Dried lake bed cracks as the Colorado River cuts a new channel through years of lake sediment deposits near Hite, Utah. The drying mud develops cracks up to five feet deep. Water levels in the Lake Powell reservoir, created by Glen Canyon Dam, have droppe

Dried lake bed cracks as the Colorado River cuts a new channel through years of lake sediment deposits near Hite, Utah. The drying mud develops cracks up to five feet deep. Water levels in the Lake Powell reservoir, created by Glen Canyon Dam, have dropped by some 100 feet in the last three years of driought in the West. Now with low water the river is eroding those lake sediments and washing them further into Lake Powell, geologist Dr. John C. Dohrenwend asserts. He is studying the creation of the Colorado River's delta at Lake Powell and the erosion and motion of sediments into the lake. Dohrenwend, a retired U.S. Geological Survey geologist, fears the sediment flow may fill the reservoir more quickly than the builders of the Glen Canyon Dam thought. This would reduce the storage capacity of the reservoir and possibly compromise the dam itself. (Kevin Moloney for the New York Times)

Add to Cart Add to Lightbox Download

Filename: Powell_Mud_05.tif
Copyright: © Kevin Moloney, 2004
Image Size: 5592x3699 / 51.4MB; sport fish sail ski recreation travel boat National Park Service park national park Glen Canyon National Recreation Area Glen Canyon Dam dam Bureau of Reclamation agriculture landscape garden lawn suburb subdivision house development growth Colorado River river aquifer pipe pipeline reservoir water desert
Contained in galleries: Utah

Dried lake bed cracks as the Colorado River cuts a new channel through years of lake sediment deposits near Hite, Utah. The drying mud develops cracks up to five feet deep. Water levels in the Lake Powell reservoir, created by Glen Canyon Dam, have dropped by some 100 feet in the last three years of driought in the West. Now with low water the river is eroding those lake sediments and washing them further into Lake Powell, geologist Dr. John C. Dohrenwend asserts. He is studying the creation of the Colorado River's delta at Lake Powell and the erosion and motion of sediments into the lake. Dohrenwend, a retired U.S. Geological Survey geologist, fears the sediment flow may fill the reservoir more quickly than the builders of the Glen Canyon Dam thought. This would reduce the storage capacity of the reservoir and possibly compromise the dam itself. (Kevin Moloney for the New York Times)