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Sandy beaches have reappeared more than 100 miles ( 160 kilometers ) downstream of Glen Canyon Dam , an early measuring of achiever for a massive rising tide last calendar week plan to rebuild home ground along the Colorado River in the iconic Grand Canyon .
However , it will be weeks before scientist know whether the six mean solar day of high flows realize the Department of theInterior ’s goalsof move more than 500,000 metrical tons of sediment down the canon .
USGS hydrologist Tom Sabol enters the Colorado River in scuba diving gear to sample sediment in preparation for the November flood from the Glen Canyon Dam.
" Surely there are unexampled whitened sand bar in a pot of places , but what we have learned from doing this in the yesteryear is that the devil is in the details , " said Jack Schmidt , top dog of the U.S. Geological Survey ’s Grand Canyon Monitoring Center . Test floods in 1996 , 2004 and 2008 had some unintended consequences , such as increase the population of predatory non - native trout .
Initial tests
The department ordered the outpouring , free in a gush from theGlen Canyon Dam start Nov. 19 , to help create beach and back eddy for campers , balk and aboriginal Pisces . Since the decametre was built in 1966 , the only sediment source for the Grand Canyon are the naturally flowing niggling Colorado and Paria rivers , which prey into the Colorado River below the dyke . A pop holidaymaker destination , the canon ’s beach and wildlife count on sand and mud carried by the Colorado River .
USGS hydrologist Tom Sabol enters the Colorado River in scuba diving gear to sample sediment in preparation for the November flood from the Glen Canyon Dam.
USGS researchers pass the Thanksgiving holiday camped along the river monitoring the flood , Schmidt said . Their samples will assist set if the floodwaters actually moved suspended deposit downriver , among other tests , he read .
A group from the National Park Service and the USGS give today ( Nov. 27 ) to float downriver and download before - and - after image from cameras mounted in the canyon and collect additional sample . A preliminary paper on the flood ’s backwash will be presented at a stakeholders coming together in January 2013 . [ touch on : The Grand Canyon in Pictures ]
" Now starts the heavy work of figuring out and read the nature of the cognitive process that break down on during the flowage and the environmental impact of the flood , " Schmidt secern OurAmazingPlanet .
First new beaches
National Park staff at Phantom Ranch , aColorado Rivercrossing with cabins and a campground more than 100 miles ( 160 km ) downstream of the decametre , reported new sand at two nearby beach , said Jan Balsom , deputy sheriff honcho of skill and resourcefulness direction for Grand Canyon National Park . Roy ’s Beach , on river right just upriver of Phantom Ranch , has moxie for the first clip in a number of year , she said . Cremation Camp , a rafter camp upstream on river left , also has new beach Baroness Dudevant .
" We were hoping to see confirming results in the first 60 mile [ below the dam ] , and it looks like we ’re seeing positive results downstream as well , " Balsom tell OurAmazingPlanet . " Certainly , the initial indication are anecdotal and jolly random , but we ’re really frantic we get the flow off and we ’re very hopeful we ’re cash in one’s chips to see incontrovertible results throughout the system . "
The high - flowing liberation plan was announce in May by Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar . Developed after more than 16 year of planning and testing , the scheme allowsGrand Canyonflood releases on short notice , without encompassing environmental reexamination or preparation , through 2020 . The order of magnitude calls for flows from 31,500 to 45,000 three-dimensional feet ( 892 to 1,274 three-dimensional metre ) per second for up to 96 hours in March through April and October through November . Floods during the March through April period of time are delayed until 2015 to reduce the population of the invasive rainbow trout , which breed in the spring .
