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116-714: The Sevier River drainage basin of 11,574 square miles (29,980 km) covers more than 13 percent of Utah and includes parts of ten counties, of which the river flows through seven. The name of the river is derived from the Spanish Río Severo , "violent river". The Sevier is the longest river entirely within the state of Utah. The Sevier River is formed by the confluence of Minnie Creek and Tyler Creek in Long Valley in Kane County . The headwaters are at an elevation of 7,310 ft (2,230 m) between

232-484: A sink , which may be a permanent lake, a dry lake , or a point where surface water is lost underground . Drainage basins are similar but not identical to hydrologic units , which are drainage areas delineated so as to nest into a multi-level hierarchical drainage system . Hydrologic units are defined to allow multiple inlets, outlets, or sinks. In a strict sense, all drainage basins are hydrologic units but not all hydrologic units are drainage basins. About 48.71% of

348-414: A watershed , though in other English-speaking places, "watershed" is used only in its original sense, that of the drainage divide line. A drainage basin's boundaries are determined by watershed delineation , a common task in environmental engineering and science. In a closed drainage basin, or endorheic basin , rather than flowing to the ocean, water converges toward the interior of the basin, known as

464-454: A drainage basin, and there are different ways to interpret that data. In the unlikely event that the gauges are many and evenly distributed over an area of uniform precipitation, using the arithmetic mean method will give good results. In the Thiessen polygon method, the drainage basin is divided into polygons with the rain gauge in the middle of each polygon assumed to be representative for

580-540: A drainage boundary is referred to as watershed delineation . Finding the area and extent of a drainage basin is an important step in many areas of science and engineering. Most of the water that discharges from the basin outlet originated as precipitation falling on the basin. A portion of the water that enters the groundwater system beneath the drainage basin may flow towards the outlet of another drainage basin because groundwater flow directions do not always match those of their overlying drainage network. Measurement of

696-709: A drying climate at the end of the ice age, what is now the Sevier Desert became an independent lake, which drained into the Great Salt Lake via a now dry channel in Millard County north of Delta. As Sevier Lake shrank, the Sevier River formed a large delta at its mouth, hence the name of the modern town. Soils become progressively more alkaline and saline closer to Sevier Lake, the result of the river transporting minerals downstream over millennia as

812-551: A pattern of pronounced increase in thunderstorms and rainfall over large areas of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico . Geographically, the weather pattern is centered over the Sierra Madre Occidental in the Mexican states of Sinaloa , Durango , Sonora and Chihuahua , and typically occurs between June and mid-September. Thunderstorms are fueled by daytime heating and build up during

928-410: A perimeter, the drainage divide , made up of a succession of elevated features, such as ridges and hills . A basin may consist of smaller basins that merge at river confluences , forming a hierarchical pattern . Other terms for a drainage basin are catchment area , catchment basin , drainage area , river basin , water basin , and impluvium . In North America, they are commonly called

1044-471: A valley and formed Navajo Lake . Due to the semi-desert climate, the valleys of the Sevier River basin were historically mostly grassland and shrubland, with the seeds of Oryzopsis hymenoides ( Indian ricegrass ) being an important food source for Native Americans. Many valley plants, such as greasewood , shadscale and saltgrass are adapted to the higher salt content in the soil. The valleys have been heavily modified for farming and grazing, and much of

1160-567: A wide variety of vegetation types. Small hardwoods such as gambel oak , serviceberry , mountain mahogany , maple and scrub oak tend to occur at elevations of 7,500 to 8,500 feet (2,300 to 2,600 m) just below the boundary of the alpine zone, but still high enough to receive significant precipitation. In the lower foothills, pinyon – juniper "pygmy forest" mixed with areas of grassland and sagebrush occur between 5,500 to 7,500 feet (1,700 to 2,300 m) in elevation. Paleo-Indians were present in southwestern Utah as early as 10,000 BC, when

1276-491: Is a serious danger during the monsoon. Dry washes can become raging rivers in an instant, even when no storms are visible as a storm can cause a flash flood tens of miles away. Lightning strikes are also a significant danger. Because it is dangerous to be caught in the open when these storms suddenly appear, many golf courses in Arizona have thunderstorm warning systems. In Albuquerque , flash flooding from storms funneled into

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1392-590: Is credited with blazing a connection between existing Native American trails through the Sevier basin in 1826; this became part of the northern branch of the Old Spanish Trail , following the middle and upper parts of the river. John C. Frémont traveled along the Sevier River on his 1844 exploration of the Great Basin, which confirmed that the Sevier and other Great Basin streams had no ocean outlet and

1508-549: Is dammed to form Rocky Ford reservoir. The Sevier River then continues north passing the towns of Aurora , Salina and Redmond , then flows north into Sanpete County where it picks up the San Pitch River near Gunnison . In Juab County the Yuba Dam forms Sevier Bridge Reservoir , which also extends into Sanpete County. Below the dam the river flows north then turns abruptly west through Leamington Canyon, between

1624-602: Is more substantial if the dryline which separates the hot and dry airmass to the Northwest from the humid monsoon airmass to the Southeast, fails to migrate. This can prevent tropical moisture from reaching farther Northwest towards Death Valley until later in the summer. If this pattern prevails, the Nevada deserts may receive almost no monsoon. In early summer, the monsoon starts with a shift in wind patterns as Mexico and

