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<br />VIl-5 <br /> <br />above river level and 20 feet below the Broadway terrace. They are wider <br />and more continuous on the east side of the river where they may be as much <br />as 1,200 feet wide. On the west side of the valley these surfaces are <br />narrow and discontinuous. <br /> <br />fine-grained, humic, sandy silt and clay containing very thin beds and <br />lenses of very coarse-grained, sandy, granular, pebbly gravel and organic <br />debris such as sticks and roots. The sand is generally subrounded to well- <br />rounded and composed of mostly quartz, feldspar, chert, and granitic rock <br />fr agment s. <br /> <br />Alluvial fan deposits are associated with these straths. The deposits are <br />generally less than 4 feet thick, but may be thicker locally in the fans. <br />The underlying materials generally are different on each side of the South <br />Platte valley. On the east side these deposits represent a period of ero- <br />sion and later alluviation of the Broadway materials; hence the underlying <br />deposits are Broadway sand and gravel. On the west side of the valley, ero- <br />sion of a variety of older surficial deposits, and bedrock, occurred so that <br />the discontinuous straths along the west side are underlain by a variety of <br />materials, <br /> <br />The colluvium consists of grayish-orange and light-gray, unstratified, <br />unsorted sand and claystone fragments (derived from the Denver-Arapahoe <br />formations) with occasional pebbles derived from the Verdos and Slocum <br />gravels intermixed with material derived from the older eolian sand and silt <br />deposits. The thickness generally does not exceed 3 feet. In addition to <br />poor sorting and lack of stratification, the colluvium is characterized by a <br />lack of soil development. <br /> <br />Younger Eolian Sand and Silt. Extensive deposits of wind blown sand and <br />silt are found southeast of the South Platte valley. <br /> <br />The material appears to have formed by the weathering and disaggregation of <br />Denver-Arapahoe sandstones and claystones. The processes of creep and <br />slopewash have moved loosened debris downslope to a greater or lesser <br />degree. <br /> <br />The deposits mantle portions of the Broadway terrace. The thickness of <br />these deposits varies from place to place, in part due to their deposition <br />on an irregular surface and in part due to later erosion, since the earlier <br />deposits (at least) were eroded by Second and Third Creeks during the Piney <br />Creek cycle. The younger deposits only partly refilled these eroded valley <br />systems, in spite of a fairly rigorous period of eolian activity. Dune <br />forms in the shallower portions of Barr Lake are visible in aerial photo- <br />graphs taken during a low level of the lake. In general, however, these <br />deposits rarely exceed 35 feet in thickness. <br /> <br />Miscellaneous Surficial Deposits. A number of well defined small alluvial <br />fans are being built out onto the Broadway terrace and onto creek <br />floodplains where minor gullys issue onto areas of lower gradient. <br /> <br />A great variety of man-made deposits are found in this area. The more <br />important types include: <br /> <br />Post-Piney Creek Alluvium. The deposits found within the modern floodplains <br />of the South Platte River and the alluvial materials along the tributary <br />creeks are Post-Piney Creek. <br /> <br />(1) artificially placed fills of varying compositions including <br />irrigation canal levees, small earth dams, railroad and highway <br />fills; <br />(2) large volumes of fecal wastes derived from cattle feed lots; <br />(3) sanitary 1 andf ill s; and <br />(4) topsoil fills dumped into abandoned gravel pits. <br /> <br />Because the alluvium lies in valleys which were cut into a variety of litho- <br />logic units, its composition and texture vary considerably from valley to <br />valley. Along the South Platte the alluvium is primarily very fine to <br />