The influence of large woody debris on post-wildfire debris flow sediment storage

Rengers, Francis K.; McGuire, Luke A.; Barnhart, Katherine R.; Youberg, Ann M.; Cadol, Daniel; Gorr, Alexander N.; Hoch, Olivia J.; Beers, Rebecca; Kean, Jason W.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-2075-2023

Articles | Volume 23, issue 6

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-2075-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-23-2075-2023

© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 23, issue 6

Research article

|

07 Jun 2023

Research article |

| 07 Jun 2023

The influence of large woody debris on post-wildfire debris flow sediment storage

Francis K. Rengers, Luke A. McGuire, Katherine R. Barnhart, Ann M. Youberg, Daniel Cadol, Alexander N. Gorr, Olivia J. Hoch, Rebecca Beers, and Jason W. Kean

Data sets

Tadpole Fire Field Measurements following the 8 September 2020 Debris Flow, Gila National Forest, NM: U.S. Geological Survey data release F. K. Rengers, L. A. McGuire, A. M. Youberg, A. N. Gorr, O. J. Hoch, K. R. Barnhart, D. Cadol, and R. Beers https://doi.org/10.5066/P9I564PP

Tadpole Fire Debris Flow and Wood Collector Measurements May 2021: U.S. Geological Survey data release F. K. Rengers, L. A. McGuire, K. R. Barnhart, A. M. Youberg, D. Cadol, A. N. Gorr, O. J. A. K. Hoch, and R. Beers https://doi.org/10.5066/P9NYZ9JC

Short summary

Debris flows often occur after wildfires. These debris flows move water, sediment, and wood. The wood can get stuck in channels, creating a dam that holds boulders, cobbles, sand, and muddy material. We investigated how the channel width and wood length influenced how much sediment is stored. We also used a series of equations to back calculate the debris flow speed using the breaking threshold of wood. These data will help improve models and provide insight into future field investigations.