Sunday, July 22, 2018

Travels to the Hoover Dam


Mike and I at the top of the bridge overlooking the Hoover Dam
Photo by Lucy Loli

Taken from the bridge overlooking the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead
Notice the levels of water from the coloration in the surrounding rocks.
Photo taken by Julia Loli

Recently, (June) my husband I had the opportunity to travel to the Hoover Dam in Nevada/Arizona. It was a unique sight and also a very fun trip! It was also amazing to learn that the people who built the dam had to first redirect the water into four channels (it would be mighty hard to build something with running water in the way!) I am amazed by this engineering feat for many reasons including how they redirected water to how they used water pipes within the concrete to help it set faster.

“The Hoover Dam fulfilled the goal of disseminating the one-wild Colorado River through the parched Southwest landscape, fueling the development of such major cities as Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Phoenix. Capable of irrigating 2 million acres, its 17 turbines generate enough electricity to power 1.3 million homes.” (History Channel.Com). I find it amazing that we have found a way to harness the power of running water and power the surrounding cities. We constantly see rivers erode channels they flow in (like the grand canyon- which I also had the opportunity to go visit!) but I think forget about how we can use that power for something amazing!

Also while we were at the Hoover Dam we were able to see how low the water has been in recent years compared to when the Dam was first built. That took us back as we started to realize that we have less water than we thought! We also can learn a lot from the rocks left in a riverbed based on the color of the rock once the water is gone. (Look at the Grand Cannon again for more evidence of this)

History.com Staff. (2010). Hoover Dam. Retrieved from https://www.history.com/topics/hoover-dam




No comments:

Post a Comment