1740-478: Is now Bryce Canyon National Park to the town of Tropic . Agriculture was made difficult by frequent flooding of the Sevier River. In June 1909 heavy snowmelt broke the Gunnison Bend Dam and flooded the town of Deseret under three feet (0.91 m) of water. It was not until about 1912 when the river was finally controlled by major reservoirs upstream. The division of water rights became an issue as

1856-569: Is nowadays shipped to the Intermountain Power Plant , which was completed near Delta in 1986. The 1,900 megawatt power station consumes two million tons of coal and draws 20,000 acre-feet (25,000,000 m) of cooling water from the Sevier River each year. In 2017 the Intermountain Power Agency announced it would be converting the plant to natural gas operations. Gold was mined at several places along

1972-750: Is on the border of the Basin and Range Province and the Colorado Plateau ; the north and west parts of the basin are defined by long linear mountain ranges such as the Pavant and Canyon Mountains. To the east and south rise high plateaus and block-shaped mountain ranges, chief of which are the Wasatch and Sevier Plateaus to the east, and the Paunsaugunt and Markagunt Plateaus, the Pink Cliffs and

2088-487: Is referred to as " watershed management ". In Brazil , the National Policy of Water Resources, regulated by Act n° 9.433 of 1997, establishes the drainage basin as the territorial division of Brazilian water management. When a river basin crosses at least one political border, either a border within a nation or an international boundary, it is identified as a transboundary river . Management of such basins becomes

2204-614: Is the Dead Sea . Drainage basins have been historically important for determining territorial boundaries, particularly in regions where trade by water has been important. For example, the English crown gave the Hudson's Bay Company a monopoly on the fur trade in the entire Hudson Bay basin, an area called Rupert's Land . Bioregional political organization today includes agreements of states (e.g., international treaties and, within

2320-524: Is underlain by marine sedimentary rock including thick limestone layers, which accumulated prior to the Jurassic when the western US was part of a shallow sea. Uplift during the Jurassic and Cretaceous thrust western Utah above sea level for the first time. Between 100 and 80 million years ago, the Sevier Orogeny created mountains much higher than those found in western Utah today. The Sevier Desert

2436-653: The African Great Lakes , the interiors of Australia and the Arabian Peninsula , and parts in Mexico and the Andes . Some of these, such as the Great Basin, are not single drainage basins but collections of separate, adjacent closed basins. In endorheic bodies of water where evaporation is the primary means of water loss, the water is typically more saline than the oceans. An extreme example of this

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2552-689: The Canyon Mountains and Gilson Mountains , into Millard County . The river flows southwest across the Sevier Desert , where it is used heavily for irrigation in the Delta area, and is dammed at the DMAD and Gunnison Bend reservoirs. The river is essentially dry for the last 30 miles (48 km) below Delta, through its confluence with the also dry Beaver River before reaching the intermittent Sevier Lake bed. The Sevier River drainage basin

2668-828: The Continental Divide , northern Alaska and parts of North Dakota , South Dakota , Minnesota , and Montana in the United States, the north shore of the Scandinavian peninsula in Europe, central and northern Russia, and parts of Kazakhstan and Mongolia in Asia , which totals to about 17% of the world's land. Just over 13% of the land in the world drains to the Pacific Ocean . Its basin includes much of China, eastern and southeastern Russia, Japan,

2784-733: The Gulf of California (and to lesser extent the eastern Pacific and Gulf of Mexico ) over northwestern Mexico and southwestern US resulting in summer thunderstorms, especially at higher elevations. The North American monsoon is not as strong or persistent as its Indian counterpart , mainly because the Mexican Plateau is not as high or as large as the Tibetan Plateau in Asia. However, the North American monsoon shares most of

2900-555: The Gulf of California and eastern Pacific . The Gulf of California, a narrow body of water surrounded by mountains, is particularly important for low-level moisture transport into Arizona and Sonora . Upper level moisture is also transported into the region, mainly from the Gulf of Mexico by easterly winds aloft. Once the forests of the Sierra Madre Occidental green up from the initial monsoon rains, evaporation and plant transpiration can add additional moisture to

3016-714: The Korean Peninsula , most of Indochina, Indonesia and Malaysia, the Philippines, all of the Pacific Islands , the northeast coast of Australia , and Canada and the United States west of the Continental Divide (including most of Alaska), as well as western Central America and South America west of the Andes. The Indian Ocean 's drainage basin also comprises about 13% of Earth's land. It drains

3132-770: The Markagunt Plateau (on the west) and the Paunsaugunt Plateau . The river flows north through a wide valley into Garfield County passing Hatch and Panguitch . It then flows through the narrow, 5-mile (8.0 km) Circleville Canyon and enters Piute County at the town of Circleville , and is joined by the East Fork Sevier River at Kingston . Immediately north of Kingston, it is dammed to form Piute Reservoir . The Sevier continues north past Marysvale and through Marysvale Canyon (or Sevier Canyon) into Sevier County . At Sevier

3248-630: The Pooence . The first Europeans to see the river were the Spanish missionaries Francisco Atanasio Domínguez and Silvestre Vélez de Escalante who led the Domínguez–Escalante expedition of 1776, trying to find a way to Monterey, California from Santa Fe, New Mexico . They arrived at the Sevier River on September 27, two days after leaving the Utah Valley , and camped at a location near

3364-741: The Rio Grande Valley by the Sandia-Manzano mountain range has prompted the city to develop an extensive system of concrete-lined arroyos and retention structures, similar to the flood control channels in the Los Angeles River basin. Once the monsoon is underway, mountain ranges, including the Sierra Madre Occidental , the Mogollon Rim , and the Rio Grande Rift ranges provide a focusing mechanism for

