Science & Technology

USU Geologists Awarded $2.3M to Study Grand Canyon Sites

The March 5 planned flood of the Colorado River by the Bureau of Reclamation’s U.S. Geological Survey illustrates the sometimes divergent perspectives of geologists and archaeologists. Utah State University geologist Joel Pederson says the experimental inundation, designed to restore the river’s natural ecosystem within the Grand Canyon, could cause enough erosion to expose history-revealing layers of sediment. On the other hand, the flood waters could loosen and swallow rare artifacts.

Yet the complementary aspects of the two disciplines are bringing an interdisciplinary team together to unravel the mysteries of the Grand Canyon and its ancient inhabitants. Pederson and archaeologists from Zuni Cultural Resource Enterprise returned last week from a site in the path of next week’s high-flow experiment to survey and document pre-Anasazi artifacts. The site is near Nine Mile Draw, about five miles downriver from Glen Canyon Dam, where a river cutback – an area where the bank has retreated due to erosion – may have already lost archaeological material in previous floods.
 
Pederson’s USU team and ZCRE, a cultural resources consulting firm based in Zuni Pueblo, N.M., received a $2.3 million contract this month from the Bureau of Reclamation to conduct a five-year study of multiple sites within the Grand Canyon. USU research associate Gary O’Brien manages the project and Geology graduate student Erin Tainer, a USU Water Fellow, is studying two of the sites, including Nine Mile Draw, as part of her master’s thesis.
 
“Our role is to provide the geology for the project,” Pederson says. “Our data help the archaeologists understand the environment people were living in when they produced the artifacts.”
 
At the Nine Mile Draw site, archaeologists discovered and documented camp sites and stone tools made by hunter-gatherers some 2,500 years ago. “And the team actually found some (much younger) Puebloan pottery sherds as well, which was exciting and unexpected,” says Pederson.
 
The site isn’t very accessible by foot, he says, and wouldn’t have been to ancient peoples, either. Based on the artifacts and location, he doubts the site was a settled area; rather, it may have been a temporary hunting or fishing site.
 
The USU and ZCRE research team, which conducted a systematic assessment of the stage of erosion of the sites prior to the current study, will pursue documentation of additional sites in May and September, including sites in western areas of the Grand Canyon, downstream from the Nine Mile Draw site.
 
A key tool in the five-year study, Pederson says, will be USU’s Luminescence Laboratory. Established on Utah State’s Innovation Campus in January 2007, the lab, the only one of its kind in the state, features cutting-edge capabilities in optically stimulated luminescence or “OSL” geochronology. The technology provides a means for geologists, archaeologists and other scientists to accurately determine the age of sediment samples.
 
“Recent technical advances in luminescence dating make it one of the most powerful, accurate and cost-effective methods for solving geological problems,” he says. “It offers a number of advantages over conventional methods such as radiocarbon and cosmogenic dating of young geologic samples.”
Pederson adds that the USU lab gave his team a competitive advantage in winning the Bureau of Reclamation contract.
 
“Archaeological sites are especially conductive to luminescence dating,” he says. “We can use samples that won’t damage valuable sites and are well suited for OSL dating.”
 
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Contact: Joel Pederson [joel.pederson@usu.edu], 435-797-7097
Writer: Mary-Ann Muffoletto [maryann.muffoletto@usu.edu], 435-797-3517
an ancient pot exposed by erosion

An ancient pot is exposed by erosion in Grand Canyon. USU geologists are among scientists documenting archaeological sites in preparation for a March 5 planned flood.

USU Water Fellow Erin Tainer

USU Water Fellow Erin Tainer, a graduate student in geology, examines layers of sediment at Nine Mine Draw along the Colorado River.

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