<br />River decreased, bUI by a smaller fraclion than Ihe decreasc
<br />in sediment supply.
<br />In the posl-d<lm system, the majority of sediment
<br />supplied 10 lhe Colorado River in Marble and Grand
<br />Canyons comes from Ihe Paria and Lillie Colorado rivers,
<br />Large inpuls of sediment from the Paria River occur during
<br />high-discharge, shOrl-duralion Roods thatlypically occur in
<br />July through October, whereas large inputs of sediment
<br />from the Lillie Colorado River occur during Roods that
<br />lypically occur both in July lhrough October and in January
<br />through early April. High mainstem Rows in the post-dam
<br />system, however, do not necessarily coincide with these
<br />tributary sediment-supplying events, because high
<br />mainslem Rows are produced by tbe dam operators to
<br />generate power and maintain reservoir levels. Therefore, as
<br />with pre-dam conditions, there may be still a mismatch in
<br />the timing of large sediment inputs to the system relative to
<br />the timing of high Rows in the mainSlem. Thus, during high
<br />Rows in the post-dam river, we expect suspended-sediment
<br />concentrations to decrease with time, and grain sizes. in
<br />both suspension and on the bed, to coarsen with time in
<br />response to depletion of fine sediment in the system [Rubill
<br />el ai" 1998], just as during pre-dam snowmelt Roods.
<br />During lhe 1996 controlled Rood [Schmidl el al" this
<br />volume], as parl of a larger USGS dala collection effort, we
<br />set out \0 improve our understanding of the intricate linkage
<br />between flow, sediment supply, sediment transport, and bed
<br />morphology, To accomplish this goal, we focused on two
<br />major objectives, First, we monitored bathymetry during
<br />the Rood at both a main channel location and in a typical
<br />laleral separation eddy to monitor the effect of the Rood on
<br />the bed morphology, Second, and the subject of this paper,
<br />we documented the linkages between the grain-size distri-
<br />bution on lhe bed of the channel, the concentration and
<br />grain-size distribution of suspended sediment, and the
<br />grain-size distribution of deposits produced in depositional
<br />regions (primarily in eddies), In doing so, we focused on
<br />measuring bOlh concentrations and grain-size distributions
<br />of suspended sediment with sufficient temporal resolution
<br />(0 provide insights into the issue of supply limitation.
<br />
<br />3, FIELD OBSERVATIONS DURING THE 1996
<br />CONTROLLED FLOOD
<br />
<br />To study the linkage between the suspended sedimenl
<br />and bed of the Colorado RIVer during a flood, we designed a
<br />9-day measurement program to monitor the suspended
<br />sediment, bed sedimenl, flow velocity, water-surface slope,
<br />and bed lOpography al bOlh a main channel local ion and in a
<br />lypical lateral-recirculation eddy during Ihe 1996 flood
<br />experiment. This chapter presents mainly (he depth~
<br />
<br />TOPPING ET AL. 73
<br />
<br />integrated suspended-sediment and bed-sediment data that
<br />we collected at the 2 sites during the \996 controlled 1I00d,
<br />The main.channel site chosen for this work. was (he reach at
<br />the USGS gage at river mile 87.4, This gage is officially
<br />designated as "Colorado River near Grand Canyon,
<br />Arizona, station number 09402500" and is referred to
<br />herein as the Grand Canyon gage. The Grand Canyon gage
<br />reach was chosen both because of its key location in upper
<br />Grand Canyon and also because of its wealth of USGS Row,
<br />suspended-sediment, bcd-sediment, and bcd-topographic
<br />data that span the period from November 1923 to lhe
<br />present. The eddy site chosen for this work was 56-km
<br />downstream of the Grand Canyon gage at river mile 122 at
<br />the mouth of Hundred Twenty-two Mile Creek (herein
<br />referred to as the 122-Mile eddy site), The 122-Mile eddy
<br />site was chosen both because it had a large eddy in which
<br />topographic changes in the bed during the Rood could be
<br />readily detected and also because it had a history of prior
<br />sedimentologic investigations,
<br />Other suspended-sedimeOl dala presented in this chapter
<br />were also collecled by the USGS at 2 other gages on the
<br />Colorado River, The first of these gages is at river mile
<br />61,0, 42 km upstream of the Grand Canyon gage and at the
<br />downstream end of Marble Canyon; this gage is officially
<br />designated as the "Colorado Ri ver above the mouth of the
<br />Lillie Colorado River near Desert View, Arizona, station
<br />number 0938100" and is herein referred to as the above
<br />LCR gage, The second of these gages is at ri ver mile 166,1,
<br />downstream of the 122-Mile eddy site; this gage is officially
<br />designated as "Colorado River above National Canyon near
<br />Supai, Arizona, Slation number 09404120" and is referred
<br />to herein as the National Canyon gage,
<br />As measured at the Grand Canyon gage, the controlled-
<br />flood experiment consisted of three days of a steady 238
<br />mlts discharge followed by an increase over 5.75 hrs to a
<br />discharge of 1290 mlts. This high discharge was constaOl
<br />for 7 days and then decreased over 3,2 days back to a steady
<br />discharge of 238 m3ts, In this paper, the day prior to Ihe
<br />arrival of the Rood is referred to as "day -I", Ihe seven days
<br />of 1290 m)ts discharge are referred to as "days 1-7", and
<br />the first day of the recessional limb of the flood is referred
<br />to as "day +''',
<br />
<br />4, METHODS
<br />
<br />4, /. Gralld CallyolI Gage Reach
<br />
<br />To monilOr the suspended sediment, we colle.:ted
<br />samples from the USGS cableway at the Grand Canyon
<br />gage (Figure 1) using both a P-6\ sampler and a bag
<br />sampler equipped with a D-77 sampler head (Edwards alld
<br />
|