between moderately sloping hills in the vicinity of the study reach. The 

 study reach is approximately 8 km upstream from the mouth at an elevation of 

 28 m. 



The material site was developed by scraping within the active flood- 

 plain and excavation of a pit adjacent to the main channel of the river. 

 Material removed from the 15-ha site was primarily sand and gravel alluvium 

 with some colluvial debris along the southeast edge of the working limits. 

 Rock types were quartz mica schist, limestone, and quartz; rock fragments 

 were subangular to rounded with 3 to 10 percent greater than 50 mm in size 

 and less than I percent greater than 250 mm. 



Clearing and stripping were necessary to remove the dense willow (that 

 covered approximately 12 ha) and an average 0.6 m of overburden. The water 

 table varied from 0.8 m to more than 1.5 m deep with no permafrost encounter- 

 ed up to a depth of 2.1 m. Scraping was conducted during 1960-63 when 

 3,646 m were removed and during August and September, 1965 when 47,054 m 

 were extracted. The 1965 operation yielded some select materials, indicating 

 that a processing plant probably operated within the site. A small 0.6-ha 

 pit was excavated in the southeast corner of the material site during the 

 1965 operation. This pit averaged I to 1.5 m in depth during the site visits 

 and was directly connected to the ma in channel. Sma II stockpileswere pres- 

 ent within the disturbed area during field inspection. The site was not 

 shaped, contoured, or rehabilitated in any way following gravel removal. 

 Thus, many shal low depressions, which are not sloped to drain toward the 

 river, collect standing water. In addition to the 0.6-ha pit, scraping 

 occurred to below the water table in several small isolated pockets, and 

 these areas were covered with standing water during site visits. Four or- 

 ganic overburden piles and the gravel access road remain on the site. Var- 

 ious aspects of this site are shown in Figures 33, 58, 61, 65, 66, and 85. 



Nome River. The Nome River is a medium, sinuous river which originates 

 in the Kigluaik Mountains at an elevation of about 230 m and flows through 

 a broad val ley for about 57 km to its mouth at Norton Sound. The Nome River 

 drainage basin is long and narrow, with an average width of about 8 km. The 

 study site lies about 37 km from the mouth at an elevation of about 58 m. 



41 



