Grand Canyon Studies

Suggestions for Further Reading

Please see the USGS Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center web site at http://www.gcmrc.gov/

Here are some publications from which you can learn more about the Grand Canyon ecosystem, the effects of Glen Canyon Dam, and the controlled flood held in late March and early April of 1996:

• U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, March 1995, Operation of Glen Canyon Dam, Colorado River Storage Project, Arizona--Final Environmental Impact Statement, ~425 pages.
  --On July 27, 1989, the Secretary of the Interior directed the Bureau of Reclamation to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement on the effects of Glen Canyon Dam on environmental and cultural resources of the Colorado River in Glen and Grand Canyons. This report is the result. It provides a wealth of information about the Grand Canyon ecosystem and the changes it has undergone since Glen Canyon Dam was built. The report describes a number of alternative ways to operate the dam and the likely effects of those alternatives. Much of the information in this set of Web pages comes from this report.
   
• U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, March 1995, Operation of Glen Canyon Dam--Final Environmental Impact Statement--Summary, 73 pages.
  --Summary of the report described above.
   
• U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, March 1995, Operation of Glen Canyon Dam--Final Environmental Impact Statement-- Comments and Responses, 156 pages.
  --Summary of comments received on the "Operation of Glen Canyon Dam Draft Environmental Impact Statement" (EIS) and how the final EIS was changed to respond to these comments.
   
• Stevens, Larry, 1983, The Colorado River in Grand Canyon--A Guide: Flagstaff, Arizona, Red Lake Books, 114 pages.
  --Comes in a water-resistant version for carrying on river trips. About half of this book consists of maps of the Colorado River corridor in the Grand Canyon, showing the location of rapids, commonly used camps, trails near the river, and geologic faults and formations. Captioned photographs in the map margins add information about natural and human history in the canyon. The book includes sections on weather and climate, geology, human history, biology and ecology, and the effects of Glen Canyon Dam.
   
• Webb, Robert H., 1996, Grand Canyon, A Century of Change--Rephotography of the 1889-90 Stanton Expedition: Tucson, University of Arizona Press, 320 pages.
  --The author took photographs in the Grand Canyon of the same views and from the same vantage points as photographs taken a century before. The then-and-now pairs provide striking examples of both change and lack of change in the canyon.
   
• David M. Rubin, John C. Schmidt, and Johnnie N. Moore, 1990, Origin, Structure, and Evolution of a Reattachment Bar, Colorado River, Grand Canyon, Arizona: Journal of Sedimentary Petrology, vol. 60, no. 6, p. 982-991.
  --Written for a technical audience, this paper describes in some detail the flow processes that produce sandbars in eddies, the internal structure of the bars, and the history of a particular bar in the Grand Canyon. Non-geologists will be greatly assisted in their understanding of this paper by the section on Sandbars (p. 97-103) in the Final Environmental Impact Statement listed at the top of this page, and by access to geologic dictionaries.
   
• David M. Rubin, John C. Schmidt, Roberto A. Anima, and others, 1994, Internal Structure of Bars in Grand Canyon, Arizona, and Evaluation of Proposed Flow Alternatives for Glen Canyon Dam: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report OF94-594, 56 pages.
  --Also written for a technical audience, this report describes sedimentary structures of three types of sandbars along the Colorado River in Grand Canyon. The authors explain the processes that deposit the sandbars, present estimated rates of deposition, and predict how various alternatives proposed for the release of water from Glen Canyon Dam will affect sandbar deposition in the canyon. An appendix contains nearly 50 explanatory drawings of internal structures revealed in the walls of trenches and pits dug into selected bars.
   
• Northern Arizona University, Dec. 18, 1995, Studies of Colorado River Sandbars (Beaches) in Grand Canyon at Northern Arizona University: http://www4.nau.edu/geology/namdor/ (Web site). Funded by the Glen Canyon Environmental Studies Program of the Bureau of Reclamation in cooperation with the National Park Service and Grand Canyon National Park.
  --Describes the university's ongoing monitoring and study of the effects of Glen Canyon Dam on Colorado River sandbars. Includes photographs and QuickTime movies.
   
• U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation, January 1996, Glen Canyon Dam, Beach/Habitat-Building Test Flow--Draft Environmental Assessment and Draft Finding of No Significant Impact, ~75 pages.
  --The Preferred Alternative for the operation of Glen Canyon Dam proposed in the Final Environmental Impact Statement listed at the top of this page calls for periodic large releases of water, called "Beach/Habitat-Building Flows." The purpose of such flows is to rebuild sandbars and restore other habitats that have deteriorated since the dam's completion in 1963. This report helped clear the way for a test flow conducted in late March and early April of 1996 to help researchers determine if Beach/Habitat-Building Flows will perform as intended. The report describes expected results of the test flow.