Flooding Past and Present: Extreme Geomorphic Events in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands

Summary

Although presently a desert environment, extreme flood events are part of life in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands. This paper examines two such flood events, one preserved in the deposits of Skiles Shelter and Kelly Cave, and another that occurred on June 20th 2014. These events provide examples of catastrophic floods that punctuate the sedimentary records in the shelters and contrast with the more incrementally formed deposits that occur in association with human activity in these settings. The presentation also examines the issue of which process is more formative in the local landscape: rare extreme magnitude flood events or low magnitude but higher frequency floods.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Low Impact, High Resolution: Ongoing Investigations in Eagle Nest Canyon

Keywords

Spatial Coverage