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<br /> <br />RI - RM-- <br />F.C.S. <br />Bear Creek <br /> <br />FLOODS IN THE BEAR CREEA ~ATERSilED, COLO'MLO <br /> <br />C. H. Diebold <br /> <br />Rocky Mountain Foreat end Range Experiment Station <br /> <br />J aIIUElry 1939 <br /> <br />c <br /> <br />Description of Area <br /> <br />11 <br />Beat' Crs'ek drains an area ,of 258 square miles tributary to the <br /> <br />South Platte River at Denver, Colorndo. The' drainage 1a 55 mUes long <br /> <br />. <br />and has Ii maximum rldth of 15 mUes (map 1). <br /> <br />Elevations within the watershed vary from approximately 5,1500 <br /> <br />feet at the mouth of the creek to 14,260 feet at bIt. Evena. Approximately <br />82 percent of the watershed is above 7,000 feet in altitude (map 1). 1Uth <br /> <br />the exception of a few square miles near its mouth, the entire watershed <br /> <br />is mountainous. <br /> <br />Bear Creek watershed, exclusive of the eastern tip, consists of <br /> <br />pre-Cambrian granite e.nd gneiss (!lW.p 2) with the latter penetrated by a <br />, y <br />great number of dikes, principally pegmatite and diorite (23) . A <br /> <br />portion of the strata along the ea5tern edge of the gncis5 has been <br /> <br />strongly affected by !l,great uplift which occurred in post-Cretaceous <br />EI <br />times with the result that sharply dipping formations of the <br /> <br />11 Obtained by ple.nimetering U.S.G.S. topographic quadrangles - scale <br />1162,500 and 11125,000. <br /> <br />1:1 Numbers in parentheses refer to ftBibliography", pp. 58-59. <br /> <br />]I The mountains produced were in large partpeneplained. The country <br />then arose to ita present height, erosion revived, and canyons were <br />cut. This type of erosion is referred to sa the ftca:nyon cyclew and <br />is still in 'progress (4). <br /> <br />-.. "'"h" <br /> <br /> <br />