Ricardo Aguilar 

Delmar  Patton

Physical Geology

Sunday, November 8

                                                                       Running Water

 

Hello guys! I decide to go on a research journey to what it was the fifth or even, for some, the fourth most important river in North America. This is the “Rio Bravo” also known as  “Rio Grande” for people on the northern frontier of Mexico. This river has also delimited the border region between Mexico and the U.S, from El Paso Texas to the golf of the as which is the place this magnificent river ends forming a small delta.

With a length of approximately 2,000 miles it originates in the Rio Grande national forest at Colorado U.S, this happens as a result of the union of several streams at the bottom of mountain Canby. This river flows first east of the U.S country and then goes south to the state of New Mexico. The Rio Grande rests on the earth's surface over a rift in the earth's crust, in some areas where the land rose as other major rivers the impact of the velocity has shaped its channels. There is also a different texture of this river streams due in part to its vast landscape, as it is illustrated in the pictures attached to this journal. In its first section, the river makes its way through a forest of fir poplars and pines, but in the south, it begins to run into an arid terrain.  Such conditions make this river to accomplish two of the most important aspects of water streams, transportation, and deposition. Here in terms of erosion, it is important to mention that unlike other water streams the Rio Grande didn’t carve The Valley, this means that didn’t erode the land but simply flows through the rift. It is also important to mention that this river volume of the flow in many sections doesn’t make it navigable, just for small barges due to its shallow waters, which in some sections have built sandbanks also as part of its meandering conditions when flowing through the many valleys it runs. As we learned the presence of natural formation of sandbanks it is due to low flow and sedimentary accumulation that the river creates in some sections also as consequence of the effects of slow river velocity.  Unfortunately, there are some concerns about this water stream per capita water capacity. Years ago it was a great source of water supply for domestic and agricultural and commercial, in the 20th century the quality of the water deteriorated due to the agricultural irrigation that nowadays is considered among the most threatened in the region.  

 

It is clear that there is no way for navigation, at least at this part of the Rio Grande at the southern border of Texas U.S.

However, going further north in the same state of Texas we find a completely almost navigable water stream also part of the Rio Grande, as shown on the picture below