VARIATIONS IN RIVER LONGITUDINAL PROFILES ALONG THE KITTATINNY RIDGE, APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS

The Kittatinny Ridge is a prominent ridge that extends from parts of New York through western New Jersey and down to South Carolina and Georgia. This ridge makes up the eastern most part of the Appalachian Mountains and is the first prominent mountain chain of the Appalachians. It has a relatively high erosion resistant quartzite conglomerate throughout which is a part of the Shawangunk Formation. Underneath the Shawangunk is the Bloomsburg Formation and is composed of sandstone, siltstone and shale. The consistent composition of the Kittatinny Ridge makes it ideal for analyzing how variations in climate and glacial history have impacted long-term erosion rates. Variations in climate and glacial history combine to affect erosion rates differently along the ridge, while the relatively consistent lithologic composition of the ridge minimizes changes in bedrock that potentially complicate such studies. This project measured river longitudinal profiles and valley hypsometries to determine long term erosion amounts along the ridge. This was done using geographic information system (GIS) ArcMap v. 10.0 and Arcinfo 10.0 to delineate the ridge and determine valley and river geometries. One-third arc second digital elevation models (DEMs) were downloaded from the National Map, and standard hydrologic GIS procedures (sinks filled, flow direction determined, flow accumulation calculated, and stream networks identified using a threshold of 5,000 cells) followed to determine watershed area and river networks. In order to groundtruth the GIS data, field measurements will be taken with a total station at randomly selected streams along the ridge to determine long profiles in the field.