Winooski Drainage Basin

After finding the average rainfall and area of the Winooski drainage basin, I calculated the total volume of precipitation that falls in the basin annually to be 3.18 cu km. Using the mean annual Winooski discharge data from a prior lab, I then calculated the total runoff volume, which was 1.62 cu km per year. This means that 50.9% of rainfall in the Winooski River drainage basin runs off. Much of this "missing" water is taken up by trees and plants and evapotranspired back into the atmosphere. A small amount of this water will be absorbed into the soil and leave the basin as groundwater.

The mean annual dissolved and suspended loads were calculated using the average of the minimal amount of data we have for TDS and suspended solids in the Winooski. The annual dissolved load is 48.24 Mg/yr*km^2 and the annual suspended load is 47.80 Mg/yr*km^2. These loads are very similar and both are significantly smaller than the rates of mass removal in the Cuban basins reported in GSA Today. Tectonic uplift in Cuba drives channel incision and the exposure of bedrock by providing weatherable materials that get washed out of river basins.