Misplaced Pages

#789210

53-597: The park is situated in the Red Deer River valley, which is noted for its striking badland topography, and abundance of dinosaur fossils. The park is well-known for being one of the richest dinosaur fossil locales in the world. Fifty-eight dinosaur species have been discovered at the park and more than 500 specimens have been removed and exhibited in museums around the globe. The renowned fossil assemblage of nearly 500 species of life, from microscopic fern spores to large carnivorous dinosaurs, justified its becoming

106-520: A World Heritage Site in 1979. The Dinosaur Provincial Park Visitor Centre features exhibits about dinosaurs, fossils, and the geology and natural history of the park. There is a video theatre, fossil prep lab area, and a gift shop. Public programs are offered in the summer. John Ware's Cabin is a restored early 20th century cabin that was used by John Ware , an African-American cowboy and important figure in Alberta's ranching history. The cabin

159-554: A flood-prone property to qualify for government-subsidized insurance, a local community must adopt an ordinance that protects the floodway and requires that new residential structures built in Special Flood Hazard Areas be elevated to at least the level of the 100-year flood. Commercial structures can be elevated or floodproofed to or above this level. In some areas without detailed study information, structures may be required to be elevated to at least two feet above

212-445: A floodplain. The quantity of sediments in a floodplain greatly exceeds the river load of sediments. Thus, floodplains are an important storage site for sediments during their transport from where they are generated to their ultimate depositional environment. When the rate at which the river is cutting downwards becomes great enough that overbank flows become infrequent, the river is said to have abandoned its floodplain. Portions of

265-529: A reference, and/or with a substantial contribution to the development of geological sciences through history.' Red Deer River The Red Deer River is a river in Alberta and a small portion of Saskatchewan , Canada. It is a major tributary of the South Saskatchewan River and is part of the larger Saskatchewan / Nelson system that empties into Hudson Bay . The river has

318-1143: A south-east direction, and while it flows through Dinosaur Provincial Park it turns east and flows to the Alberta/Saskatchewan border, which it crosses at Empress . It flows for 16 km (9.9 mi) through Saskatchewan before it merges into the South Saskatchewan River . The waters of Ewing Lake, Little Fish Lake also flow into the Red Deer River. Sport fish include: walleye , northern pike , sauger , lake whitefish , yellow perch , burbot , lake sturgeon , mountain whitefish , goldeye , brown trout , bull trout , rainbow trout , brook trout , and cutthroat trout . Other fish include: emerald shiner , river shiner , spottail shiner , flathead chub , longnose dace , quillback (quillback carpsucker), longnose sucker , white sucker , shorthead redhorse , silver redhorse , perch , spoonhead sculpin , lake chub , northern pearl dace , northern redbelly dace , finescale dace , fathead minnow and brook stickleback . The Red Deer River

371-488: A total length of 724 km (450 mi) and a drainage area of 45,100 km (17,400 sq mi). Its mean discharge is 70 m /s (2,500 cu ft/s). The river is named for the translation of a native term for the river, wâwâskêsiw sîpiy, which means "elk river" in the Cree language . "Red deer" was an alternative name for elk , referring to a closely related Eurasian species . Communities located along

424-631: Is February, with an average of 8.6 mm (0.34 in) of precipitation, while the wettest is June, with an average of 68.9 mm (2.71 in). Floodplain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river . Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high discharge . The soils usually consist of clays, silts , sands, and gravels deposited during floods. Because of regular flooding, floodplains frequently have high soil-fertility since nutrients are deposited with

477-546: Is a problem in freshwater systems. Much of the phosphorus in freshwater systems comes from municipal wastewater treatment plants and agricultural runoff. Stream connectivity controls whether phosphorus cycling is mediated by floodplain sediments or by external processes. Under conditions of stream connectivity, phosphorus is better able to be cycled, and sediments and nutrients are more readily retained. Water in freshwater streams ends up in either short-term storage in plants or algae or long-term in sediments. Wet/dry cycling within

530-406: Is advantageous for the rapid colonization of large areas of the floodplain. This allows them to take advantage of shifting floodplain geometry. For example, floodplain trees are fast-growing and tolerant of root disturbance. Opportunists (such as birds) are attracted to the rich food supply provided by the flood pulse. Floodplain ecosystems have distinct biozones. In Europe, as one moves away from

