Contact information: Paul W. Jewell Associate Professor Department of Geology and Geophysics University of Utah 135 S. 1460 East, Rm 719 Salt Lake City, UT 84112-0111 Phone: 801-581-6636 Fax: 801-581-7065 Email: jewell@earth.utah.edu

Research Philosophy

The major thrust of my research is applying hydrologic principles and models to fundamental problems of sedimentation, geomorphic evolution, and geochemistry in surface water environments.  This is accomplished by acquiring critical field data on and incorporating them into models of varying sophistication.  I am presently working on three surface environments: Pleistocene Lake Bonneville in the western United States (in collaboration with Marjorie Chan and Kathleen Nicoll of the University of Utah), alluvial channels in the intermountain west, and pit mine lakes.   

Potential Graduate Student Research Projects
I hope to recruit new graduate students to work on the following projects over the next several years.  Potential graduate students should contact me at jewell@earth.utah.edu  if they have specific questions.  

Digital Mapping of Alluvial Channels
The scientific understanding and management of alluvial channels is one of the most important problems in process geomorphology.  Scientific problems are wide ranging and particularly acute in the western United States where demands from water consumers, recreationists, fisherman, and farmers have created a myriad of conflicting goals regarding the management of stream and river resources.  Accurate and rapid characterization of this environment and application of predictive models are critical tools for proper management of alluvial resources.  Recent advances in digital mapping, analysis, and numerical modeling hold tremendous potential for developing a new generation of models that can be rapidly applied to alluvial systems.  This arena of research can advance the understanding of alluvial processes and is applicable to a variety of topics including stream restoration, nonpoint source pollution (including transport of mining wastes), floodplain management, and understanding global sediment flux.     

In the near future the primary mapping tool for this work will be ground-based LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) techniques.  LiDAR produces thousands of laser pulses per second to extraordinarily detailed images of a variety of features.  The accuracy of ground based is on the order of centimeters, promising unparalleled understanding of stream channel morphology and evolution.  

Recent channel development of Lee Creek as it enters the Great Salt Lake.  The drought of the past seven years has produced a 2 m drop in lake base level and producing rapid downcutting and significant sediment transport into the lake.

A new housing development outside of Santaquin, Utah suffered damage due to a series of debris flows in the summer of 2002. A fire in the surrounding foothills, produced a large amount of unconsolidated colluvium that was mobilized by a modest summer rain storm.  Understanding the evolution of sediment sources using modern mapping techniques can aid in the understanding and mitigation of these geologic hazards.

Lake Bonneville
Pleistocene Lake Bonneville was the largest of several pluvial lakes that formed in the Great Basin of the western United States during the last glacial maximum.  Over the past century, Lake Bonneville has provided a wealth of paleoclimate information about the continental interior of North America.   During lake high stands, a variety of sedimentological and geomorphic features formed in response to circulation, river runoff, and wave action. These features fall into three basic categories. (1) Common shoreline features such as drift-aligned sand and gravel bodies such as baymouth barriers and spits (e.g., the Stockton bar), cuspate barriers (e.g., Point of the Mountain), tombolos, and  sand delta terraces that prograded basinward during the regression of Lake Bonneville. (2) Unusual "dumps" of Gilbert-type delta sediments (e.g., Big Cottonwood Canyon gravels) which can be laterally extensive. (3) Marls, and other fine-grained offshore facies with some sediments reworked during lower lake levels. Understanding the genetic mechanisms operative during formation of these deposits has important scientific consequences.

Numerical modeling studies of Lake Bonneville are being used to establish relationships between the field features of the lake and specific hydrodynamic characteristics which in turn are a function of Late Pleistocene climate forcings in the Great Basin. These studies have the potential for predicting a number of features of interest to engineering geologists working in the Bonneville basin.  Student projects so far have emphasized deltas, large spits, and tufa development in the basin.  A current Ph.D. project by Daren Nelson is emphasizing shoreline development and evolution using airborne LiDAR and field mapping.

DEM of shoreline features and the Wasatch fault at Point of the Mountain, south of Salt Lake City.

Prominent spits in the Lake Bonneville (Jewell, in press).

Pit Lake Hydrology
Pit lakes form where a water table that has been depressed during mine dewatering recovers following removal of bulk mineable ore or aggregate material.  A number of environmental concerns surround pit mine lakes, the most critical of which is longterm evolution of lake water quality and its impact on the surrounding groundwater.  Interaction of surface and ground water with freshly exposed, mineralized rock can cause concentration of metals and other elements in the pit lake waters to rise above that of ambient groundwater.  Evaporation of waters in the lake can lead to further solute concentration.  Concerns of water quality associated with the large increase in open pit gold mining operations during the 1980s and 1990s has accelerated research on pit lake hydrology.  Two critical aspects of pit mine lakes are currently being investigated: physical limnology of the lake (which can lead to permanent stratification and anoxia) and the degree to which surface water and infiltration surrounding mined lands make its way into the lake.

