Let the River Run :: essays research papers

Things occur in nature, that we as humans sometimes prevent from occurring naturally.For pillowcase - a dyke on a river. Once beat into ingestion on a river, a dam simply stops or slowsdown the natural watercourse of the water. Sometimes this is for the better, however - sometimes,it is for the worse. This is the case in the voluptuous Canyon. Some rivers go through natural,periods of flooding and receding, at certain times of the year, or in occurrence with othergeographical events. For the get-go time in thirty years, in March 1996, flood irrigate ragesthrough the Grand Canyon. However, this was not the result of a natural flood. Thecarbon monoxide gas River would experience this same persona of man made flood, naturally. Thesefloods would occur any year during winter and spring rains. This water has beenreleased from an upstream dam. The dam was put into action in 1963. Since then, years ofenvironmental damage have a bun in the oven been adding up. Dams have been on t he river for nearly acentury - however, none were upstream of the Grand Canyon until this one was built in1963. Rivers have a tot up of processes involved in their everyday activities that allowthemselves and the land around them to flourish. When the flow of a river is disrupted, soare these processes. Rivers carry sediments. Along with carrying these sediments, theyalso desexualise them, usually onto surrounding land areas. This deposition occurs when theflow of the water slows down. The issue forth of sediment a river is carrying generally givescolor to its appearance. Before this dam was built, the conscientious objector River possessed acloudy, rust color. Now, when the water is stopped at this dam, over 90 percent of itssediment is dropped. As a result - this gives the river a crystal clear appearance. Anotherresult of the need of sediment, is the beach erosion that is occurring. Some beaches haveeroded to over one-half of their original size. This erosion is happening be cause the beachesdepended on the annual floods to bring them a continuous supply of fresh, fine sand. Thedam is trapping a mass of the sand. There are small tributary rivers that flowuninhibited into the Colorado River below the dam, they bring some sediment - but notenough. As well as these beaches depending on the floods - the rapids in the river, havethis same type of dependence. Here, the floods would clear any debris from between theboulders, an area that is now choked.