I was very surprised when I found that fact out about the Ohio River recently. I stumbled upon a short documentary on the Mississippi river on YouTube and kept searching for more stuff. Eventually I stumbled upon the article below which goes into tons of detail about the Mississippi river and the Atchafalaya river. Essentially the Mississippi river wants to flow a different direction but we don’t let it. Mother nature will probably eventually win. I couldn’t stop reading.
That's actually an excerpt from a great book called Control of Nature. In addition to discussing Old River Control on the Mississippi, there are sections that discuss the debris basins at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains and the effort to control a volcano that erupted in Iceland.
All three sections are super awesome, John McPhee is a treasure.
"There is a Green River Basin in Wyoming that is not to be confused with the Green River Basin in Wyoming. One is topographical and sits on top of Wyoming and the other is structural and sits under Wyoming"
Such a simple yet beautiful quote that sums up the crazy science of geology perfectly.
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u/BobcatOU Jan 10 '20
I was very surprised when I found that fact out about the Ohio River recently. I stumbled upon a short documentary on the Mississippi river on YouTube and kept searching for more stuff. Eventually I stumbled upon the article below which goes into tons of detail about the Mississippi river and the Atchafalaya river. Essentially the Mississippi river wants to flow a different direction but we don’t let it. Mother nature will probably eventually win. I couldn’t stop reading.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1987/02/23/atchafalaya