This pit lake in the Iron Springs mining district of southwestern Utah has been filling for the past 20 years.  The physical limnology of the lake was investigated by a recent M.S. student (Devin Castendyk) using field measurements and simple mass balances of the hydrology.

Recent Graduate Student Careers:
Student: Alisa Felton (B. S., University of California, Santa Cruz)
Period: 2000 - 2003
Thesis title: Paleowave indicators and model for tufa Development in the Lake Bonneville Basin, Utah
Degree: M.S.
Present position: Earth science teacher, Salt Lake School District.
 
Student: Ian Schofield (B. S., State University of New York, Plattsburgh)
Period: 1999 - 2002
Thesis title: Longshore transport and surface wave modeling associated with spit formation in Pleistocene Lake Bonneville
Degree: M.S.
Present position: Hydrologist, CH2M Hill, Inc., Salt Lake City.

Student: Scott Tangenberg (B. S., University of Colorado)
Period: 1997 - 2000
Thesis title: Alkalinity sources in an alpine watershed, northern Utah
Degree: M.S.
Present position: Hydrologist, U. S. Forest Service, Susanville, California

Student: Devin Castendyk (B. S., Hartwick College)
Period: 1996 - 1999
Degree: M.S.
Thesis title: Chemical, hydrologic, and limnologic interactions at three pit mine lakes in the Iron Springs Mining district, Utah
Present position: Assistant Professor, State University of New York, Oneida

Student: Charles Williamson (B. S., University of Utah)
Period: 1996 - 1999
Thesis title: Evolution of anoxic conditions during deposition of the Pilot Shale and Leatham Formation (Upper Devonian), Utah and Nevada
Degree: M.S.
Present position: Hydrologist, Division of Water Quality, State of Utah.

Student: Jennifer Joyce (B. S., Tulane University)
Period: 1993-1996
Degree: M.S.
Thesis title: Physical and chemical controls of methane flux from two tropical reservoirs
Present position: Geologist, Exxon-Mobil, Inc.

Publications
Jewell, P. W., (in press), Morphology and paleoclimate significance of Pleistocene Lake Bonneville spits: Quaternary Research.

Felton, A., P. W. Jewell, M. A. Chan, and D. Currey, 2006, Controls of tufa development in Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, Utah: Journal of Geology, v. 114, p 377-389.

Schofield I., P. W. Jewell, M. A. Chan, D. Currey, and M. Gregory, 2004, Longshore transport, spit formation, and surface wave modeling, Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, Utah: Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, v. 29, p.1675-1690.

Joyce, J. A., and P. W. Jewell, 2003, Physical controls of methane ebullition from reservoirs and lakes: Environmental and Engineering Geoscience, v 9, p. 77-88.

Jewell, P. W., N. J. Silberling, and K. M. Nichols, 2000, Geochemistry of the Mississippian Delle phosphatic event, eastern Great Basin, U.S.A: Journal of Sedimentary Research, v. 70, p. 1230-1241.

Jewell, P. W., 2000, Bedded barite in the geologic record, in C. R. Glenn, J. Lucas, and L. Prevot, editors., Marine authigenesis: from global to microbial: SEPM Special Publication 66. p. 147-161.

Christensen, J. W., Jr. and P. W. Jewell, 1998, Geochemical variations in an alpine lake and watershed underlain by siliciclastic bedrock: in Modern and Ancient Lakes: New Problems and Perspectives, J. Pitman and A. Carroll, editors: Utah Geological Association Guidebook 26, p. 59-69.

Silberling, N. J., J. H. Trexler, Jr., K. M. Nichols, P. W. Jewell, and R. A. Crosbie, 1997, Overview of Mississippian depositional and paleotectonic history of the Antler foreland, eastern Nevada and western Utah: Brigham Young University Geology Studies, v. 42, part I, p. 161-197.

Jewell, P. W., 1996, Circulation, salinity, and oxygen in the Cretaceous North American seaway: American Journal of Science, v. 296, p. 1093-1125.

Jewell, P. W., 1995, A simple surface water biogeochemical model, 1, Description, sensitivity analyses, and idealized simulations: Water Resources Research, v. 31, p. 2047-2057.

Jewell, P. W., 1995, A simple surface water biogeochemical model, 2, Simulation of selected lacustrine and marine settings: Water Resources Research, v. 31, p. 2059-2070.

Jewell, P. W., 1995, Geologic consequences of globe-encircling equatorial currents: Geology, v. 23, p. 117-120.