3480-699: The Salina area since the 1870s. In 1871 Mormon settlers reportedly found "anthracite coal in almost inexhaustible quantities" in Salina Canyon. In 1891 the Sevier Railroad, a branch of the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad (D&RGW), reached Salina, and the town soon became the shipping point for both coal and agricultural products from the Sevier Valley. Much of the coal mined in the area

3596-618: The Tushar Mountains to the south. The entire basin is at high elevation, with the highest point at 12,174-foot (3,711 m) Delano Peak in the Tushar Mountains. There are twelve other peaks in the basin rising more than 11,000 feet (3,400 m). The lowest point is at Sevier Lake, 4,524 feet (1,379 m) above sea level. The basin experiences a continental climate ranging in character from semi-arid to alpine. Precipitation – ranging from 6.4 inches (160 mm) in

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3712-624: The groundwater . A drainage basin is an area of land where all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth, or flows into another body of water, such as a lake or ocean. North American Monsoon The North American monsoon , variously known as the Southwest monsoon , the Mexican monsoon , the New Mexican monsoon , or the Arizona monsoon is a term for

3828-608: The American Southwest, leading to below average rainfall. Whether the North American Monsoon (NAM) is a "true monsoon" has been controversial. Until the late 1970s, there was serious debate about whether a monsoon truly existed in North America. However, according to NOAA, considerable research culminating in 1993 established the fact that that a summer monsoon develops over much of Mexico and

3944-428: The DMAD and Gunnison Bend dams were partially breached. By May 1984 more than 1.5 million acre feet (1.9 billion m) of water had flowed into Sevier Lake, temporarily inundating the dry lake bed 35 feet (11 m) deep. Along with agriculture, the Sevier basin has had a long history of mining and resource extraction, which continues in some areas of the basin today. Coal, rock salts and other minerals have been mined from

4060-613: The East Fork in Black Canyon, above Tropic Reservoir, is classified as a Blue Ribbon trout fishery. This stretch was restored by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources between 1992 and 2006 due to damage from the 1983 flooding. Marysvale Canyon is also known for its trout during the non-irrigation (low water) season, being located in the tailwater of Piute Dam. Fishing is generally poor downstream of Marysvale Canyon due to

4176-667: The Lower Sevier. Sevier Bridge Reservoir has a capacity of 236,145 acre-feet (291,281,000 m), making it the fourth biggest man-made lake in Utah. Parts of the Upper Sevier, and its higher tributaries and feeder lakes, are good trout waters, particularly in National Forest lands. The basin has native cutthroat trout , and many streams contain introduced brook, brown and rainbow trout. A 20-mile (32 km) stretch of

4292-565: The Navajo Lake area. Larger mammals include mule deer , pronghorn (antelope), black bear and cougar . Also once found in the area were the Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep , bison , grizzly bear and timberwolves which were all hunted to extinction in the 1800s or early 1900s. The deer population was nearly extirpated during the era of western settlement, although it has since recovered. The foothill and transition zones support

4408-408: The Nevada deserts may receive almost no monsoon influence if the western subtropical high shifts less than in typical years. For instance in 2020, the subtropical high remained further south than usual due to the influence of a strong ridge of high pressure over the northern Pacific, displacing the jet stream further inland. The combination of these factors blocked moist tropical air from reaching

4524-642: The Pahvant Utes who lived around Sevier Lake, the Sanpits Utes from whom the name of Sanpete Valley and Sanpete County is derived from, and the Moanunt Utes who lived on the upper Sevier River. The Paiutes lived to the south and west of the delta, and the Goshutes inhabited drier areas to the northwest. Settlers William Wolfskill and George C. Yount noted some Native Americans who called the river

4640-641: The Pahvants attacked a railroad survey crew led by Captain John W. Gunnison , killing eight members of the party near what is now the town of Delta. Despite the massacre, immigration continued with 30 Mormon families settling in the Richfield area in 1864, followed by 100 more the next year, further straining relations with the tribes. Between 1865 and 1872 more than 150 violent confrontations occurred between Mormon settlers and various Native American groups including

4756-417: The Paleo-Indians but it is not known whether they are the descendants or an entirely different group. The Desert Archaic culture declined around 1500 BC, for reasons that are uncertain but have been attributed to massive flooding at that time. Beginning about 500 AD, people of the Fremont culture inhabited the Sevier basin; a Fremont village site called Nawthis has been discovered in the Salina area dating to

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4872-433: The Sevier Desert. The Sevier River basin is bordered to the south by the drainage basins of Virgin River , Kanab Creek , Paria River , and Dirty Devil River , all tributaries of the Colorado River . To the east, it is bordered by the Price and San Rafael River basins, tributaries of the Green River , which flows into the Colorado River . On the north, it is bordered by the Utah Lake – Great Salt Lake basin, and to

4988-412: The Sevier River basin immediately prior to European arrival migrated into the area possibly centuries after the decline of the Fremont culture. The traditional lands of these three peoples converged on the Sevier River delta in what is now Millard County. The Utes dominated most of the area traversed by the Sevier River including the Sevier Valley and the headwaters of the river. Notable sub-groups including

5104-443: The Sevier River became part of Utah Territory . The first Mormon settlers arrived in the Sevier Valley in late 1849 under the direction of Brigham Young , but they and other whites passing through the region soon clashed with Native Americans. Sometime in early October 1853 a party of California-bound emigrants opened fire on a group of Pahvant Utes who had come to their camp to trade, killing one. In retaliation, on October 26, 1853,

