Pre- and postsettlement depositional processes and environments of the 3rd- to 5th-order White Clay Creek watershed, Piedmont Province, Pennsylvania and Delaware, USA

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Author(s)Pizzuto, J.E.
Author(s)Huffman, M. E.
Author(s)Symes, E.
Date Accessioned2024-01-11T14:56:38Z
Date Available2024-01-11T14:56:38Z
Publication Date2023-08-23
Description© 2023 The Authors.
AbstractWe extend two hypotheses based on studies of 1st- to 3rd-order Piedmont watersheds of southeastern Pennsylvania, USA, by collecting data in a larger 3rd- to 5th-order watershed nearby. One hypothesis posits that presettlement river corridors were dominated by wetlands, and the other suggests that river valleys were filled by millpond sedimentation following European settlement. Both hypotheses support new river restoration practices, so their generality is important to assess. Ten lithofacies indicate depositional environments, while pedostratigraphic criteria and 14C dating define presettlement and postsettlement stratigraphic units. Basal gravels similar to modern stream bed sediments represent presettlement channels with active bedload transport. Wedge-shaped gravel deposits resembling modern bars further document presettlement bedload transport by channelized flows. Extensive presettlement and postsettlement units of massive, organic-poor, fine-grained sediment formed when overbank flows inundated floodplains. Peat deposits, exposed at a single site (but absent elsewhere), represent a presettlement wetland. Decimeter-thick, discontinuous, massive carbonaceous fine-grained sediments occasionally overlie basal gravels; these may represent localized wetlands adjacent to presettlement channels or hydraulic backwater environments. Laminated sand and mud accumulated behind one 3-m-high mill dam, but these millpond deposits are absent at other sites. Instead of being dominated by wetlands, presettlement river corridors are better described as a complex mosaic of riparian environments including older colluvial landforms, floodplains (some of which may have been seasonally inundated wetlands), primary (and possibly secondary) channels, and depending on geomorphic setting, either localized or valley-spanning wetlands. After European settlement, millponds were important locally, but their deposits represent a minor component of the stratigraphic record.
SponsorPartial financial support was provided by Delaware Watershed Research Fund Award #DWRF-16-109. Attribution: J.E. Pizzuto wrote the initial draft of the manuscript and directed field and laboratory studies. All authors edited subsequent drafts. E. Symes was responsible for field data collection and interpretation at the cross section downstream of coring Site 8-1 summarized in Figure 4, while M.E. Huffman assisted with fieldwork and data analysis. Alana Cohen, Elizabeth DeSonier, Zhendong Ji, James Pipala, Andreanna Roros, and Leanna Stackhouse assisted with some of the fieldwork and laboratory analyses. James E. Evans, Robert Jacobson, and an anonymous reviewer provided helpful reviews.
CitationJ.E. Pizzuto, M.E. Huffman, E. Symes; Pre- and postsettlement depositional processes and environments of the 3rd- to 5th-order White Clay Creek watershed, Piedmont Province, Pennsylvania and Delaware, USA. GSA Bulletin 2023; doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/B37032.1
ISSN1943-2674
URLhttps://udspace.udel.edu/handle/19716/33790
Languageen_US
PublisherGSA Bulletin
dc.rightsAttribution 4.0 Internationalen
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
TitlePre- and postsettlement depositional processes and environments of the 3rd- to 5th-order White Clay Creek watershed, Piedmont Province, Pennsylvania and Delaware, USA
TypeArticle
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