Kautz Creek is a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

of the

Nisqually River The Nisqually River is a river in west central Washington in the United States, approximately long. It drains part of the Cascade Range southeast of Tacoma, including the southern slope of Mount Rainier, and empties into the southern end of Pu ...

, flowing from the

Kautz Glacier The Kautz Glacier is a narrow glacier on the southern flank of Mount Rainier in Washington. Named for August Kautz, who is sometimes credited for the first ascent of Mount Rainier, covers and contains 7.8 billion ft3 (221 million m3) of ice. U ...

, with its watershed in the

Mount Rainier National Park Mount Rainier National Park is an American national park located in southeast Pierce County and northeast Lewis County in Washington state. The park was established on March 2, 1899, as the fourth national park in the United States, preservi ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. It drains southwest from

Mount Rainier Mount Rainier (), indigenously known as Tahoma, Tacoma, Tacobet, or təqʷubəʔ, is a large active stratovolcano in the Cascade Range of the Pacific Northwest, located in Mount Rainier National Park about south-southeast of Seattle. With a s ...

for about before it joins the Nisqually River near Mount Rainier Highway. It is notable for being a severe

flood A flood is an overflow of water ( or rarely other fluids) that submerges land that is usually dry. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Floods are an area of study of the discipline hydrol ...

ing hazard due to the volume of summer glacier melt and its frequently changing course. The Kautz Creek Falls on the headwaters of the creek was formed by the retreat of the Kautz Glacier in the past 50 years. Kautz Creek was named after A. V. Kautz, an army officer and mountain climber.

Hydrology

The channel of Kautz Creek is very steep and narrow, because it has eroded through the relatively soft material that the lahars and mudflows have deposited. The creek flows in a trench that is wide and up to deep, and its course often changes during floods.

Lahars

The creek is notorious for its history of severe

s and

mudflow A mudflow or mud flow is a form of mass wasting involving fast-moving flow of debris that has become liquified by the addition of water. Such flows can move at speeds ranging from 3 meters/minute to 5 meters/second. Mudflows contain a significa ...

s. On October 2 and 3, 1947, heavy rains triggered a ''jökulhaup'' (

glacial lake outburst flood A glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) is a type of outburst flood caused by the failure of a dam containing a glacial lake. An event similar to a GLOF, where a body of water contained by a glacier melts or overflows the glacier, is called a jö ...

) from the Kautz Glacier- the largest flood after the establishment of the park. The flood (similar to a volcanic

lahar A lahar (, from jv, ꦮ꧀ꦭꦲꦂ) is a violent type of mudflow or debris flow composed of a slurry of pyroclastic material, rocky debris and water. The material flows down from a volcano, typically along a river valley. Lahars are extreme ...

) moved of earth and boulders of up to in diameter for . It buried the Nisqually-Longmire Road under of debris, and carved a canyon deep. Other large debris flows have occurred in the Kautz Creek watershed in 1961, 1985, and 1986, with small debris flows occurring more frequently. The creek also jumped its banks in November 2006, destroying parts of the Kautz Creek Trail.

References

{{authority control Rivers of Washington (state) Rivers of Pierce County, Washington