Colorado Front Range

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Multiple projects along the Colorado Front Range examining tectonic, climatic and lithologic controls on the late Cenozoic landscape evolution. Project focuses include investigating critical zone dynamics and hillslope/channel coupling, as well as examining the role of climate gradients, forest fire, logging, mining and tree type on hillslope processes. Research includes primary collaboration with the Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory and Keck Geology Consortium.

Project Support:

  • Ouimet, W. (PI); National Science Foundation (NSF) Award through the Earth Sciences (EAR) Geomorphology and Land Use Dynamics Program (GLD); Title: RAPID: Characterizing Sediment Mobilization and Landscape Response to the Combined Effects of Wildfire and Extreme Flooding along Fourmile Canyon, Front Range Colorado; November 15, 2013 – November 15, 2014
  • Dethier, D. (co-PI) and Ouimet, W. (co-PI); Keck Geology Consortium, Fire and Catastrophic flooding, Fourmile catchment, Front Range, Colorado; May 2014 – May 2015
  • Ouimet, W. (PI); University of Connecticut Research Foundation (UCRF); Title: Examine the structure, age and evolution of ‘Critical Zone’ soils, Gordon Gulch, Front Range, Colorado; January, 2012 – March, 2013
  • Dethier, D. (co-PI) and Ouimet, W. (co-PI); Keck Geology Consortium, Interdisciplinary studies in the Critical Zone, Boulder Creek catchment, Front Range, Colorado; June 2010 – May 2013

UConn Researchers:

  • Will Ouimet
  • Greg Harris (Keck Student, BS Thesis, Geosciences), 2014-present
  • Neil Shea (MS, Geosciences), 2011-2013
  • Hannah Mondrach (Keck Student, BA Thesis, Geosciences), 2012-2013
  • James Winkler (Keck Student, BS Thesis, Geosciences), 2011-2012

Collaborators:

  • David Dethier (Williams College)
  • James Kaste (College of William & Mary)
  • Sheila Murphy (USGS, Boulder CO)
  • Deb Martin (USGS, Boulder CO)
  • Suzanne Anderson (UC Boulder)
  • Robert Anderson (UC Boulder)
  • Paul Bierman (University of Vermont)

Non-UConn Keck Students (Ouimet as primary co-advisor on project):

  • Edward Abrahams (College of William & Mary), 2014-2015
  • Rachel Samuels (Washington and Lee), 2014-2015
  • Maneh Kotikian (Mt. Holyoke), 2014-2015
  • Will Wicherski (Williams College), , 2014-2015
  • Ben Purinton (Wesleyan University), 2012-2013
  • Gabe Lewis (Williams College), 2012-2013
  • Annette Patton (Whitman College), 2012-2013
  • Sarah Beganskas (Amherst College), 2011-2012
  • Cianna Wyshnytzky (Amherst College), 2010-2011
  • Evan Dethier (Williams College), 2010-2011
  • Kathleen Warrell (Georgia Tech), 2010-2011

Theses:

  • Shea, N.. 2013, Spatial Patterns of Mobile Regolith Thickness and Meteoric 10Be in Gordon Gulch, Front Range, CO, University of Connecticut M.S. Thesis, 75 pp.
  • Mondrach, H., 2013, Hillslope Sediment Analysis Using Fallout Radionuclides, Colorado Front Range, University of Connecticut B.A. Thesis, 42 pp.
  • Winkler, J., 2012, The Hydrology and Geochemistry of Two Snowmelt-Dominated, Alpine Streams in the Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory, Front Range, Colorado, University of Connecticut B.S. Thesis, 66 pp.

