NYT: A River Cuts a New Course, Leaving a New Hampshire Town High and Dry

[Up2Late]

(Does this qualify as Evolution? This is so weird. If anyone has a "good before and after" map, please post it!)

A River Cuts a New Course, Leaving a New Hampshire Town High and Dry

C. J. Gunther for The New York Times

David Wunsch, right, the New Hampshire state geologist, examined an area where the Suncook River once flowed. Chad Wittkop, left, a hydrogeologist, and Frederick Chormann Jr., a geologist, joined him.

By KATIE ZEZIMA
Published: May 29, 2006

EPSOM, N.H., May 25 — Nicholas Tilton and Jamie Lucier's wedding ceremony was supposed to be held outside an old lumber mill here on May 20, with a waterfall on the Suncook River serving as the perfect backdrop. The river, however, had other plans, and chose not to show up.

A week before the wedding, the Suncook River jumped its banks and cut a new course during torrential rains and flooding, leaving a 1.52-mile stretch of what was once river close to empty. Now, the patio of the restaurant that replaced the mill is overlooking two dams and some rocks, all bone-dry.

State officials are still trying to determine why the river moved. One theory is that a man-made gravel pit near the river removed sediment that would have created a natural dam. Another is that the area contains a natural depression. Or it could be a combination of the two.

"It flooded over, but when the water receded it took the path of least resistance," said David Wunsch, the New Hampshire state geologist. "It found a path where it could get out of its channel and make a shortcut. Why it did — that is a question."

(more at link)

<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/29/us/29river.html?ex=1306555200&en=5b8135f1c194a650&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss>

[davidinalameda]

1. how neat

what an interesting article

thanks for posting this

[Up2Late]

3. Yes, except for this little endangered species problem I just found...

...I hate it when that happens.

Mussels lose their river home

By CHELSEA CONABOY
Monitor staff
May 23. 2006 8:00AM

When Susi Von Oettingen heard that the Suncook River had changed course in Epsom last week, her mind turned to mussels. The river's rocky, sandy bottom was just the kind of habitat that the endangered brook floater mussel prefers.

That stretch of the Suncook hadn't ever been surveyed, but Von Oettingen, an endangered species specialist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, thought she might find a few when she visited the spot Friday. Instead, she found hundreds.

"They were stuck in the sand," she said. "We were pulling some out alive. Some were dead."

Yesterday, about a dozen people, most from the wildlife service and the state Fish and Game Department, spent the afternoon rescuing the live ones, collecting them in plastic bags and bins and moving them to the federal fishery in Nashua. Officials hope to transfer them back to a place upstream on the Suncook once the town decides what to do with the diverted section and the waters calm down.

(more at link)

<http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060523/REPOSITORY/605230347>

[charlie]

2. Part of El Paso

includes freshly-minted US territory that came from Mexico when the Rio Grande moved southward after flooding in the mid to late 1800s. It took until 1963 to settle the resultant border disputes. Part of the solution was a concrete waterway that wouldn't move, since boundary treaties specified the middle of the river as the border.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamizal_dispute

[Up2Late]

4. It's a good thing that The Mississippi River isn't and international ...

... border. If you want to see evidence of a river changing it's course a bunch of times over the years, you should check out these NASA Satellite pictures.


Click the IR (721) picture <http://rapidfire.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/subsets/?USA7/2006138>


(the one that looks like this)

Then, if you have a fairly fast connection, click on the 250m resolution link at the top of the image, then check out the Louisiana/Mississippi and the Arkansas/Mississippi borders.

The very light black line is the state border, and all the little "Ox Bow" lakes and valleys are former courses of the river. I'm not sure how many of those Ox Bows were created by the Army Corp of Engineered, but not all of them were.

[charlie]

6. Yeah, lookit it go

It's funny that rivers would ever be codified as legal boundaries, leaving your territory vulnerable to redistricting by Act 'o God. A settlement of a border dispute due to the meandering Missouri has left an Iowan town entirely within the state of Nebraska. Weird.

http://www.iptv.org/IowaPathways/myPath.cfm?ounid=ob_000107

[liberal N proud]

7. Missori has an Air National Guard base that is on land in Kansas

The river changed course and left the airbase in a new state.

Rosecrans Airport: http://maps.google.com/maps?oi=map&q=Saint+Joseph,+MO


Rivers have always changed their course.

