Flagstaff Chapter News
Next Meeting:
Past Meetings and Talks:
Field Trips 2011 & 2012:
Flagstaff Chapter Intern Scholarship:
AHS Membership:
Elections:
The Flagstaff Chapter would like to extend a big THANK YOU to our 2010 and 2011 Flagstaff Chapter President,
Brad Hill. Under Brad's presidency the Flagstaff Chapter was successful in its mission to attract new members, host professional
speakers, promote field trips, and chair a successful 2011 symposium. While these shoes will be a challenge to fill, the Chapter could
think of no one better than Mr. Mike Tomlinson to take on the challenge. A Chapter member for nearly two years, Mike has proven himself
as exceptionally organized and skilled in graphic design after jumping in with great contributions to field trip and 2011 symposium planning.
Mike works remotely from Flagstaff as an oceanographer with the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
The Chapter is excited to welcome Mike as the 2012 Flagstaff Chapter President!
Next Meeting:
Our next meeting will be on Wednesday February
15, 2012 at 6:00 PM, at the Peabody offices, 3001 W Shamrell Drive (near the Flagstaff airport). For additional information
please contact Dana Downs-Heimes
or Erin Young.
Next Talk:
Join us for a special presentation from the 2012
GSA Birdsall-Dreiss Lecturer, James S. (Jay) Famiglietti, on March 7, 2012. The
time and location is 4:00 PM in Room 103 of the Geology building on the campus of Northern
Arizona University. Dr. Famiglietti's presentation is titled (click
for abstract)
Water cycle change and the human fingerprint on the water landscape of the 21st Century: Observations from a decade of GRACE.
Contact Abe Springer for more information.
Join AHS and Wayne Raney for a Grand Canyon River Trip!
Join the AHS and Wayne Raney for a 7-day trip through the Grand Canyon. The dates are June 10-16, 2012. This special trip is
provided by Canyoneers. There is a $500 deposit, with all but $50 refundable. We are pushing for folks to sign up by August 31, 2011 to keep the
attendees all AHS members! Register today!
Contact Dana Downs-Heimes for more information. See the
attached PDF for details!
FALL
CAMPOUT WITH AZ RIPARIAN COUNCIL OCT 22-23, 2011 AT SHIELD RANCH
The Arizona Riparian Council and the AHS, Flagstaff Chapter would like to invite you to our Fall Campout and Get Together. It will be held on October 22-23 at The Nature Conservancy's Shield Ranch, located at the confluence of West Clear Creek and the Verde River. Click on the above link for information, or email
Paul Whitefield at paul_whitefield@yahoo.com.
Past Meetings:
April 13, Karst Hydrology of the Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA
By Carol A. Hill
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico
This talk
summarized recent work on the hypogene (slow-flow confined aquifer conditions) karst hydrology of the Grand Canyon. First,
Dr. Hill presented of the relict hypogene caves in the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico and an active hypogene cave in Tabasco, Mexico to illustrate what hypogene karst is and how it forms.
Then she discussed the deep hypogene karst system of the Grand Canyon. Caves in the Grand Canyon fall into two main categories: those formed under unconfined (vadose) conditions and those formed under confined hypogenic conditions. Water-table lowering in the Redwall-Muav aquifer is recorded by deposits in the confined caves, and U-Pb dating of these deposits offers a way of interpreting the incision history of the canyon. The principles of karst – and age determination of the cave deposits and water-table lowering – will be applied to: (1) a 17-6 Ma old western Grand Canyon, (2) a karst source for the carbonates of the 11-6 Ma Hualapai Limestone, and (3) a ~6 Ma karst connection under the Kaibab arch for the eastern and western Grand Canyon.
February 2011, Livin la Vida LiDAR
(download announcement)
By Bill Haneberg
2011 Jahns Lecturer
Bill Haneberg, the 2011 Jahns Lecturer, gave
his talk titled Livin la Vida LiDAR
at the NAU Geology Builidng in
February. AHS Sponsored a reception following the talk at
the Lumberyard Brewery. Here is the Abstract: Airborne laser scanning, also known as airborne LiDAR,
has evolved from an exotic technology to a practical tool that
allows geologists to create and manipulate computer models of
Earth’s topography in unprecedented detail, including areas
covered by dense forests or jungles. One-third—OK,
two-thirds—less technical than some other LiDAR presentations,
this one provides a general and visually appealing introduction
to airborne LiDAR technology and some of its geologic
applications, including mapping landslides and rockslides,
detecting previously unknown faults, discovering abandoned
underground mines, mapping archeological sites, and simulating
the effects of large earthquakes and logging on the landscape.
