Hydrologic Comparisons for Floods of June 1947 in Iowa

Man has always been plagued by floods and it is reasonable to expect that he will continue to be faced with a variety of flood problems in the years to come. The great floods of June 1947 in Iowa were a tragic reminder of the continuing danger which Man faces from excess rainfall and runoff. Those floods were outstanding, not only with respect to the depths and intensities of the rainfall which produced them, but also with regard to the maximum rates and total amounts of runoff which resulted and the tremendous quantities of soil which were washed from the land. This paper has been prepared for the Geology Section of the Iowa Academy of Sciences to bring together certain pertinent data on three aspects - rainfall, runoff, and sediment loads - and to illustrate the extent and especially the comparative features of the technical data which are becoming available through the State and Federal cooperative program of the United States Geological Survey