583-498: Is any area subject to inundation by a 100-year flood. A problem is that any alteration of the watershed upstream of the point in question can potentially affect the ability of the watershed to handle water, and thus potentially affects the levels of the periodic floods. A large shopping center and parking lot, for example, may raise the levels of 5-year, 100-year, and other floods, but the maps are rarely adjusted and are frequently rendered obsolete by subsequent development. In order for

SECTION 10

#1732776255790

636-460: Is described as vertical accretion , since the deposits build upwards. In undisturbed river systems, overbank flow is frequent, typically occurring every one to two years, regardless of climate or topography. Sedimentation rates for a three-day flood of the Meuse and Rhine Rivers in 1993 found average sedimentation rates in the floodplain of between 0.57 and 1.0 kg/m . Higher rates were found on

689-583: Is in turn overlain by the base of the marine Bearpaw Formation . The Dinosaur Park Formation, which contains most of the articulated dinosaur skeletons, was laid down between about 76.5 and 74.8 million years ago. It was deposited in floodplain and coastal plain environments by river systems that flowed eastward and southeastward to the Western Interior Seaway . Dinosaur Provincial Park preserves an extraordinarily diverse group of freshwater vertebrates. Fish include sharks , rays (such as

742-565: Is largely a result of flood control, hydroelectric development (such as reservoirs), and conversion of floodplains to agriculture use. Transportation and waste disposal also have detrimental effects. The result is the fragmentation of these ecosystems, resulting in loss of populations and diversity and endangering the remaining fragments of the ecosystem. Flood control creates a sharper boundary between water and land than in undisturbed floodplains, reducing physical diversity. Floodplain forests protect waterways from erosion and pollution and reduce

795-443: Is located near the visitor centre and is open on select days in the summer. Established on June 27, 1955 as part of Alberta's 50th Jubilee Year with the goal of protecting the fossil beds, the first warden was Roy Fowler (1902–1975), a farmer and amateur fossil hunter. The park was established as a UNESCO World Heritage Site on October 26, 1979 both for its nationally significant badlands and riverside riparian habitats, and for

848-402: Is most common in sections of rivers where the river bed is accumulating sediments ( aggrading ). Repeated flooding eventually builds up an alluvial ridge, whose natural levees and abandoned meander loops may stand well above most of the floodplain. The alluvial ridge is topped by a channel belt formed by successive generations of channel migration and meander cutoff. At much longer intervals,

901-650: Is the water source for the City of Red Deer and the surrounding area. Pipelines cross under the river and there have been leaks disrupting access to potable water. Increased water flow of the Red Deer River system during heavy rainfall in June 2008 eroded supporting soil, freely exposing a section of Pembina Pipeline Corporation's Cremona crude oil pipeline to the Red Deer River currents. About 75 to 125 barrels (11,900 to 19,900 L; 2,600 to 4,400 imp gal; 3,200 to 5,200 US gal) of crude oil flowed upstream from

954-557: The Yellow River in China – see list of deadliest floods . The worst of these, and the worst natural disaster (excluding famine and epidemics), was the 1931 China floods , estimated to have killed millions. This had been preceded by the 1887 Yellow River flood , which killed around one million people and is the second-worst natural disaster in history. The extent of floodplain inundation depends partly on flood magnitude, defined by

1007-529: The badlands at Dinosaur Provincial Park were laid down over a period of about 1.5 million years during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous epoch, and belong to three different geologic formations . The top of the terrestrial Oldman Formation , which outcrops at the base of the sequence, is the oldest. It is overlain by a complete section of the terrestrial Dinosaur Park Formation , which

1060-591: The durophage Myledaphus ), paddlefish , bowfins , gars , and teleosts . Amphibians include frogs , salamanders , and the extinct albanerpetontids . Reptiles include lizards (such as the large monitor Palaeosaniwa ), a wide range of turtles, crocodilians, and the fish-eating Champsosaurus . Mammal fossils from the park are relatively rare and consist of isolated teeth, fragmentary jaws with teeth, and tooth fragments from mouse-sized and shrew-sized animals. They include representatives of placental , marsupial , and multituberculate mammals. Plant fossils from

1113-747: The return period . In the United States, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) manages the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). The NFIP offers insurance to properties located within a flood-prone area, as defined by the Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM), which depicts various flood risks for a community. The FIRM typically focuses on the delineation of the 100-year flood inundation area, also known within

SECTION 20

#1732776255790

1166-637: The 'world's most abundant and diverse dinosaur locality, yielding more than 166 vertebrate taxa, including 51 species of non-avian dinosaurs', the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) included the 'Dinosaur Provincial Park' in its assemblage of 100 'geological heritage sites' around the world in a listing published in October 2022. The organisation defines an IUGS Geological Heritage Site as 'a key place with geological elements and/or processes of international scientific relevance, used as

