274-6 Ecohydrogeological Responses of Roaring Springs in Grand Canyon to the 2025 Dragon Bravo Mega Wildfire

Session: Advances in Ecohydrogeology

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Abstract:

The 2025 Dragon Bravo mega wildfire on the North Rim of Grand Canyon National Park and the Kaibab National Forest burned through most of the catchment area for Roaring Springs, the deep karst, sole source, water supply for Grand Canyon National Park. The fire burned over four sinkholes where dyes have been introduced for recent dye tracer studies, including two sinkholes where two separate dyes were introduced in March 2025. Information from mapping and vulnerability analyses of the over 6,000 sinkholes of the surficial karst system was provided to the fire managers during fire suppression activities. Previous studies have shown the rapid transit times (days) between the surface karst system and the deep (>1,000 m) karst aquifer system which supplies Roaring Springs. It is anticipated that the magnitude of recharge may increase dramatically after the fire. The rapid recharge response times allow for use of the natural tracers of temperature, pressure, specific conductance and turbidity to track recharge pulses. Updates on the fire and fire-fighting activities, the ecohydrogeological responses of recent recharge events from the summer monsoon season through these sinkholes and associated faults and fractures to the response of Roaring Springs will be presented.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Program. Vol. 57, No. 6, 2025

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-8994

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