5220-605: The Sevier River provides some of the only water-based habitats in a large desert area, it is used by abundant migratory waterfowl, including geese, ducks, cranes, and shorebirds. Gunnison Bend Reservoir is visited by thousands of snow geese each spring. Other birds common to the Sevier basin include pheasants in agricultural and riparian areas; chukars in foothill areas and grouse in the hills and mountains. There are also multiple raptor species, including bald eagles and peregrine falcons. Fur-bearing animals such as beaver and river otter were once widespread before being trapped out in

5336-422: The Sevier Valley. The reservoir impounds Otter Creek, a tributary of the East Fork Sevier River, and also stores water diverted from the East Fork through a short canal. It has a storage capacity of 52,700 acre-feet (65,000,000 m). Piute Dam was constructed on the Upper Sevier River between 1908 and 1914, forming Piute Reservoir. The reservoir holds up to 71,826 acre-feet (88,596,000 m) of water for use in

5452-435: The Sevier Valley. Water released from Piute Reservoir is diverted at the Sevier Valley Diversion Dam into the 65-mile (105 km)-long Sevier Valley-Piute Canal. It is one of the longest man-made waterways in Utah, irrigating 20,000 acres (8,100 ha) along the western side of the valley in Sevier and Sanpete Counties. By the early 1900s, the Lower Sevier often dried up below the Juab area, both due to heavy irrigation in

5568-426: The Sevier basin was Scipio Reservoir, constructed in 1860. In 1865 in Sevier County, Mormon settlers dug the Richfield Irrigation Canal in just five weeks using only hand tools. Other farming towns were established along the river particularly after the Black Hawk war ended in 1872. A more ambitious project was the Tropic Ditch, which diverted water 15 miles (24 km) from the East Fork of the Sevier River through what

5684-417: The US, interstate compacts ) or other political entities in a particular drainage basin to manage the body or bodies of water into which it drains. Examples of such interstate compacts are the Great Lakes Commission and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency . In hydrology , the drainage basin is a logical unit of focus for studying the movement of water within the hydrological cycle . The process of finding

5800-453: The Upper Sevier and a series of drought years. The Deseret Irrigation Company began constructing Yuba Dam at the Sevier Bridge site in 1902, and work continued through 1907. "Nearly every available man and boy in Deseret, Oasis and Hinckley worked at the dam." The dam was originally completed to a height of 60 feet (18 m), and was raised to 90 feet (27 m) between 1913 and 1916. Water rights were sold to three other irrigation districts in

5916-414: The Utes (supposedly when they rejected an offer by the Utes to sell them slaves) and escaped to a stream they called Río Severo , Spanish for "violent". In 1821, the Sevier River basin became Mexican territory following the Mexican Revolution . Mountain man William H. Ashley explored the area in 1825 in search of beaver; the river was dubbed the "Ashley River" by Jedediah Smith in Ashley's honor. Smith

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6032-420: The Utes, Paiutes, Apache and Navajo , a period now known as the Black Hawk War after Timpanogos chief Antonga Black Hawk . Livestock grazing had decimated the local grasses whose seeds were a staple food for Native Americans, forcing them to raid white settlements and steal cattle for food. By June 1866 most of the settlements had been abandoned as the fighting increased. One of the bloodiest single episodes

6148-452: The area had been resettled, and the white population increased rapidly for a number of years. During this time, Richfield grew into the largest city in the Sevier Valley, sometimes referred to as "the hub of Central Utah". The Deseret Telegraph was extended from Salt Lake City as far as Monroe in 1872. Development was slower to reach the upper Sevier country south of Marysvale Canyon, which was mostly ranching country although it would soon be

6264-409: The area were moved to the Uintah Reservation in northeastern Utah. Many resisted the move, with several Ute bands traveling back to the Sanpete Valley early in 1872. Their presence alarmed Mormon settlers, as the Utes expressed discontent with conditions at the reservation. After the federal government sent additional supplies to the Uintah reservation, the Utes retreated. By summer 1872 many towns in

6380-402: The atmosphere which will then flow into Arizona and New Mexico. Finally, if the southern Plains of the U.S. are unusually wet and green during the early summer months, that area can also serve as a moisture source. As precipitable water values rise in early summer, brief but often torrential thunderstorms can occur, especially over mountainous terrain. This activity is occasionally enhanced by

6496-508: The atmosphere; nevertheless, local topographic effects are critical to the geographic and even temporal distribution of convective activity. The monsoon ridge is almost as strong as the one which develops over Asia during the summer. However, since the lower level moisture flow is not as persistent as in the Indian monsoon , the upper level steering pattern and disturbances around the ridge are critical for influencing where thunderstorms develop on any given day. The exact strength and position of

6612-450: The basic characteristics of its Indian counterpart. In the monsoon area, the late spring period is very hot and dry, because the dry western side subtropical high pressure ridge and dry continental air have not begun to 'shift' northwards yet. During this period, inland areas have extremely low relative humidity, and characteristically very low dew points , which are frequently well below the freezing mark. In some years, this delayed effect

6728-492: The basin is more than 1 million acre feet (1.2 billion m) annually, with more than 60 percent dedicated to agriculture. This figure is higher than the naturally available water supply since most of the water is used more than once. Due to the repeated reuse of agricultural return flows , salinity is a chronic issue in the lower Sevier River. As annual precipitation tends to vary greatly up to 480,000 acre-feet (590,000,000 m) of water can be stored in surface reservoirs, with