1219-578: The 4a plant hardiness zone . Summers are typically warm and rainy with cool nights. Winters are typically long, cold, and very dry. Empress is located in the steppe region known as Palliser's Triangle and experiences a semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSk ). Winters are long, cold and dry, while summers are short, but with average daytime highs that are warm to hot, though nighttime lows are cool. Spring and autumn are quite short, essentially transition periods between winter and summer. Wide diurnal temperature ranges are regular, due to

1272-560: The NFIP as the Special Flood Hazard Area. Where a detailed study of a waterway has been done, the 100-year floodplain will also include the floodway, the critical portion of the floodplain which includes the stream channel and any adjacent areas that must be kept free of encroachments that might block flood flows or restrict storage of flood waters. Another commonly encountered term is the Special Flood Hazard Area, which

1325-645: The Red Deer River include Sundre , Red Deer , Drumheller , and Empress , The city of Brooks , as well as Dinosaur Provincial Park , are also located in the Red Deer River Basin. A glacial flood about 18,000 years ago eroded out a portion of this basin and apparently all or most of the scenic badlands bearing the dinosaur and other Cretaceous fossils. Joseph Tyrrell discovered a huge coal seam here in 1883, besides large dinosaur skeletons. In June 2013, Alberta, Canada, experienced heavy rainfall that triggered catastrophic flooding throughout much of

1378-542: The Red Deer River. Red Deer has a humid continental climate ( Köppen Dfb ), with something of a semi-arid influence due to the city's location within Palliser's Triangle . The highest temperature ever recorded in Red Deer was 37.2 °C (99.0 °F) on 8 July 1906, 2 July 1924, and 28 & 29 June 1937. The lowest recorded temperature was −50.6 °C (−59.1 °F) on 17 December 1924. The city lies in

1431-400: The abandoned floodplain may be preserved as fluvial terraces . Floodplains support diverse and productive ecosystems . They are characterized by considerable variability in space and time, which in turn produces some of the most species-rich of ecosystems. From the ecological perspective, the most distinctive aspect of floodplains is the flood pulse associated with annual floods, and so

1484-511: The advantages provided by the richness of the alluvial soil of the floodplain are severely offset by frequent floods brought on by cyclones and annual monsoon rains. These extreme weather events cause severe economic disruption and loss of human life in the densely-populated region. Floodplain soil composition is unique and varies widely based on microtopography. Floodplain forests have high topographic heterogeneity which creates variation in localized hydrologic conditions. Soil moisture within

1537-418: The aridity and moderately high elevation. Low humidity is prevalent throughout the year. Annual precipitation is very low, with an average of 311.6 mm (12.27 in), and is heavily concentrated in the warmer months. On average, the coldest month is January, with a mean temperature of −12 °C (10 °F), while the warmest is July, with a mean temperature of 19.8 °C (67.6 °F). The driest month

1590-750: The break point under a Red Deer River channel, leaving an oily sheen on Gleniffer Reservoir and 6,800 kg (15,000 lb) of oil-soaked debris. The remediation was not completed until 2011. Heavy rains in early June 2012 caused a similar but larger leak on a Plains Midstream Canada 46-year-old pipeline on a Red Deer River tributary, Jackson Creek , Alberta ( 51°52′19″N 114°36′23″W  /  51.87194°N 114.60639°W  / 51.87194; -114.60639  ( Jackson Creek ) ) near Gleniffer Lake and Dickson Dam , which spilled approximately 1,000 and 3,000 barrels (160,000 and 480,000 L; 35,000 and 105,000 imp gal; 42,000 and 126,000 US gal) of light sour crude oil into

1643-467: The channel shifts varies greatly, with reported rates ranging from too slow to measure to as much as 2,400 feet (730 m) per year for the Kosi River of India. Overbank flow takes place when the river is flooded with more water than can be accommodated by the river channel. Flow over the banks of the river deposits a thin veneer of sediments that is coarsest and thickest close to the channel. This

Dinosaur Provincial Park - Misplaced Pages Continue

1696-911: The eastern slopes of the Canadian Rockies , in the Sawback Range near the Skoki Valley inside Banff National Park , and then flows east through the mountains and foothills region. It turns north-east before Sundre and flows to an artificial reservoir named Gleniffer Lake , created in 1983 by the Dickson Dam and keeps this heading to the city of Red Deer , where it turns east, and then south before Stettler . It flows south with its valley protected by provincial and regional parks such as Tolman Badlands Heritage Rangeland , Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park , Dry Island Corridor and Midland Provincial Park . At Drumheller it has

