Monday, November 27, 2017

Bonus: Spokane River and Hangman Creek confluence

Here, I want to show you something:



I'm just saying.  When Hangman gets up to peak flow it's powerful.






Very powerful. This is at eye level. It can remove a lot of sand very quickly, too.






Or deposit it. I'm standing with my back to the river where the old mouth of the creek was. The strip of red willow shoots to the left was the old creek bank. The river is so powerful that it slows the flow of the creek enough for some of the sediment to settle at the confluence.






The creek mouth was much farther to the right,


And the banks were somewhat steeper.






The creek can discharge up to 8000 cfs in spring. Sometimes it tops 20,000 cfs. That's a lot of water to just pile up.






And as you can see, Hangman carries a lot of sediment.






The river isn't even 'up' yet and it's keeping the creek back just fine.











This tree was flooded this spring. The mud shows the high water mark.


This is how far the river bank is now.





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