While driving pressure controls clog length, particle volume fraction controls clog width and location. There is a φ -dependent shift in the location of clogs in the tapered channels. The longest clogs are positioned downstream of the channels when the flow driving pressure is high and particle volume fraction is low. However, increasing particle volume fraction shifts the location of the longest clogs upstream. Long discontinuous clogs are only formed in less constricted areas of the channels, as volume fraction increases. As a result, the force chains that must be overcome to grow long clogs increase substantially as particle volume fraction increases. Furthermore, our results suggest a more nuanced understanding of the three primary clogging mechanisms typically discussed in the context of colloidal clogging. As expected, clogging by bridging is observed in regions of the tapered channels that span several particle widths. However, in wider regions of the channels, the probability of clogging by bridging decreases, especially due to low particle flux conditions. Interestingly, clogs still occur in regions of the channel up to 9 particles wide. Even in pristine conditions, single particle adhesion events can occur, likely induced by van der Waals forces rather than electrostatics. These events are sometimes observed to provide a nucleation site for a clog to eventually fill the cross-section in these wider regions of the channels. The appearance of the critical pressure, therefore, may reflect the driving pressure overcoming or preventing either the force chains across a simultaneously formed bridge or the force chain that would be formed by the final particle(s) to reach and complete a clogging arch.