To log this cache email the the following information when looking eastward.
- Include the GC code/name and the names of the people that you are submitting the cache for (if you are doing so)
- How steep are the sides, and how deep does the the feature appear to be? would this indicate a wash/gully or ravine?
- Is the weathering of the erosion straight or curvy? would that make you think this is old or new?
- Looking to the bottom, is there a meandering smaller stream in the bottom or does it appear to be the width of the channel? In your opinion how would this affect the channel and how it weathers?
- Add a photo of you from the location or of an identifiable item (paper with trackable name). Posting a photo pulled from the internet, or photoshopped will result in instant deletion.
As water erodes in the desert you can have a number of ways it effects the land around you, It can be a shallow depression, and it can deposit the material washed down from the hills around you as it soaks into the soil.
Wash or Arroyo
A wash (as these are known locally) or an arroyo is a dry stream bed. These allow water to drain from an area. Officially a wash or arroyo would carry less than 100 cubic feet of water per second in a 100 year flood. That means that every hundred years would have one flood that would allow 100 cubic feet of water per second. I was seeing flows of 500- 1200 cfs in the jordan, and spanish fork rivers, thousands in the Green and colorado. So it is not a lot of water. Because of that they tend to deposit a lot of material and be rather shallow, banks are not usually steep, but if they are they will not usually be very deep.
Gully
The erosion in a gully can be quite substantial. The sides can become steeper and it can cut into the earth quite a ways. You may be looking at someting a few feed deep to twenty feet deep. Hillsides are prone to form gullys when plants are removed.
Ravine
A ravine takes this a step further. In a way they are well on the way of forming a valley or gorge. The sides are steep and they are deep enough that they will now start to widen over time to form a perminant feature that usually are difficult to cross. They can be hundreds of feet deep with steep sides that are usually between 30 and 45 degrees from flat.
Weathering
All of these share one similarity. Fast moving water that erodes quicky usually travels in a straight line (barring stone outcroppings to divert the flow. Then as times goes on the water flow will start to meander and cause the channel to snake and wind. A new channel in a non rocky area will be fairly straight, while an older channel will be windy and twisty. Often you may see the large channel from a strong flood that rarly happens and is fairly straight, with a small twisty stream from slower stream (or smaller flood) flows.
The snaking winding channel in the bottom will start to eat away at the sides, causing it to start to V in shape rather than just be straight walls. The S shaped meanders start cutting into the sides, slowing the water down, and causing some deposits to form as they widen the cut.