6844-514: The basin is privately owned and 8 percent is owned by the state of Utah. The Sevier River corridor is a major transportation route, with U.S. Route 89 closely following the river for over 100 miles (160 km) from its headwaters as far as Gunnison, and I-70 paralleling the river for about 30 miles (48 km) between Sevier and Salina. Surface rock in the Sevier River basin is composed mostly of Tertiary igneous rock and sedimentary rock ranging in age from Jurassic to Quaternary . This

6960-471: The basin, including coal in the Salina area, beryllium in the Delta area, and gypsum in the Richfield area. The dry Sevier Lake bed as well as deposits in the Redmond area, are a major source of salts, including halites and potassium sulfates . Historically, uranium was mined near Marysvale . Above Marysvale Canyon, the colorful formations of Big Rock Candy Mountain are a widely recognized geological site in central Utah; yellow, red and orange bands are

7076-406: The basin, it can form tributaries that change the structure of the land. There are three different main types, which are affected by the rocks and ground underneath. Rock that is quick to erode forms dendritic patterns, and these are seen most often. The two other types of patterns that form are trellis patterns and rectangular patterns. Rain gauge data is used to measure total precipitation over

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7192-488: The basin, of which about half is located in Millard and Sanpete counties alone. The upper reaches of the river and many mountain tributaries are home to cutthroat trout , brook trout and rainbow trout , of which cutthroat are the only native species. Much of the lower part of the river is a warm water fishery with brown trout , carp , suckers and channel catfish . Common fish found in reservoirs are walleye , smallmouth bass , yellow perch and northern pike . Because

7308-470: The climate was much wetter during the Pleistocene ice age and the Sevier basin was partially occupied by pluvial Lake Bonneville. Wetlands along the shoreline and a much fuller Sevier River provided abundant habitat for fish and wildlife, supporting a larger human population. Lake Bonneville had dried up by about 7000 BC, and the aridifying climate limited plant and animal resources. The Desert Archaic culture, characterized by small semi-nomadic bands, succeeded

7424-423: The complex interactions between atmospheric circulation features at both the synoptic (100 to 1000 km spatially, 1 day to 1 week, temporally) and mesoscale (several km to 100 km, hours to one day temporally) and the extremely varied topography. The larger-scale atmospheric motions may control the distribution of water vapor and the general stability or instability (that is, the tendency to form storms) in

7540-482: The daily development of thunderstorms. Thus much of the monsoon rainfall occurs in mountainous terrain. For example, monsoon rainfall in the Sierra Madre Occidental typically ranges from 10 to 15 inches. Since the southwest U.S. is at the northern fringe of the monsoon, precipitation is less and tends to be more variable. Areas farther west of the core monsoon region, namely California and Baja California, typically receive only spotty monsoon-related rainfall. In those areas,

7656-531: The desert valleys to more than 40 inches (1,000 mm) in the mountains – falls largely as snow during the winter and early spring, and as monsoon thunderstorms in late summer and early fall. As of 1999, there was an estimated annual runoff of 823,000 acre-feet (1.015 × 10 m) in the Sevier River basin, but only about 32,900 acre-feet (40,600,000 m) of that reached Sevier Lake, and mostly in wet years. Even before irrigation, however, not all of this water reached Sevier Lake due to large evaporation losses in

7772-430: The discharge of water from a basin may be made by a stream gauge located at the basin's outlet. Depending on the conditions of the drainage basin, as rainfall occurs some of it seeps directly into the ground. This water will either remain underground, slowly making its way downhill and eventually reaching the basin, or it will permeate deeper into the soil and consolidate into groundwater aquifers. As water flows through

7888-441: The drainage area is dependent on the soil type. Certain soil types such as sandy soils are very free-draining, and rainfall on sandy soil is likely to be absorbed by the ground. However, soils containing clay can be almost impermeable and therefore rainfall on clay soils will run off and contribute to flood volumes. After prolonged rainfall even free-draining soils can become saturated , meaning that any further rainfall will reach

8004-642: The drainage basin to the mouth, and may accumulate there, disturbing the natural mineral balance. This can cause eutrophication where plant growth is accelerated by the additional material. Because drainage basins are coherent entities in a hydrological sense, it has become common to manage water resources on the basis of individual basins. In the U.S. state of Minnesota , governmental entities that perform this function are called " watershed districts ". In New Zealand, they are called catchment boards. Comparable community groups based in Ontario, Canada, are called conservation authorities . In North America, this function

8120-444: The drying up of Sevier Lake as early as 1880; dust blowing off the dry lake bed has become a persistent source of particulate pollution as far as Salt Lake City . However, the river and lake can still fill after major floods. In the especially wet season of 1982–1983, the melting of a record snowpack overwhelmed the reservoir system which had not been designed for flood control. Bridges, roads and diversion structures were washed out, and

8236-435: The early 1800s, and predators such as kit foxes, coyotes, and cougars still roam less populated areas of the basin. In the high mountains and plateaus above 8,000 feet (2,400 m) elevation, conifer-aspen forest prevails in the alpine zone with forests of white fir , Douglas fir , ponderosa pine , red cedar , spruce and quaking aspen . Engelmann spruce , limber pine and the occasional bristlecone pine are found at

8352-857: The eastern coast of Africa, the coasts of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf , the Indian subcontinent , Burma, and most parts of Australia . The five largest river basins (by area), from largest to smallest, are those of the Amazon (7 million km ), the Congo (4 million km ), the Nile (3.4 million km ), the Mississippi (3.22 million km ), and the Río de la Plata (3.17 million km ). The three rivers that drain

