The photo that I took yesterday didn't do justice to the Animas, so today I went for a run on Animas City Mountain, and took photos from about a thousand feet above the river.
Showing the meanders and oxbow lakes:
My campus is just on the high terrace across the valley, just off the right side of the image.
Looking northeast, showing the transition from a braided stream to a meandering stream. The valley bottom is flat because a lake formed as the glacier melted, and its water was trapped behind the end moraine:
The big rockfall is across the valley from this trail. I've got a zoomed-in photo of it, as well.
And the source of the water is still visible to the north, barely. The snow is going fast, but I'm glad I'm not trying to do field work above treeline yet.
Discharge when I took the picture was about 5500 cfs, according to the USGS. It dropped again this evening, but it's still above 5000 cfs. It's still supposed to be warm tomorrow, and then a storm system is coming through. Might snow on Thursday, and then rain through Sunday.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
The Animas from above
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3 comments:
Wow! That's a really beautiful area that you live and work in. I think I've only just flown over it once, maybe - probably farther to the south.
Beautiful meanders!
Silver Fox - it's a difficult town to get to. (It's a four-hour drive to the nearest interstate, in Albuquerque. Six or seven hours to Salt Lake City, and the same time (but higher passes) to Denver.)
ScienceWoman - it's a textbook-quality meandering river. (Literally - it's the centerpiece of one page of Exploring Geology, a new intro textbook.)
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