A rainy day brought to my attention a river on the Lafayette campus. With the heavy rains this past week all of the roads on campus became a river of rainwater and leaves. The river followed the natural slope of the hill, flowing down in the direction of Easton. Like the Delaware, the road-river picked up objects along the way and they got caught in corners around the outside of the bend.
Heading down to Fisher Stadium, I noticed these crevices within the wood chips on the curb. I realized that the heavy flow of water downhill from the rain that poured earlier caused these to form. The flowing water was strong enough to make its own pathway within the wood chips, just how rivers create their own pathways on Earth’s landscape.
I found an NPR article about how irrigation for farming could lead to many rivers being dried up. For example, many streams in Colorado and Kansas were no longer “functioning”, as in they were all dried up and the only thing there was a dirt path. These waterways get their water partially front groundwater, but farmers have been interfering through irrigation. The deep wells that have been drilled in already pretty dry areas, so when crops are grown there, the land becomes drier. Since it doesn’t rain a lot there, the plants grow by pulling water up through the ground. Farmers also pump water, so much so that the water table as fallen drastically. This has made it so the water cannot flow into the rivers anymore. The article mentions this happening in many other places too, such as California, India, and China. I think this is one example of the relationship between us and rivers. In this case, how our actions affect rivers and how changes in the river can affect us too.
If you walk around campus at night, you cannot help but to notice these grey spotted spiders around campus. I see them every night around Pardee and Farinon. If you look above the doors, usually near lightining, you’ll see many of these grey spotted spiders. Personally I hate spider so seeing numerous amounts of them makes my skin crawl. I wonder if these spiders are native to Easton, or are they like the spotted lantern flies around campus? This just makes me realize how much nature there is around campus. You just have to take a second to observe how much life there is around us.
While doing some research about the River Thames for the Storymap project, I learned that it is named as one of the cleanest rivers in all of Europe. However, about 70 years ago, it was considered to be a lost cause due to the World War II bombings. Methane gas was able to seep into the river and the toxins were even able to destroy the propellers off boats. England was able to get its act together to clean up the river through the next couple of decades.
The Chattahoochee is one of many rivers in Georgia. I grew up in Gwinnett County, which lies right next to the river. The Chattahoochee supplies Metro Atlanta with 70% of its drinking water, and works as a natural border between Georgia, Alabama, and some of Florida. It also acts as a border for many counties in Georgia. When I was younger, every summer, my family and I used to make trips up to Helen, Georgia to go tubing in the Chattahoochee.
While doing research on rivers online, I read an article about how tributaries of the Lackawanna and Susquehanna Rivers have both been damaged by acid from abandoned mine projects. Holes dug in the tributaries create water up flow that stains the water and rocks touching it. I thought this was an interesting subject and I didn’t know that this problem was so big in Pennsylvania.
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