8468-583: The greatest portion of western Sub-Saharan Africa , as well as Western Sahara and part of Morocco . The two major mediterranean seas of the world also flow to the Atlantic. The Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico basin includes most of the U.S. interior between the Appalachian and Rocky Mountains , a small part of the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan , eastern Central America ,

8584-435: The ground and along rivers it can pick up nutrients , sediment , and pollutants . With the water, they are transported towards the outlet of the basin, and can affect the ecological processes along the way as well as in the receiving water body . Modern use of artificial fertilizers , containing nitrogen (as nitrates ), phosphorus , and potassium , has affected the mouths of drainage basins. The minerals are carried by

8700-781: The ground at its terminus, the area can go by several names, such playa, salt flat, dry lake , or alkali sink . The largest endorheic basins are in Central Asia , including the Caspian Sea , the Aral Sea , and numerous smaller lakes. Other endorheic regions include the Great Basin in the United States, much of the Sahara Desert , the drainage basin of the Okavango River ( Kalahari Basin ), highlands near

8816-531: The highest elevations. Precipitation is sufficient to support many perennial streams and springs, which nourish mountain meadows and numerous small high elevation lakes. Large wildfires once regularly occurred on the mountains and plateaus, but since the beginning of the 20th century fires have been heavily suppressed. The high country is home to small mammals such as ground squirrels, red squirrels, snowshoe hare, chipmunks and porcupine. Pika and marmot are found near mountain peaks and flying squirrels can be found in

8932-567: The intense solar heating is not strong enough to overcome a continual supply of cold water from the North Pacific Ocean moving down the west coast of North America . Winds do turn toward the land in these areas, but the cool moist air actually stabilizes the atmosphere. The monsoon pushes as far west as the Peninsular Ranges and Transverse Ranges of Southern California, but rarely reaches the coastal strip. As shown in

9048-639: The islands of the Caribbean and the Gulf, and a small part of northern South America. The Mediterranean Sea basin, with the Black Sea , includes much of North Africa , east-central Africa (through the Nile River ), Southern , Central, and Eastern Europe , Turkey , and the coastal areas of Israel , Lebanon , and Syria . The Arctic Ocean drains most of Western Canada and Northern Canada east of

9164-611: The lake receded. The largest sand dunes in Utah, found in Little Sahara Recreation Area , were formed from Sevier River delta deposits moved over thousands of years by prevailing winds. There have been relatively recent volcanic activity in the Sevier basin between 1000 and 1500 AD, when basalt flows occurred on the Markagunt and Paunsaugaut Plateaus and in Pahvant Valley. One of these flows dammed

9280-419: The largest three – Sevier Bridge, Piute and Otter Creek – accounting for 75 percent of that capacity. Although small reservoirs such as Scipio, Panguitch and Gunnison Bend had been built starting in the 1860s, water demand was so high by the 1890s that planning began for much bigger dams and reservoirs. Otter Creek Reservoir was constructed between 1897 and 1901 by a consortium of ten irrigation companies in

9396-432: The late afternoon and early evening. Typically, these storms dissipate by late night, and the next day starts out fair, with the cycle repeating daily. The cycle typically loses its energy by mid-September when much drier conditions are reestablished over the region. Whether the North American monsoon is a true monsoon remains controversial. The North American monsoon is a complex weather process that brings moisture from

9512-556: The latter of which produced significant quantities of aluminum ore. Uranium was first discovered in Piute County in 1948. During the height of the Cold War in the 1950s and 1960s, large amounts of uranium were mined along the upper Sevier River near Marysvale. The Marysvale district was fraught with health and environmental issues since early on; in 1951-52 inspectors in a Marysvale mine found radiation level 1,500 times above what

9628-501: The location of significant mineral strikes. Notorious outlaw Butch Cassidy grew up on a ranch near Circleville during the 1870s, where he "learned to be a cowboy first and, later, how to put his brand on other peoples' livestock." The first irrigation along the Sevier River was established in the spring of 1850, on the Sanpete County stretch of the river. Irrigation in Millard County began in 1859. The first storage reservoir in

9744-602: The monsoon or subtropical ridge , develops in the upper atmosphere over the Four Corners region, creating wind flow aloft from the east or southeast. At the same time, a thermal low (a trough of low pressure from intense surface heating) develops over the Mexican Plateau and the Desert Southwest of the United States. The thermal low sets up circulation that brings pulses of low level moisture from

9860-709: The monsoons, the Sonoran and Mojave are considered relatively "wet" when ranked among other deserts such as the Sahara , and helps fuel the Chihuahuan Desert 's extreme diversity. Monsoons often play a role in reducing wildfire threats by providing moisture at higher elevations during the wildfire season. Heavy monsoon rain can lead to excess winter plant growth, in turn a summer wildfire risk. A lack of monsoon rain can hamper summer seeding, reducing excess winter plant growth but worsening drought. Flash flooding

9976-514: The most water, from most to least, are the Amazon, Ganges , and Congo rivers. Endorheic basin are inland basins that do not drain to an ocean. Endorheic basins cover around 18% of the Earth's land. Some endorheic basins drain to an Endorheic lake or Inland sea . Many of these lakes are ephemeral or vary dramatically in size depending on climate and inflow. If water evaporates or infiltrates into