[endarkenment]

11. Rivers are frequently borders for many reasons.

For example: access to a vital water resource is far more important than which bits of dirt are yours or theirs. By putting the boundary in the middle of the river neither side can appropriate all the water for themselves.

[charlie]

14. Good point

Hadn't considered that. Still, it's comical when settlements wind up in other states or countries after a bit of bad weather -- "Git in the storm cellar and pray that we don't wake up in Nebraska!"

[northzax]

18. not to mention

in the days before GPS, they made for a nice, unarguable dividing line. until they move, of course.

[dbackjon]

13. Probably few, if any were created by the Corp

The Mississippi has been creating ox-bows for millenia - that is what happens when a river has a broad floodplain, and a small gradient.

[Psephos]

16. very cool...thanx n/t

[tn-guy]

23. Most of the oxbow lakes were created by the New Madrid earthquake

The New Madrid fault lies close to the Mississippi River. The next time there is a medium sized earthquake along that fault it will make post-Katrina New Orleans look like a picnic. The last earthquake there (in the 1800s) significantly altered the course of the Mississippi.

[Up2Late]

24. I felt an Earthquake in St. Louis back in 1987. They feel different...

from the quakes I felt in S. California in 1985-1986.

The ones I felt in California were a 4.2 "Roller" and about about a 4.0 "Thump" (Felt like someone who was holding up the house suddenly dropped it).

In St. Louis, it felt like a very heavy truck driving down a city street, a heavy vibration. The quake was a 5.4 I think, centered in Central Illinois.

[janx]

5. Rivers do that. n/t

[zann725]

10. Nature's been "doing that"...A LOT more lately worldwide(see Gore's movie)

I saw the film last night (along with a sold-out crowd) in a HUGE auditorium/theatre. The same huge theatre sold out the performance before, AND was lined round the block as I left after my viewing.

Scarey, scarey movie (and event in NH)....coming fast. NOT sensationalized, but heavily data-backed up and science-based. Happening world-wide.

This is no small thing...nor was the Tsunami, or Katrina, or increasing number of hurricanes here, and typhoons in Asia the last few years.

We need to not just stand by looking at a 'dry' river bed...we 'might refill.' We need to "get off our butts and ACT NOW" as Gore says...in every way we can.

[northzax]

19. nothing to do with climate change

the river made a hook around the town, taking a 90 degree turn east, followed by one south, then back west and finally south.

check out the googlemaps sat image of the town: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=epsom,+NH&ll=43.217398,-71.354576&spn=0.037905,0.077248&t=k&om=1

that's not uncommon for rivers to do, but since water prefers to go straight (and given the speed changes in the flow of rivers) it's only a matter of time before it straightens itself out.

[Tesha]

8. They're considering "putting it back"

One of the mroe interesting aspects of this (to me,
a student of the human condition and psyche) is that
they're considering "putting it back". I can't decide
if this is foolish or not, but it sure serves as a
powerful proof of humanity's over-inflated ego and
need to feel like we're in control.

Tesha

[Coventina]

9. I might be in favor of "putting it back"

the article seemed to indicate that it may have changed because of human-induced changes to the landscape. If that is the case, and the endangered mussels need protection, I would be in favor of putting it back.

[davidinalameda]

21. I doubt that they could put it back without harming the mussels further

I would think that some of the mussels or mussel larva would have been in the river when it flooded and then receded

if the water overflows its banks, I would think that it would be strong enough to tear some of the mussels from their spots

[cyberpj]

12. Any Cayce fans here? As things get worse, faster.......

Cayce predicted major Earth changes which would result in major changes to the East Coast AND that the Great Lakes would one day flood and run all the way down and out into the Gulf of Mexico, actually separating the country.

[jwirr]

15. The "why" is probably easy. When I was small I watched a

flooding river move a iron bridge and the banks around it in seconds. Whatever gets in the way of a raging river will move and that could include a once substantial embankment that kept the old boundaries stable. Once removed the river would naturally follow the path of least resistance.

[Up2Late]

17. They have a great new show on "The Weather Channel" called...

..."It could Happen Tomorrow" (O.K., Yes, I'm a weather geek).

I think it was the first show where they showed a over-flowing river, sweeping cars and trucks out of a small British town. It was kind of amazing, the power of all that water.

[jwirr]

22. It was - but then I was at the top of the hill and safe. I love the power

of nature even when we see the distruction it can sometimes do.

[underpants]

20. I *HATE* when that happens

Actually this could be yet another example of mothernature's self defense mechanism kicking in only this time it missed.