Publications (*graduate student author; ^undergraduate student author):

  • Ouimet, W., Dethier, D., Bierman, P., Wyshnytsky, C.*, Shea, N.* and Rood, D., (in Review), Spatial and temporal variations in meteoric 10Be inventories and long-term deposition rates, Colorado Front Range: A cautionary tale
  • Wyshnytzky, C.*, Ouimet, W., McCarthy, J.*, Dethier, D., Bierman, P. and Shroba, R., (in Review), Meteoric Be-10, clay, and extractable Fe depth profiles in the Colorado Front Range: Implications for soil mixing and slope stability
  • Foster, M.A.*, Anderson, R.S., Wyshnytzky, C.*, Ouimet, W. and Dethier, D.P., (in Review, 2nd time), Hillslope lowering rates and mobile-regolith residence times from in situ and meteoric 10Be analysis: Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory
  • Barnard, H.R., Skeets, B.A., Adams, H.R., Crosby, C. and Ouimet, W., (in Review), Using Stable Isotopes of Trees to Examine Moisture Dynamics in Bedrock Outcrops of a Semi-Arid Catchment
  • Dethier, D.P., Ouimet, W., Bierman, P.R., Rood, D.H., and Balco, G., 2014, Basins and Bedrock: spatial variation in 10Be erosion rates and increasing relief in the southern Rocky Mountains, USA, Geology, v. 42; no. 2; p. 167–170, doi:10.1130/G34922.
  • Dethier, D. and Ouimet, W., 2013, Keck Colorado Project: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Critical Zone, Boulder Creek Catchment, Front Range, Colorado, in ‘Proceedings of the Twenty-Sixth Annual Keck Research Symposium in Geology’, April 2013.
  • Dethier, D. and Ouimet, W., 2012, Keck Colorado Project: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Critical Zone, Boulder Creek Catchment, Front Range, Colorado, in ‘Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Annual Keck Research Symposium in Geology’, April 2012.
  • Dethier, D. and Ouimet, W., 2011, Interdisciplinary Studies in the Critical Zone, Boulder Creek Catchment, Front Range, Colorado, in ‘Proceedings of the Twenty-Third Annual Keck Research Symposium in Geology’, April 2011.

Related Abstracts  (*graduate student author; ^undergraduate student author):

  • Dethier, D., Ouimet, W., Bierman, P., Rood, D. and Balco, G., 2013, Spatial Variation in 10Be Erosion Rates and Increasing Relief in the Southern Rocky Mountains, Geological Society Of America Abstracts With Programs. Vol. 45, No. 7, p.18
  • Ouimet, W., Dethier, D., Mondrach, H.^, Shea, N.*, Kaste, J., And Bierman, P., 2013, Fallout Radionuclides in Critical Zone Studies, Front Range, Colorado, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 45, No. 7, p.409
  • Shea, N.*, Ouimet, W., Dethier, D., Bierman, P. and Rood, D., 2013, Transient Hillslopes and the Legacy of Climate in the Colorado Front Range, Geological Society Of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 45, No. 7, p.409
  • Shea, N.*, Ouimet, W., Dethier, D., Bierman, P., Rood, D., 2013, Spatial Variations in Mobile Regolith Thickness, Meteoric 10Be Concentration, and Sediment Storage in the Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory: Implications for Landscape Evolution and Hillslope Sediment Transport, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 45, No. 1, p.101 – presented at the GSA Northeastern Section Annual Meeting, Bretton Woods, NH, 18–20 March, 2013
  • Shea, N.*, Ouimet, W., Dethier, D., Bierman, P., Rood, D., 2012, Spatial patterns of mobile regolith thickness and meteoric 10Be in the Boulder Creek Critical Zone Observatory, Front Range, Colorado, Abstract EP41D-0835 presented at the 2012 Fall Meeting, AGU, San Francisco, Calif., 3-7 Dec
  • Beganskas, S.^, Martini, A., Ouimet, W., Murphy, S. and Dethier, D., 2012, The Geochemical Impact of Wildfire and Mining on Stream and Sediment Chemistry of the Fourmile Creek Watershed, Colorado, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 44, No. 2, p. 112 – presented at the GSA Northeastern Section Annual Meeting, Hartford, CT, 18–20 March
  • Ouimet, W., Dethier, D., Bierman, P., Wyshnytsky, C. and Rood, D., 2011, Unexpected Delivery of Meteoric 10Be to Critical Zone Soils, Front Range, Colorado, Abstract EP52D-06 presented at the 2011 Fall Meeting, AGU, San Francisco, Calif., 5-9 Dec
  • Wyshnytzky, C.^ and McCarthy, J.^, 2011, Meteoric 10Be, Fed, and Clay in Critical Zone Soils, Front Range, Colorado, Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 43, No. 5, p. 284 – presented at the 2011 GSA Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, MN