10092-646: The myth of a Buenaventura River draining the Great Basin to the sea. The river was a major trade corridor during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, in no small part due to the route from Santa Fe opened up by Domínguez and Escalante. The Spanish traded manufactured goods and guns for furs, hides, horses and slaves from the Native Americans. Most of these slaves were Southern Paiutes that had been captured by more aggressive Ute bands. The river's present name probably originated in 1813 with Spanish traders Moricio Arce and Lagos García, who ran into trouble with

10208-460: The panorama below, a wall of thunderstorms, only a half-hour's drive away, is a common sight from the sunny skies along the coast during the monsoon. Rainfall during the monsoon is not continuous. It varies considerably, depending on a variety of factors. There are usually distinct "burst" periods of heavy rain during the monsoon, and "break" periods with little or no rain. The variability is difficult to understand and predict, because it results from

10324-485: The passage of tropical waves and the entrainment of the remnants of tropical cyclones . Monsoon precipitation accounts for a substantial portion of annual precipitation in northwest Mexico and the Southwestern United States. Most of these areas receive over half their annual precipitation from the monsoon. Many desert plants are adapted to take advantage of this brief wet season. Because of

10440-486: The population increased, due to limited water supplies during the dry season. In one particularly dry year some residents in Millard County "were so angry they hired a posse in an unsuccessful attempt to remove upstream dams." In 1900 the Higgins Decree established a commission to allocate water in the lower Sevier River. The 1936 Cox Decree established allocations for the entire Sevier basin. Heavy water use led to

10556-554: The present day town of Mills . They named the Sevier River El Río de Santa Isabel and gave the name Laguna de Miera to Sevier Lake. However, the expedition was unable to find a way further west across the desert and was forced to turn back to Santa Fe. The expedition's cartographer, Don Bernardo Miera y Pacheco, sketched a map showing an outlet from Sevier Lake to the Pacific Ocean, which may have given rise to

10672-473: The purpose of water distribution the basin is divided into upper and lower sections, with the dividing point at Vermillion Diversion Dam near Richfield. There are 175 irrigation companies in the Sevier River basin, with 72 of them serving over 1,000 acres (400 ha) each. The Sevier River Water Users Association is responsible for regulating water use in the river system, and monitors reservoir storage levels, canal diversions and stream flows. Total water use in

10788-418: The rainfall on the area of land included in its polygon. These polygons are made by drawing lines between gauges, then making perpendicular bisectors of those lines form the polygons. The isohyetal method involves contours of equal precipitation are drawn over the gauges on a map. Calculating the area between these curves and adding up the volume of water is time-consuming. Isochrone maps can be used to show

10904-542: The remaining native grassland has been taken over by invasive species such as junegrass and the ubiquitous Russian thistle (tumbleweed), as well as native sagebrush whose range has expanded into formerly grassy areas. The Sevier River historically supported large areas of wetland and riparian zones, especially where it formed a delta at the northern end of Sevier Lake. Many of these habitats have been replaced by agriculture, but there are still an estimated 92,000 acres (37,000 ha) of wetland and aquatic habitat extant in

11020-631: The responsibility of the countries sharing it. Nile Basin Initiative , OMVS for Senegal River , Mekong River Commission are a few examples of arrangements involving management of shared river basins. Management of shared drainage basins is also seen as a way to build lasting peaceful relationships among countries. The catchment is the most significant factor determining the amount or likelihood of flooding . Catchment factors are: topography , shape, size, soil type, and land use (paved or roofed areas). Catchment topography and shape determine

11136-477: The result of jarosite , hematite and pyrite while white bands result from alunite and kaolinite presence. During the Pleistocene Ice Age and other preceding ice ages, the Sevier River flowed into Lake Bonneville , which covered more than 20,000 square miles (52,000 km) of the eastern Great Basin. The Sevier Valley was underwater as far upstream as Richfield. As the lake receded with

11252-404: The ridge sets up in a few key locations, widespread and potentially severe thunderstorms can develop. Monsoon variability from one summer to the next is substantial, and exceeds the normal monsoon seasonal precipitation at most locations. For example, the normal monsoon precipitation at Tucson, Arizona is 6.06 inches (154 mm). The driest monsoon season measured 1.59 inches (40 mm), and

11368-524: The river enters the agricultural Sevier Valley, a 50-mile (80 km) long basin between the Pavant Range on the west and the Sevier Plateau to the east. In the valley, the Sevier River flows generally northeast, passing the cities and towns of Sevier , Joseph , Elsinore , Monroe , Central Valley , Anabella , Richfield , Glenwood , Venice and Sigurd . Just north of Sigurd, the river

11484-461: The river rather than being absorbed by the ground. If the surface is impermeable the precipitation will create surface run-off which will lead to higher risk of flooding; if the ground is permeable, the precipitation will infiltrate the soil. Land use can contribute to the volume of water reaching the river, in a similar way to clay soils. For example, rainfall on roofs, pavements , and roads will be collected by rivers with almost no absorption into

11600-451: The river starting in the late 19th century. In 1896 the Sevier Railroad was extended to the gold mining area of Belknap and in 1900 tracks were laid through Marysvale Canyon to reach the diggings around Marysvale, with the line thereafter known as the "Marysvale Branch". The boom town of Kimberly in the Tushar Mountains was one of the largest gold mining camps in Utah. Other boom towns of the period included Bullion City, Webster and Alunite,

11716-503: The rumor of a "Buenaventura River" was no more than a myth. During the 1830s and 1840s the fur trade was in full force with thousands of beaver and otter taken from the Sevier River and its tributaries; most trappers were Native Americans although there were also many of British, French and Spanish origin. The slave trade also remained a major if controversial business and only ended after the Mexican–American War in 1848, after which