October 2010 Speaker: A big thank you to Mike Tomlinson, with the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) at University of Hawaii at Manoa, for his presentation on Monitoring in the Ahupuaa
at our October 2010 meeting. Mike presented area hydrology and geochemistry, various monitoring techniques and equipment used, and results from these efforts. His presentation and handouts can be downloaded off the Flagstaff Chapter website. Mike has lived in Flagstaff for the last 2 years, where he has worked remotely with the data and continues to collaborate on project work and manuscripts. Click
here for his abstract,
Mike's powerpoint presentation is provided here, and a pdf
of the handouts here.
August 2010 Speaker: At our August 2010 meeting, Brad Hill presented the City of
Flagstaff hydrogeology in relation to the proposed pumping of
recharged reclaimed water to Snowbowl. He also presented
photos of the entire Waterline Road, including debris flows and
damage to the waterline.
March 2010 Speaker: Our March meeting was well attended and we would like to thank
Charles Ester, with SRP, for coming up to Flagstaff and
delivering a fine presentation on how SRP is forecasting their
water supply and deliveries. Dana Downs-Heimes, CH2M Hill,
provided the following summary from his talk.
January 2010 Speaker: Margot Truini,
from the Flagstaff USGS, gave a presentation at our January 2010
meeting. Margot is a Hydrologist from the Flagstaff Water Science
Center, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) office. She gave a compelling
presentation of the USGS regional study on the groundwater occurrence
and movement and water level changes in the Detrital, Hualapai, and
Sacramento Valley basins in Mohave County, Arizona at the January
meeting. Dana Downs-Heimes provided a summary of the talk in the
February AHS newsletter.
Flagstaff Chapter Summer 2010 Field Trip
The Summer 2010 Field Trip on Saturday
July 10, 2010 was a great success! Thank you to Dr.
Richard Holm, Dr. Abe Springer, and Brad Hill for leading this
trip!
These photos were provided by Mike Tomlinson. There are 285 photos - and some may be a bit out of order.
Flagstaff Chapter Intern Scholarship
2010 Intern Mary Carson:
2009 Intern Christian Meinhardt:
2010 Flagstaff Chapter Intern
 Mary Carson
received her Bachelors of Science in Geology from Northern Arizona University in May and will be moving onto graduate school at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio Fall 2010 to study hydrogeology in the Great lakes region. Her love for water and the natural world began while growing up along the shores of Lake Erie in Cleveland OH. After spending a few years living in places like Yellowstone National Park and the Hawaiian Islands, her drive to study geology, hydrology, and environmental change only grew and she decided to study at NAU where she completed an undergraduate research project and thesis looking at variability in lake sediment and fossil indicators as records of climate change in south-central Alaska. At NAU she was also introduced the unique water issues in the Southwest and has since decided to pursue a career in hydrology to help mitigate the adverse effects of water contamination and misuse of our most precious natural resource.
Mary knows that the experience she will gain while participating as the AHS intern scholar will be an invaluable foundation on which to develop as a hydrogeologist and is very grateful to the Flagstaff Chapter of the AHS for extending her this opportunity. In addition to hydrology, Mary is also interested in the other natural sciences, outdoor adventuring, live music, crafting, environmentally-friendly living and being a good role model for her two young children.
2009 Flagstaff Chapter
Intern
 Christian
Meinhardt, an undergraduate working as a Research Assistant with
the Dynamic Environmental Management System at the NAU
Department of Engineering, was awarded the 2009 Flagstaff
Chapter Internship. Christian was born and raised in Berlin,
Germany. During his childhood, he considers himself fortunate
that his family was able to travel within Europe a great deal.
He attended vacation school for three weeks in Kent, Great
Britain in both 1997 and 1998. During the 2001-2002 school year,
Christian undertook the adventure of being an exchange student
at Flagstaff High School. Impressed by the United States and his
stay in Flagstaff, he decided to attend Northern Arizona
University as an International Student in 2005, after finishing
school in Germany completing Civil Service.
