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Sediment Yield of the Castaic Watershed, Western Los Angeles County California a Quantitative Geomorphic Approach

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Sediment Yield of the Castaic Watershed, Western Los Angeles County California a Quantitative Geomorphic Approach Sediment Yield of the Castaic Watershed, Western Los Angeles County California A Quantitative Geomorphic Approach GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 422-F Prepared in cooperation with State of California Department of Water Resources Sediment Yield of the Castaic Watershed, Western Los Angeles County California A Quantitative Geomorphic Approach By LAWRENCE K. LUSTIG PHYSIOGRAPHIC AND HYDRAULIC STUDIES OF RIVERS GEOLOGICAL SURVEY PROFESSIONAL PAPER 422-F Prepared in cooperation with State of California Department of Water Resources UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE, WASHINGTON : 1965 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR STEWART L. UDALL, Secretary GEOLOGICAL SURVEY William T. Pecora, Director For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Washington, D.C. 20402 - Price 65 cents CONTENTS Page Page Abstract..________________________________ _ _______ Fl Quantitative geomorphology____-__-__-_-_--_--__-__- F12 Introduction.______________________________________ 1 General discussion._____.___-____-____--_______- 12 Statement of the problem and the approach em­ ployed. _____________________________________ 2 Basic-data collection.__________-_____--_-----_-- 12 Acknowledgments and personnel-_-_-----_-__--___ 2 Geomorphic parameters. ________________________ 13 The Castaic watershed_____________________________ 2 Relief ratio-.---------------.-------------- 14 Physical description of the area_________________ 2 Sediment-area factor._______________________ 15 Location and extent_______________________ 2 Topography and drainage__________________ 2 Sediment-movement factor_________________ 17 Climate.__________________________________ 3 Total stream length___----_-__-_------------ 17 Vegetation and soils_______________________ 4 Transport-efficiency factors._________________ 18 Summary of geology. _-_-___-___-_______.___ 5 Discussion of results.___________________________ 19 Sources of sediment_____________________________ 6 Significance of correlations-______-___-___-_-- 19 Long-term channel erosion.____-_--___--_____ 8 Similarity between the Castaic and the San The San Gabriel watersheds________________________ 10 Gabriel Mountains watersheds..----------- 20 Physical description of the area_________________ 10 Estimated sediment yield of the Castaic water­ Location and extent_______________________ 10 shed- _______-_____-_-_---_------------- 20 Topography and drainage_________________ 10 Climate. _--__-_._________ _________________ 11 Range of the sediment-yield values for the Cas­ Vegetation and soils_______________________ 11 taic watershed__________________________ 21 Summary of geology._______________________ 11 Conclusions.____-_____-____--__-_-___-_-----_------ 22 Sediment-yield data___________________________ 11 References-_ _____________________--__--------_----- 22 ILLUSTRATIONS [Plates are in pocket] PLATE 1. Index map showing the location of selected watersheds, Los Angeles County, Calif. 2. Map of the Castaic watershed, Los Angeles County, Calif., showing the drainage net, approximate lithologic dis­ tribution, traces of major faults, and sediment-sample locations and particle-size distributions. FIGURES 1-7. Photographs showing 1. View downstream at the single-stage sampling site in the lower reach of Castaic Creek- ___________ F3 2. The Liebre Mountain area from the south _ ________________-__-----_-_--------------------- 4 3. The metamprphic-igneous complex in Elizabeth Lake Canyon_____ ________________-_---___--__- 5 4. The relatively undef ormed Tertiary sedimentary rocks in the southern part of the Castaic watershed.- 6 5. A typical outcrop of the Tertiary sedimentary rocks in the Castaic watershed. __________-___-_-_- 7 6. Rockf all of conglomerate blocks in subbasin 2 that has produced a natural debris dam _______-_--- 9 7. Exposure of the roots of a tree in Ruby Canyon by channel erosion _ __________________________ 10 8. Graph showing relation of sediment yield and relief ratio for watersheds in the San Gabriel Mountains. _ 16 9. Diagrammatic longitudinal section of a watershed that contains three main groups of hills, showing the geometry of the relief ratio and sediment-area factor- _____________________,__--__---___----------- 16 10-15. Graphs showing relation, in watersheds in the San Gabriel Mountains, of sediment yield and 10. Sediment-area factor ____ _______________________-_____-___-_----_------_--------------- 17 1 1 . Sediment-movement factor ____________________-___________-_-____-__-----_-_------------- 17 12. Total stream length. ---_-_ ____ --___-_____-__._ ___ __--__ ____ _.__.___ _ __.__-. 