11832-469: The southwest U.S. warm under intense solar heating. The prevailing winds start to flow from somewhat cooler moist ocean areas into hotter, dry land areas. Precipitation increases in late May to early June in southern Mexico and spreads along the western slopes of the Sierra Madre Occidental, reaching New Mexico and southeast Arizona in early July. It extends into the southwest United States as it matures in mid-July, when an area of high pressure , called

11948-418: The speed with which the runoff reaches a river. A long thin catchment will take longer to drain than a circular catchment. Size will help determine the amount of water reaching the river, as the larger the catchment the greater the potential for flooding. It is also determined on the basis of length and width of the drainage basin. Soil type will help determine how much water reaches the river. The runoff from

12064-421: The subtropical ridge also governs how far north the tropical easterly winds aloft can spread. If the ridge is too close to a particular area, the sinking air at its center suppresses thunderstorms and can result in a significant monsoon "break." If the ridge is too far away or too weak, the east winds around the high are inadequate to bring tropical moisture into the mountains of Mexico and southwest U.S. However, if

12180-415: The time taken for rain to reach the river, while catchment size, soil type, and development determine the amount of water to reach the river. Generally, topography plays a big part in how fast runoff will reach a river. Rain that falls in steep mountainous areas will reach the primary river in the drainage basin faster than flat or lightly sloping areas (e.g., > 1% gradient). Shape will contribute to

12296-477: The time taken for runoff water within a drainage basin to reach a lake, reservoir or outlet, assuming constant and uniform effective rainfall. Drainage basins are the principal hydrologic unit considered in fluvial geomorphology . A drainage basin is the source for water and sediment that moves from higher elevation through the river system to lower elevations as they reshape the channel forms. Drainage basins are important in ecology . As water flows over

12412-512: The tracks along the Sevier River. That year the Thistle mudslide near Spanish Fork severed the northern end of the line, which was subsequently abandoned by the D&;RGW. The Sevier River is extensively dammed and diverted to serve more than 350,000 acres (140,000 ha) of farmland. Most of the basin is used for beef production, although there is a major turkey industry in Sanpete County. For

12528-598: The upper Sevier River above Gunnison, and the Paunsaugunt fault runs in the same general direction further east, passing through Bryce Canyon. The Sevier Valley (and the Sanpete Valley north of it) is a graben or down-thrown block of land between the Sevier and Elsinore faults, with deep alluvial deposits filling the valley bottom. Groundwater basins occur mostly in the alluvial valleys and have been estimated to hold up to 5.5 million acre-feet (6.8 km) of water. Large mineral deposits occur in various areas of

12644-433: The warm silty water, numerous diversion structures and degradation of riparian habitat. Whitewater rafting is available on the Sevier through Marysvale Canyon . Drainage basin A drainage basin is an area of land in which all flowing surface water converges to a single point, such as a river mouth , or flows into another body of water , such as a lake or ocean . A basin is separated from adjacent basins by

12760-643: The west, it is bordered by the Great Salt Lake Desert basins. Most of the Sevier drainage is rural, composed of small farming communities. The largest town is Richfield, with a population of 7,723 as of 2016. About 69 percent of the land is federally owned, much of that in national forest lands such as the Manti-La Sal , Fishlake , Dixie , and Uinta National Forests. The basin also includes parts of Bryce Canyon National Park and Cedar Breaks National Monument . About 23 percent of

12876-437: The wettest measured 13.84 inches (352 mm). Research since 2010 has investigated the possible causes behind North American monsoon variability. The following factors affect the North American monsoon: None of these factors can perfectly predict the variability. These factors are related to each other and are not independent. For example, sea surface temperatures affect all the other factors to some extent. In some years,

12992-673: The world's land drains to the Atlantic Ocean . In North America , surface water drains to the Atlantic via the Saint Lawrence River and Great Lakes basins, the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, the Canadian Maritimes , and most of Newfoundland and Labrador . Nearly all of South America east of the Andes also drains to the Atlantic, as does most of Western and Central Europe and

13108-490: The years 800–1150 AD. There is evidence that these early peoples used irrigation for their crops – primarily corn, beans and squash. Fremont remains have also been found in southern Sevier County near Clear Creek. This site is now preserved as Fremont Indian State Park . The Fremont culture disappeared around 1300 AD, possibly due to an extended drought. The ancestors of the Ute , Southern Paiute and Goshute peoples who populated

13224-497: Was considered safe. Many of the miners were Navajo people who were often sent to work without any protective clothing or masks. In the following decades, many former uranium miners died of emphysema or various forms of cancer. The state of Utah later spent $ 500,000 closing down two hundred mines in the district. Trains stopped running regularly on the Marysvale Branch in 1972, and in 1983 heavy flooding washed out much of

13340-472: Was formed starting about 20 million years ago due to crustal stretching that lowered the local terrain. Another period of uplift occurred towards the end of the Tertiary, about 12–2 million years ago, creating most of the present-day mountain ranges and plateaus. Significant vertical displacement has occurred on several north–south faults in the basin. The Sevier Fault and Elsinore Fault run mostly parallel to

13456-652: Was the Circleville Massacre near the upper Sevier River, in which 26 Paiutes were killed by white settlers after an earlier attack by Ute warriors, despite the fact that the Paiutes and Utes were enemies. In total, at least 70 whites and an unknown number of Native Americans were killed. The tribes were ultimately defeated with the intervention of the US government in 1870, although minor confrontations and skirmishes continued until about 1872. Most Native Americans in

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