NPS Photo/Ann Wildermuth
Last summer I had the opportunity to visit Big Bend National Park in Texas. My family and I had a blast, specially my daughter. The river trip is a must. I was concerned at first, but floating the Rio Grande wasn't as scary as I thought it would be. It was actually a lot of fun. But there was a lot to learn as well. Rivers play a very important part in the geological process. Rivers are capable of carving big canyons and creating valleys. They erode, transport, deposit sediment and continually re-shape the surrounding land. This is all relative to the velocity of the water, for example fast flowing waters erode and transport more sediment than slow moving waters. I always thought that the flow of the water was just dependent on the slope but it is also dependent on the channel shape. Like the picture above, wide and flat surfaces slows the stream down, as opposed to more semi circular shapes, which don't have as much friction and resistance. Another detail we can observe from the picture above is the amount of sediment that has been deposited around the stream. This happens when a river looses the energy to transport the sediment, in other words it doesn't have the discharge to carry it, so it must deposit it. Running waters can be very interesting. Lots of studies are carry out to predict the effects rivers have in our surroundings. All of this transport and deposit of sediments is very important to maintain balance, alterations can affect the depths of waters in important navigational routes for transportations ships.
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