Ocmulgee River

A graphical representation of the elevation in the Ocmulgee River

The Ocmulgee River is an important source of drinking water for the people of Macon. The river provides clean water for homes and business, and its waterfront is a recreational area for many. Our class visited this river to measure the elevation and flow rate on either side of the sandbar. We used two poles and a string to measure the elevation in the river. We dropped an orange in the river, on each side of the sandbar, and timed it to measure the flow rate.

It was very interesting for me to know that some Mercer students advocated for the construction of the Ocmulgee Heritage Trail which is the only riverside trail and park system in Middle Georgia.

This transformed environment has become suitable for walking, biking, boating, bird watching and other activities.

A Reflection on the Mystery of Mega-floods

For our Environmental Biology lab on September 11, we watch a documentary that reveals the power of nature. In the video "Mystery of the Mega-floods", we saw that nature has changed our planet in many ways: It is believed that great land marks, including those of  the channel scabland of eastern Washington State and the Grand Canyon in Arizona, were formed by mega-floods.

According to the video, the potholes, ripples, and giant stones found in the channel scabland made scientist to wonder about the cause of such an unusual landscape.

The geologist Harlen Bretz was the first to mention that such landscape was caused by giant floods; however, he could not prove where the flood may have come from.

Later in the years, scientists agreed that the unusual land marks in the channel scabland was formed by floods from Glacial Lake Missoula. By checking the age of different ash layers, it was believed that the unusual landscape of the channel scabland was actually formed by more than a single flood. This land was hit by mega floods many times.

According to the theory explained in the video, large ice dams can block rivers and cause the formation of lakes. As water bubbles make way through cracks in an ice dam, super cooled water can cause friction which cause bigger cracks in ice sheets. As this process continues, ice dams may collapse and give way to a huge volume of water. Such water body can move at very high spread, carrying rocks and carving up cliffs. Under water tornadoes can cause bobbles of water to penetrate the soil and create enormous pot holes. This is the explanation given for the unusual landscape seen in channel scabland of eastern Washington State.