1749-472: The flood waters. This can encourage farming ; some important agricultural regions, such as the Nile and Mississippi river basins , heavily exploit floodplains. Agricultural and urban regions have developed near or on floodplains to take advantage of the rich soil and freshwater. However, the risk of inundation has led to increasing efforts to control flooding . Most floodplains are formed by deposition on

1802-448: The floodplain ecosystem is defined as the part of the river valley that is regularly flooded and dried. Floods bring in detrital material rich in nutrients and release nutrients from dry soil as it is flooded. The decomposition of terrestrial plants submerged by the floodwaters adds to the nutrient supply. The flooded littoral zone of the river (the zone closest to the river bank) provides an ideal environment for many aquatic species, so

1855-462: The floodplain has a big impact on phosphorus availability because it alters water level, redox state, pH, and physical properties of minerals. Dry soils that were previously inundated have reduced availability of phosphorus and increased affinity for obtaining phosphorus. Human floodplain alterations also impact the phosphorus cycle. Particulate phosphorus and soluble reactive phosphorus (SRP) can contribute to algal blooms and toxicity in waterways when

1908-599: The floodplain. Other smaller-scale mitigation efforts include acquiring and demolishing flood-prone buildings or flood-proofing them. In some floodplains, such as the Inner Niger Delta of Mali , annual flooding events are a natural part of the local ecology and rural economy , allowing for the raising of crops through recessional agriculture . However, in Bangladesh , which occupies the Ganges Delta ,

1961-465: The impact of floodwaters. The disturbance by humans of temperate floodplain ecosystems frustrates attempts to understand their natural behavior. Tropical rivers are less impacted by humans and provide models for temperate floodplain ecosystems, which are thought to share many of their ecological attributes. Excluding famines and epidemics , some of the worst natural disasters in history (measured by fatalities) have been river floods, particularly in

2014-448: The inside of river meanders and by overbank flow. Wherever the river meanders, the flowing water erodes the river bank on the outside of the meander. At the same time, sediments are simultaneously deposited in a bar on the inside of the meander. This is described as lateral accretion since the deposition builds the point bar laterally into the river channel. Erosion on the outside of the meander usually closely balances deposition on

2067-417: The inside so that the channel shifts in the direction of the meander without changing significantly in width. The point bar is built up to a level very close to that of the river banks. Significant net erosion of sediments occurs only when the meander cuts into higher ground. The overall effect is that, as the river meanders, it creates a level flood plain composed mostly of point bar deposits. The rate at which

2120-1065: The international importance of the fossils found there. Until 1985, discoveries made in the park had to be shipped to museums throughout the world for scientific analysis and display, including the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto in Ontario , the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa in Ontario, the American Museum of Natural History in New York City , New York State , and the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago , Illinois . This changed with

2173-457: The levees (4 kg/m or more) and on low-lying areas (1.6 kg/m ). Sedimentation from the overbank flow is concentrated on natural levees, crevasse splays , and in wetlands and shallow lakes of flood basins. Natural levees are ridges along river banks that form from rapid deposition from the overbank flow. Most of the suspended sand is deposited on the levees, leaving the silt and clay sediments to be deposited as floodplain mud further from

Dinosaur Provincial Park - Misplaced Pages Continue

2226-617: The makeup towards ash (49%) with maple increasing to 14% and oak decreasing to 25%. Semiarid floodplains have a much lower species diversity. Species are adapted to alternating drought and flood. Extreme drying can destroy the ability of the floodplain ecosystem to shift to a healthy wet phase when flooded. Floodplain forests constituted 1% of the landscape of Europe in the 1800s. Much of this has been cleared by human activity, though floodplain forests have been impacted less than other kinds of forests. This makes them important refugia for biodiversity. Human destruction of floodplain ecosystems

2279-762: The nitrogen-to-phosphorus ratios are altered farther upstream. In areas where the phosphorus load is primarily particulate phosphorus, like the Mississippi River, the most effective ways of removing phosphorus upstream are sedimentation, soil accretion, and burial. In basins where SRP is the primary form of phosphorus, biological uptake in floodplain forests is the best way of removing nutrients. Phosphorus can transform between SRP and particulate phosphorus depending on ambient conditions or processes like decomposition, biological uptake, redoximorphic release, and sedimentation and accretion. In either phosphorus form, floodplain forests are beneficial as phosphorus sinks, and

