Every once in a while I encounter really interesting stuff when looking at digital elevation models and imagery in a GIS. Today is one of those days. In the image below (40.8154 N 119.3856 W decimal degrees) the stream in the upper part of the image is flowing in two directions. On the USGS topographic map it is named Rock Creek and flows to the south, but in the aerial photography it is quite evident that it also flows to the north at least some of the time.
In the image below I've zoomed in and see that a small jeep track may
have caused an entire stream to shift from one basin into another (at
least part of the time).
Interestingly,
all of this is uphill and to the west of the cool and funky attraction
known as Fly Geyser adjacent to the Black Rock Desert.
May be it is some sort of evidence of tectonic uplift in the region? Or as you say people messing around with channels? If it was that I would have expected to have seen a more linear planform.
ReplyDeleteHi Duncan, There is a lot of tectonic uplift in Nevada so that is definitely possible. However, I haven't seen this before where the stream flowed in two different directions, which makes me think that it may be human-caused on top of the tectonic uplift. Maybe a trip to this watershed is in order? It is only 3 hours from Reno.
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