowed across what is now the Wyoming Great Divide Basin into the Colorado River drainage basin [23] [24] and within the Colorado River drainage basin across what is now the Yampa River-Colorado River drainage divide to reach the Colorado River valley [25]. While not the subject of this paper these new paradigm demonstration papers document immense volumes of meltwater which must have entered the Colorado River drainage basin and which were probably responsible for many Colorado River drainage basin erosional features.…”

Use of Topographic Map Evidence From Drainage Divides Surrounding Wyoming’s Great Divide Basin to Compare Two Fundamentally Different Regional Geomorphology Paradigms

“…These and other investigators ignored most of the Sweetwater River-Great Divide Basin drainage divide area gaps or divide crossings, perhaps because the accepted paradigm provides no good way to determine how the large numbers of gaps or divide crossings originated. In contrast Clausen (2019b), who worked from the new paradigm perspective, described topographic map evidence showing where immense south-oriented floods had once crossed the present-day Wind River-Sweetwater River drainage divide and includes the statement (p. 410) "the east-oriented Sweetwater River drainage basin is located along a deep "hole" rim segment, with the deep "hole" rim in Montana, Wyoming, and northern Colorado following the present-day east-west continental divide" and (p. 417) "deep "hole" rim uplift enabled the shallow eastand northeast-oriented Sweetwater River valley to erode headward across the south-oriented flood flow channels and caused flow reversals on north ends of the beheaded channels to create north-oriented Sweetwater River tributaries and the Sweetwater River-Great Divide Basin drainage divide." Such a scenario explains the above described topographic map evidence including the water gaps, wind gaps, drainage routes, and drainage divides.…”

“…Heller et al (2010, p. 150), working from the commonly accepted middle and late Cenozoic regional geology paradigm (accepted paradigm) perspective, suggest "climate change, through its impact on erosion and flexure, provides the primary mechanism of basin closure." In contrast, Clausen (2019a and2019b), working from a new and fundamentally different middle and late Cenozoic regional geology paradigm (new paradigm) perspective suggests what is now the Wyoming east-west continental divide originated when a thick continental ice sheet caused crustal warping to raise what are now high plateau areas and mountain ranges as massive south-oriented continental ice sheet meltwater floods flowed across them.…”

“…This definition (which from the accepted paradigm perspective did not and could not have happened) forces recognition of a North American continental ice sheet thick and heavy enough to create a deep "hole" by deeply eroding the bedrock under it and by causing crustal warping elsewhere on the continent that raised what are now mountain ranges and high plateau areas as immense meltwater floods flowed across them. Clausen (2019a and2019b) states prior to drainage reversals that caused the melt water floods to flow into deep "hole" space being opened up by ice sheet melting, south-oriented melt water floods flowed across what is now the Bighorn-Wind River drainage divide and into the Wind River Basin and then southward across the east-oriented Sweetwater River drainage basin and the Great Divide Basin to reach the Colorado River and the Pacific Ocean. Several other recent papers demonstrate how the new paradigm explains previously unexplained topographic map evidence for more than 15 specific northern Missouri River drainage basin geographic regions, some of which are summarized in Clausen (2018aClausen ( , 2018bClausen ( , and 2019c, while other papers such as Clausen (2018c and2019d) demonstrate how the new paradigm explains previously unexplained mountain pass and valley origins.…”

Yampa River-Colorado River Drainage Divide Origin Determined from Topographic Map Evidence, Southern Routt County, Colorado, USA

“…These regions include the North Platte River headwaters area directly to the east of the northoriented Yampa River headwaters [18] and the Wyoming Great Divide Basin region located to the north of the Yampa River [19]. In addition, another demonstration paper [20] interprets topographic map evidence along the Wind Riv-…”