Canyon Lake Gorge is a

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms wh ...

gorge A canyon (from ; archaic British English spelling: ''cañon''), or gorge, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales. Rivers have a natural tendency to c ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, which is around long, hundreds of yards (metres) wide, and up to or more deep, which was exposed in 2002 when extensive flooding of the Guadalupe River led to a huge amount of water going over the

spillway A spillway is a structure used to provide the controlled release of water downstream from a dam or levee, typically into the riverbed of the dammed river itself. In the United Kingdom, they may be known as overflow channels. Spillways ensure t ...

from

Canyon Lake Canyon Lake, Lake Canyon, or lakes named "Cañon", may refer to: Bodies of water * Canyon Lake (Arizona) * Canyon Lake (California) * Canyon Lake (South Dakota) * Canyon Lake (Texas) * Canyon Lake (Michigan) * Lake Canyon (Lakeland, Florida) Place ...

reservoir and removing the sediment from the gorge. The gorge provides a valuable exposure of rock

strata In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as e ...

as old as 111 million years showing fossils and a set of dinosaur tracks, and forms a new

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syst ...

for wildlife with

carp Carp are various species of oily freshwater fish from the family Cyprinidae, a very large group of fish native to Europe and Asia. While carp is consumed in many parts of the world, they are generally considered an invasive species in parts of ...

and other creatures in a series of pools fed by springs and waterfalls. The Gorge Preservation Society formed as a local citizen's group to develop long-term plans for the Gorge in partnership with the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority and the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

. Public access to the gorge is restricted to guided tours by the Society along a designated route for a hike lasting about three hours. Availability of tours is limited, no pets are permitted and no rock or

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

collecting is allowed. Research permits can be obtained by university or scientific research groups.

The flood of 2002

In July 2002 up to of water per second flowed over the spillway of

Canyon Lake, Texas Canyon Lake is a census-designated place (CDP) in Comal County, Texas, United States. The population was 31,124 at the 2020 census. It is part of the San Antonio Metropolitan Statistical Area. The Canyon Lake CDP includes a number of small, uni ...

for approximately six weeks, the first time the spillway had been in use since the reservoir dam was constructed in 1964. Normally, the flow out of the reservoir is around of water per second. The Guadalupe River basin forms a part of "Flash Flood Alley" which is one of the river basins most prone to

flash flood A flash flood is a rapid flooding of low-lying areas: washes, rivers, dry lakes and depressions. It may be caused by heavy rain associated with a severe thunderstorm, hurricane, or tropical storm, or by meltwater from ice or snow flowing ...

ing in the world. Nine people were killed by the flood over a stretch of the river, which damaged or destroyed 48,000 homes and cost around $1 billion in damages, but the Canyon Lake manager has stated that even though the floodwaters went over the spillway, the dam still prevented an estimated $38.6 million in damages downstream during the event.

Educational and natural resource

On November 29, 2005, a ceremony was held in which representatives of the Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority and the

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers , colors = , anniversaries = 16 June (Organization Day) , battles = , battles_label = Wars , website = , commander1 = ...

signed an agreement to develop the gorge as an educational and natural resource.

Significance for Geologists

The 2002 flood at Canyon Lake and subsequent rapid formation of Canyon Lake Gorge presented a unique opportunity to study the

geomorphological Geomorphology (from Ancient Greek: , ', "earth"; , ', "form"; and , ', "study") is the scientific study of the origin and evolution of topographic and bathymetric features created by physical, chemical or biological processes operating at or n ...

power of rapidly moving water and to better understand the process of canyon formation. Canyon Lake Gorge March 2017 IMG1771

In their 2010 study, Michael Lamb of the

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech or CIT)The university itself only spells its short form as "Caltech"; the institution considers other spellings such a"Cal Tech" and "CalTech" incorrect. The institute is also occasional ...

and Mark Fonstad of

Texas State University Texas State University is a public research university in San Marcos, Texas. Since its establishment in 1899, the university has grown to the second largest university in the Greater Austin metropolitan area and the fifth largest universit ...

documented the dramatic transformation of a section of the Guadalupe River Valley landscape into a steep-walled bedrock canyon in just three days.Lamb, M. P. and M. A. Fonstad. 2010. Rapid formation of a modern bedrock canyon by a single flood event. Nature Geoscience. 3 (7): 477-481. The scientists documented the excavation of bedrock limestone to an average depth of over 20 feet and average width of 130–200 feet for a distance of over one mile.Perkins, S. 2010. Even a newborn canyon is big in Texas. ScienceNews. 178 (2): 15. The “plucking” and transport of massive boulders from the site resulted in the formation of several waterfalls, inner channels, and bedrock terraces. The abrasion of rock by sediment-loaded water sculpted walls and created

plunge pool A plunge pool (or plunge basin or waterfall lake) is a deep depression in a stream bed at the base of a waterfall or shut-in. It is created by the erosional forces of cascading water on the rocks at formation's base where the water impacts.Marsh ...

s and teardrop-shaped “streamlined islands”.Kathy Svitil, 06/20/10, Caltech Geologist Investigates Canyon Carved in Just Three Days in Texas Flood. Caltech Press Release. Although some of the geological formations present in the gorge are known to be associated with rapidly flowing flood water (such as the streamlined islands), other formations (such as the inner channels,

knickpoint In geomorphology, a knickpoint or nickpoint is part of a river or channel where there is a sharp change in channel slope, such as a waterfall or lake. Knickpoints reflect different conditions and processes on the river, often caused by previous ...

s and terraces) have traditionally been interpreted through the “long ago and very slow” paradigm of geologic time in response to shifting climate or tectonic forcing. Typically, a steep-walled narrow gorge is inferred to represent slow persistent erosion, but because many of the geological formations of Canyon Lake Gorge are virtually indistinguishable from other formations which have been attributed to long term (slower) processes, the data collected from Canyon Lake Gorge lends further credence to the

hypothesis A hypothesis (plural hypotheses) is a proposed explanation for a phenomenon. For a hypothesis to be a scientific hypothesis, the scientific method requires that one can testable, test it. Scientists generally base scientific hypotheses on prev ...

that some of the most spectacular canyons on Earth may have been carved rapidly during ancient

megaflood In geomorphology, an outburst flood—a type of megaflood—is a high-magnitude, low-frequency catastrophic flood involving the sudden release of a large quantity of water. During the last deglaciation, numerous glacial lake outburst floods were c ...

events. Additionally, because the flood conditions under which the gorge was formed are known, Canyon Lake Gorge provides a means of developing improved

computer model Computer simulation is the process of mathematical modelling, performed on a computer, which is designed to predict the behaviour of, or the outcome of, a real-world or physical system. The reliability of some mathematical models can be det ...

reconstructions of pre-historic floods to determine water volume, flood duration and erosion rates.

References

External links

* {{coord, 29.86098, -98.19000, region:US, format=dms, display=title Canyons and gorges of Texas Protected areas of Comal County, Texas Nature reserves in Texas Landforms of Comal County, Texas United States Army Corps of Engineers Guadalupe-Blanco River Authority