https://e360.yale.edu/features/neptune-pass-louisiana-mississippi-delta
"Like most people during the pandemic, Alex Kolker found himself with extra
time on his hands. A coastal geologist at the Louisiana Universities Marine
Consortium, Kolker studies the Mississippi River Delta, and his work often
involves surveying the watershed’s ever-changing wetlands and bays through the
window of a small airplane. In 2021, with such research trips out of the
question, Kolker did the next best thing — he conducted a flyover of the Delta
on his computer screen, via satellite imagery. That was when he saw something
peculiar.
At a location about 70 river miles south of downtown New Orleans, adjacent to
the small shrimping community of Buras, Kolker zoomed in on a large breach
between the Mississippi and Breton Sound, the shallow saltwater bay that shapes
the top of Louisiana’s foot. The cut, called Neptune Pass, was wide — too wide
for Kolker not to have recognized it before.
To preserve the shipping channel and protect communities and infrastructure
from flooding, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constantly dredges and
maintains a more or less continuous levee system on both sides of the
Mississippi throughout its Delta — except in the area of Neptune Pass. Here,
where there is little human settlement and even less solid ground, the river’s
east bank is relatively untouched. It’s also prone to breaching. Kolker wasn’t
sure if Neptune Pass was a natural crevasse or manmade. But he knew that prior
to 2019, it had been small — no wider than 150 feet.
The Mississippi’s flow in 2019 had been exceptionally high due to
record-setting precipitation, and Kolker surmised that the added water pressure
likely contributed to the widening of Neptune Pass. When he was finally able to
conduct an onsite survey of the crevasse last May, he discovered that it had
expanded to 850 feet. And its depth, once no more than 20 feet, had plunged to
between 40 and 80 feet. In one area, it reached 100 feet."
Via
Future Crunch:
<
https://futurecrunch.com/good-news-abortion-mexico-vaccine-indonesia-conservation-alaska/>
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