18 13. Transport-efficiency factor Ti__________________________________--__--_--___--------------- 18 14. Transport-efficiency factor TV------------------------------------------------------------ 18 15. Transport-efficiency factor TV ----------------------------------------------------------- 19 in rv CONTENTS TABLES Page TABLE 1. Weight percentage of granules, sand, and silt-clay in the granule-to-clay size fraction of samples from the Castaic watershed _ ___________________________________________-_-________--___-_--_--_____---_-_____----- F7 2. Data on reservoirs and sediment yield of watersheds in the San Gabriel Mountains, Calif__________-___-___----- 11 3. Morphometric data and geomorphic parameters of the Castaic drainage basin and of watersheds in the San Gabriel Mountains, Calif-______________________________________________________-_-_---------_-----_---_---_- 14 SYMBOLS u Order of a stream, where unbranched tributaries Q Water discharge are designated as first order and the confluence sv Sediment yield of two streams of a given order is designated SA Sediment-area factor, where SA =Ap/cos dg and by the next higher order number Ap is planimetric area Au Area of a basin of order u, where u is the highest SM Sediment-movement factor, where SM=SA y<. order number of the streams contained sin 0g Lu Length of stream or stream channel of order u T Transport-efficiency factors, where Te =Ti, T2, Total stream length T3, ?L _ Number of streams of order u Transport-efficiency factor, where jTi=jR&X£i Total number of streams Gradient of stream channel of order u Transport-efficiency factor, where T2 =2NXRC Transport-efficiency factor, where Tt= . Ground slope, measured orthogonal to contours E Mean basin elevation D Drainage density, where D=2L/AU F Stream frequency, where F=NujAu Intercept value giving the sediment yield of Bifurcation ratio, where Rb=N1l/N1l+i Castaic drainage basin Basin-area ratio, where Ea AuIAu^ r Simple-correlation coefficient RL Stream-length ratio, where RL=LufLu_l rr Rank-correlation coefficient Rc Stream-channel-slope ratio, where Rc =0u/d1l+i H0 Null hypothesis for one-sided tests Kuggedness index, where Rt =DxE a Confidence interval Relief ratio; Rh=H/Lb, where H is basin relief \ Linear-scale ratio and Lb is basin length ox Standard deviation of linear-scale ratios PHYSIOGRAPHIC AND HYDRAULIC STUDIES OF RIVERS SEDIMENT YIELD OF THE CASTAIC WATERSHED, WESTERN LOS ANGELES COUNTY, CALIFORNIA A QUANTITATIVE GEOMORPHIC APPROACH By LAWRENCE K. LUSTIG ABSTRACT in average annual sediment yield and lend added credence to the This report treats the problem of estimating, within a short previous estimate of 250 acre-feet per year. period of time, the long-term sediment yield of the Castaic water­ Data on the size distribution of the granule-to-clay size shed in the general absence of hydrologic data. The estimate fraction of sediments in the Castaic watershed are presented. provided is based on a comparison of geomorphic parameters for It is shown that the sedimentary rocks and the metamorphic- watersheds in the San Gabriel Mountains, for which long-term igneous complex that occur in the watershed contribute approxi­ sediment-yield data are available, and for the Castaic watershed. mately equal quantities of sediment in the silt-clay size range of The geomorphic parameters that best correlate with sediment about 8 percent, whereas the granitic rocks contribute one-half yield are (1) a sediment-area factor, defined as SA = AP/COS 8g, of this amount. The contribution of the granitic rocks is less where Ap is the planimetric area of a watershed and 8g is the mean because these rocks crop out over a smaller area. Sediment in ground-slope angle, (2) a sediment-movement factor, defined as the sand-sized range is abundant everywhere in the watershed, and certain suggestions for future debris-dam locations based <S.w=<SUXsin 8g, where SA is the sediment-area factor, as defined upon the yield of sand from subbasins, are given. above, and sin 0g is the mean of the sines of the ground-slope The net long-term channel erosion in 'the Castaic watershed is angles, (3) total stream length, (4) a transport-efficiency factor, discussed on the basis of data on the cores of trees whose roots 7\=^5XSL, where Rt, is the mean bifurcation ratio and SL is have been exposed by channel erosion. The data suggest that total stream length, (5) a transport-efficiency factor, T2 = '2N the channels do not contribute a large percentage of the total X Re, where 2N is the total number of streams and Rc is the mean sediment yield and, hence, that sheet erosion of hillslopes is stream-channel-slope ratio, and (6) a transport-efficiency factor, responsible for most of the sediment production. T3=(Nl +N2HRcl/2)+(N2+N3)(RC2/3)+ ...+ (Nn-i + Nn) (RCn_1/n), where the subscripts designate stream order. INTRODUCTION These parameters are plotted against the known long-term sediment yield
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