Black River (Arkansas)

Up until now, every one of my entries had covered one specific location.  This is the first multi-location post I've made and that fact is sort of poking my OCD in the head with a pointy stick.  Instead of a single point with a single lat/long, I'm dealing with three points on a non-straight line and three lat/longs (specifically three confluences involving 4 rivers).  Not ONLY that, each separate location's gif cycles through a different number of images over unmatched lengths of time.  It is complete chaos as far as neatness and consistency go.

Unfortunately, the only alternatives would have been to split this post into three separate posts (at my biweekly schedule, this would take up over a month) OR to cut out two of the locations and just go with one of them (but that would make this feature seem much less special).

And we're all about special.

This is why this post is called Black River (Arkansas).  Each feature here occurs at a confluence with the Black River in Arkansas.  Starting upstream, this includes:

• The Black River and the Current River at Pocahontas, AR
• The Black River and the Spring River at Black Rock, AR
• The Black River and the White River at Jacksonport, AR

At each confluence, the two rivers coming together show two distinct colors.  This isn't an uncommon occurrence considering many rivers travel through a variety of soils at different flow rates, pick up different run-off, and have different chemistries and biological features (all of which can change with the climate and seasons).  It only makes sense that the color of each river would be somewhat different based on all of these factors.  What I like about the Black River is the apparent misnomer.  Firstly, it is not some exceptionally dark river or anything.  I hear "Black River" and I expect this thing to look like a stream of crude oil.  Secondly, with such distinctly colored confluences, I think this river really should have been called the "Prismatic River" or the "Earthy Hues River"; really anything other than "Black River" would have been better.

It's been a while since I've written so much in one post.  I think most readers skip to the gifs right away, but if you've been reading all of this you must be quite the scholar and I thank you for hearing me out.

Black River and Current River:

Black River and Spring River:

Black River and White River:

You can find them yourself on Google Earth using these coords:

• 36°15'10" N    90°54'45" W
• 36°06'50" N    91°04'25" W
• 35°38'20" N    91°19'20" W  

More info from: Wikipedia

Check back for more in two weeks!

Jackson, Mississippi

I'm a pretty big fan of oxbow lakes (and the process of their formation!)  Unfortunately, oxbow lakes probably don't have a lot of "fans" and probably don't even hold most folks' attention for more than a few minutes.  However, I'd like to argue that they really should.  Why?

1) They can happen in your lifetime!  Unlike mountain building, continental rifting, volcanic island-chain formation, and ice age cycles, oxbow lakes can easily form and change the physical geography of a place in a relatively short amount of time.  They share a category in this regard with things like glacial retreat and natural disasters (only the implications of a meander cutoff aren't as dooming, so there's another plus.)

2) They ignore the petty politics of geographical borders.  Thinking about splitting from your neighbors?  Why not use the nearby stream as the geographical border between your newly divided lands?  That's easier than having to put up a fence, right?  Think again!  That stream might decide to move at some point!  What happens when that fancy apple orchard growing inside the meander gets cut off and ends up on your neighbor's side of the stream?  Who owns your precious apples now???

3) They're all about taking shortcuts.  Who doesn't love a shortcut?  Point A and Point B will briefly be a little closer together before the continuous erosion of cut banks extend the remaining meanders outwards.

4) They influenced my decision to keep this blog going.  Last time I blogged about a meander cutoff it spread all over Google+ and Twitter and was shared by a number of other science and non-science bloggers.  To this day, that blog entry is my most popular – being viewed almost 100x more than my next highest viewed entry.  I'm extremely proud of this, and it was one of the reasons I kept this blog going.  Oxbow lakes saved my life blog!

That lengthy introduction was to lead up to this new oxbow lake blog entry!  The occurrence is just south of Jackson, Mississippi on the Pearl River and looks great in this imagery:

Here's a good example of county boundaries (shown as the thin green line and probably designated over a century ago) that were ignored by the Pearl River:

You can find it yourself on Google Earth using these coordinates:     32°11'20"N  90°12'00"W  

More info: Wikipedia

Check back in two weeks to see a large scar in Wisconsin!

Aq Qala, Iran

Unfortunately, I don't have a whole lot of information to associate with this imagery.  I was browsing Google Earth with my free time and exploring northern Iran when I came across a flood just outside of the city of Aq Qala in the Golestan province.  I tried looking up "March 2012 Golestan floods" and other related search terms but couldn't find anything in particular that detailed the extent of the flooding.  If you happen to find anything, feel free to leave a comment below.

What is most notable about this image to me is the extent of flooding in the low-lying farms south of the main river channel.  You can see how the flood waters travelled up a small tributary stream that connects to the river in the northeast portion of the image.

The following gif shows June 2003, September 2007, October 2012, and March 2012:

You can find it yourself on Google Earth using these coords:     37°00'N  54°30'E  

More info from sources referenced: Wikipedia

Check back in two weeks to explore another oxbow lake formation in the Deep South!

Angleton, Texas

So, like the recently discovered Higgs Boson particle, I too had my own elusive and greatly searched for geographical breakthrough.  It begins like this:


Years ago when Google Earth first added the time-slider tool, which makes my entire blog possible, I realized that one of the best uses for this tool would be for tracking geomorphological change.  I, and others like me, had found various changes like landslides and sinkholes, but the evidence pointed to an opportunity for more undiscovered geographical features.  I theorized that the most elusive of these was the formation of an oxbow lake.  My research took me to many of the world's major rivers such as the Amazon and the Nile.  However, satellite imagery in these areas was lacking and lead to inconclusive research.  I headed to the United States where satellite imagery and aerial photographs date farther back and are regarded as some of the most complete in the world.  I checked the Mississippi and Missouri rivers, being large and powerful.  Unfortunately, these rivers are artificially repaired and protected, so data had to be thrown out.  I began searching smaller rivers left and right, but finding this elusive oxbow lake formation was going to be like finding a needle in a haystack.
But then, while focusing in a random area south of my home, I found an oxbow lake that looked promising.  I slid the time-slider backwards and behold, I had discovered the elusive oxbow lake formation!  I contacted my colleague and showed him my discovery.  He agreed, this was without a doubt the formation of an oxbow lake on the Brazos River!

For those who don't appreciate satire: That was me telling you that I found an oxbow lake in various stages of formation.  It took me a long time to find so I want you to acknowledge my hard work.  That is all.

Dec 1944

Jan 1995

Feb 2004

Jan 2006

Feb 2010

You can find it yourself on Google Earth using these coords:      29°15'34.29"N     095°34'08.85"W

More info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxbow_lake

Check back next week to see my first Hawaii post!