Incision History of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison

The Gunnison River is the major tributary of the Colorado River that drains some of the highest topography of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Paleo river profiles at 640ka, 10Ma, and ~35Ma provide benchmarks to understand the long-term incision history of the Black Canyon. Reconstruction of these paleo profiles is based on elevated bedrock straths and alluvial deposits that can be dated using the Lava Creek B ash (640 ka), Grand Mesa and associated basalts (10 Ma), and Oligocene ash flow tuffs (~35 Ma). Comparison of these to the modern profile offers insight into incision history. The modern long profile displays a distinct knickpoint located near the Painted Wall in the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. This high-gradient reach (10-km-long) is partly explained by the Vernal Mesa Granite, but it traverses basement lithologies present above and below the knickpoint, suggesting that increased river gradient is not explained entirely by hard bedrock. Incision rates downstream of the knickpoint are higher (250-300 m/Ma over 640 ka and ~ 150 m/Ma over 10 Ma) in comparison to upstream rates (140 m/Ma over 640 ka and ~ 150 m/Ma over 10 Ma). The difference in incision rates across the knickpoint argue that this feature reflects transient adjustment of the fluvial system to baselevel lowering associated with downstream drainage reorganization. Incision rates in the nearby reaches of the Colorado River since 1-3 Ma are distinctly higher than those in the time periods of ~30 Ma- present and 10 Ma-present. This leads us to infer that rapid incision was not established in the Gunnison region until post ca. 3 Ma. A knickpoint similar to that seen in the modern profile is present in the reconstructed 640ka profile, reinforcing the transient character and implying upstream migration of the knickpoint of 25km in the past 640 ka. Projection of the ~ 640 ka river gravels in the abandoned Shinn- Bostwick tributary to its intersection with the Gunnison at Red Canyon is presently the best constraint on the age of incision; here, ~400m of its ~700m total depth in the Black Canyon has been incised in the last 640 ka. To refine these profiles and incision rates, new mapping and sampling for cosmogenic burial dating have been conducted on major terraces at the North Fork Gunnison-Gunnison River confluence, the Shinn-Bostwick Park, and Grizzley Creek. These will provide new dates, confirm tephrochronolgic associations, and refine preexisting data to further constrain incision history.