2332-631: The opening of the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology 100 kilometres upstream in Midland Provincial Park adjacent to Drumheller . The park protects a very complex ecosystem including three communities: prairie grasslands, badlands, and riverside cottonwoods . Its ecosystem is surrounded by prairies but is unique unto itself. Choruses of coyotes are common at dusk, as are the calls of nighthawks . Cottontail rabbits , mule deer , and pronghorn can all be seen in

2385-859: The park and surrounding area include fern fronds; foliage and wood of taxodiaceous and cupressaceous conifers ; and leaves of Ginkgo , Cercidiphyllum , Platanus , a Pistia -like aquatic plant, and others. A rich assemblage of fossil pollen and spores has also been described. The dinosaurs of the park are astonishingly diverse. They include: Ceratopsia Hadrosauridae Ankylosauria Hypsilophodontidae Pachycephalosauria Tyrannosauridae Ornithomimidae Caenagnathidae Paraves Classification Uncertain Birds such as Hesperornithiformes were present, as well as giant Pterosauria related to Quetzalcoatlus . Stagodont marsupials , placentals and multituberculate mammals scurried underfoot. In respect of it being

2438-411: The park; the prairie rattlesnake , bull snake and the red-sided garter snake are present as well. Curlews and Canada geese are among the 165 bird species that can be seen in the spring and summer. Some of the most northern species of cactus, including Opuntia (prickly pear) and Pediocactus (pincushion) can be observed in full bloom during the later half of June. The sediments exposed in

2491-580: The river may abandon the channel belt and build a new one at another position on the floodplain. This process is called avulsion and occurs at intervals of 10–1000 years. Historical avulsions leading to catastrophic flooding include the 1855 Yellow River flood and the 2008 Kosi River flood . Floodplains can form around rivers of any kind or size. Even relatively straight stretches of river are capable of producing floodplains. Mid-channel bars in braided rivers migrate downstream through processes resembling those in point bars of meandering rivers and can build up

2544-511: The river, the successive plant communities are bank vegetation (usually annuals); sedge and reeds; willow shrubs; willow-poplar forest; oak-ash forest; and broadleaf forest. Human disturbance creates wet meadows that replace much of the original ecosystem. The biozones reflect a soil moisture and oxygen gradient that in turn corresponds to a flooding frequency gradient. The primeval floodplain forests of Europe were dominated by oak (60%) elm (20%) and hornbeam (13%), but human disturbance has shifted

2597-418: The river. Levees are typically built up enough to be relatively well-drained compared with nearby wetlands, and levees in non-arid climates are often heavily vegetated. Crevasses are formed by breakout events from the main river channel. The river bank fails, and floodwaters scour a channel. Sediments from the crevasse spread out as delta -shaped deposits with numerous distributary channels. Crevasse formation

2650-481: The southern half of the province along the Bow , Elbow , Highwood , Oldman , and Red Deer rivers and tributaries. Twenty-four municipalities declared local states of emergency as water levels rose and numerous communities were placed under evacuation orders. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police stated four people may have drowned near High River . Over 100,000 people in the region were displaced. The river originates on

2703-408: The spawning season for fish often coincides with the onset of flooding. Fish must grow quickly during the flood to survive the subsequent drop in water level. As the floodwaters recede, the littoral experiences blooms of microorganisms, while the banks of the river dry out and terrestrial plants germinate to stabilize the bank. The biota of floodplains has high annual growth and mortality rates, which

SECTION 50

#1732776255790

2756-459: The surrounding grade. Many State and local governments have, in addition, adopted floodplain construction regulations which are more restrictive than those mandated by the NFIP. The US government also sponsors flood hazard mitigation efforts to reduce flood impacts. California 's Hazard Mitigation Program is one funding source for mitigation projects. A number of whole towns such as English, Indiana , have been completely relocated to remove them from

2809-672: The upper 30 cm of the soil profile also varies widely based on microtopography which affects oxygen availability. Floodplain soil stays aerated for long stretches of time in between flooding events, but during flooding, saturated soil can become oxygen-depleted if it stands stagnant for long enough. More soil oxygen is available at higher elevations farther from the river. Floodplain forests generally experience alternating periods of aerobic and anaerobic soil microbe activity which affects fine root development and desiccation. Floodplains have high buffering capacity for phosphorus to prevent nutrient loss to river outputs. Phosphorus nutrient loading

#789210