Christian has discovered his passion for
science in engineering while studying Environmental Engineering
at NAU. In particular, the field of hydrology caught his
attention, leading him to apply for the Arizona Hydrological
Society internship. He plans to further his education by earning
a master’s degree in hydrology or water resource engineering
after completing his degree at NAU. Christian anticipates that
his AHS internship will provide him with experience and
knowledge that will prepare him for his graduate work and his
career.
Summary from Christian, May 2010:
In June 2009 Miss Erin Young informed me that I was chosen as the 2009-10 Arizona Hydrological Society Intern Scholarship recipient. The idea was to work a total of 320 hours with four different entities: United States Geological Survey’s Water Resources Center (99 hours), Coconino County’s Stormwater Department (81 hours), City of Flagstaff’s Cinder Lake Landfill (66 hours), and City of Flagstaff’s Utility Department Water Resources (74 hours). Up-front, I must say, my experiences have been invaluable, life changing, and I believe they have helped prepare me for my future career.
At the USGS I had the pleasure of working under hydrologists Margot Truini, Jamie Macy, and Kurt Schonauer, and hydrologic technician Jessica Gardner. Margot taught me how to read well logs, from which I designed a spreadsheet with information on groundwater wells in western Arizona. Additionally, I was taught how to prepare sampling equipment for water quality measurements. Jessica, Kurt, Jamie, and I went on two trips to take surface water volume, river cross sectional measurements, and water quality measurements on the Colorado River at Lee’s Ferry, Arizona. I was also part of a similar excursion to Diamond Creek and the Colorado River near Peach Springs, Arizona. Here, Kurt taught me how to create a perfect cross section to achieve best estimations of flow measurements. Jessica took me on day trips to take groundwater measurements throughout the Black Mesa area. To teach me how to take water samples for quality analysis according to stringent USGS protocols, Kurt took me on a two-day trip to the Verde River near Cottonwood, Arizona.
As my second internship opportunity, I was honored to work with hydrologist and stormwater program manager Ted Smith of Coconino County. Together with Ted, I developed two analytical models in Microsoft Excel. The first model, essentially a flood frequency analysis tool for instantaneous annual-maximum peak flows, calculated different possible floods for a rain only, rain on snow, and a combination of both events using new (to me) statistical methods. USGS’ PeakFQ served as an example but the challenge was to develop the same functions in excel. The second model for determining run-off based on area was developed using streams throughout northern and eastern Arizona that had similar climate to Flagstaff. In the finishing model one could determine an estimate of the run-off, again for a range of recurrence intervals, simply based of a known area.
Third, I enjoyed working with NAU Master Candidate in the Department of Geology and Project Manager at Cinder Lake Landfill, Ken Robinson. One of the things I learned from Ken is the geology of Cinder Lake Landfill, geologic terminology, and some hydrogeology mechanisms in soil matrices. Some of the research done with and for Ken included finding constituents of landfill leachate, hydraulic conductivity of fracture flow in basalt, typical rock designation, permeability, and porosity in basalt flows, and soil moisture sampling. I also learned a great deal of professionalism and time management.
Last but not least, I was mentored by the City of Flagstaff’s water resource manager Brad Hill, where I did some of the basic data collection for Flagstaff’s water resources sustainability study. One of the first tasks was to update the City of Flagstaff’s well data hydrographs. I then compiled data from ten or more reports the City had done over a period of time. I also compiled a long list of references and learned to use ADWR’s 55 database, where I looked up and created copies of data reports for over 130 wells. Data research and collection dominated this early stage of the water resources sustainability study. For the already existing Lake Mary data, I developed a conversion formula between percent full and volume as this was not apparent in the provided data.
In conclusion, I was able to gain very valuable experiences throughout the AHS internship experience – mostly because of the great people whom I felt privileged to work with. This was a once in a life time experience, and I am very grateful for this tremendous opportunity. I would like to thank every individual I was honored to meet – you made this experience possible and so wonderful! By encouraging words and examples, I feel prepared to make a difference in the water resources management world as I will continue my education in water engineering. Thank you AHS!
Membership
2012 Membership Dues
Become a member of AHS for 2012! You
can pay by credit card through the AHS website at
http://www.azhydrosoc.org/ Dues remain
at $45.00 year for regular membership and $15.00 for students. Thank
you all for a great 2011 and for your continuing support in 2012.
For those who attended the
2011 Flagstaff Symposium, be reminded that membership dues for 2012 were
included in the registration fee.
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