The goal of this study is to develop a method for identifying potential post-fire debris flow hazard areas prior to the occurrence of wildfires, providing more time for local governments and emergency planners to develop and execute hazard mitigation strategies. This pilot study focuses on the communities of Pine and Strawberry, which are located in forested canyons at the base of the Mogollon Rim in north-central Arizona. Results from this project will provide local agencies, emergency planners and land managers more effective tools for prioritizing watershed treatment areas and implementing mitigation measures to alleviate potential impacts and threats from post-fire debris flows to infrastructure, human life, and property in a timely and cost-effective manner.

In order to begin to assess debris‐flow hazards along the Santa Catalina Mountains in Pima County, we mapped the extent and character of relatively young prehistoric debris‐flow deposits in detail at fifteen
canyon mouths. Mapping was conducted on a scale of 1:6,000 using aerial photographs, detailed
topography, and field relationships. Deposits were classified into relative age categories based on
topographic relationships, soil development and surface characteristics of the deposits. Ages of selected
debris‐flow deposits in four canyons – Soldier, Sabino, Finger Rock and Pima – were estimated using
radiocarbon (14C) and cosmogenic (10Be) isotope methods.

Evidence of past debris flows were found in all fifteen canyons. Relative age dating, corroborated by
10Be, indicates the largest and most extensive deposits in all canyons are late Pleistocene to early
Holocene in age. Events from 2006 show that some potential exists for debris flows to exit the mountain front into developed areas near canyon mouths.

This field trip guide was created for a Project WET conference held in Tucson, Arizona, June, 2007. This guide discusses the general geology of the Santa Catalina Mountains in Sabino Canyon, and points out evidence of the July 2006 floods and debris flows. There are stops in the first few miles of canyon, and towards the end of the tram road, where the most spectacular debris flows are located.

This report details geothermal resource exploration done for Arizona Public Service and the U.S. Department of Energy in 2005 to evaluate the geothermal resources of the Clifton Hot Springs area in Greenlee County, eastern Arizona for electric power production. The intent of the evaluation was to determine the local geologic controls of the geothermal system and, using publicly available data and original mapping performed for this project, to recommend locations for Controlled Source Audiomagnetotelluric (CSAMT) cross sections. The results of the geophysics were then combined with the geologic mapping to site three gradient holes, two of which were drilled to depths of 635 feet and 1,000 feet, respectively.