Flooding the Grand Canyon… on purpose!
Every few years, the U.S. Department of Interior purposefully floods the Grand Canyon by opening large tubes in the Glen Canyon Dam, allowing 300,000 gallons of water per second to pass through the dam and flood the Colorado River downstream. This is equivalent to 1.3 million garden hoses and could fill the Empire State Building in 20 minutes.
Since the dam was built in 1963, 98% of the sediment carried downstream by the Colorado river has been lost, blocked by the dam. So the manmade flood delivers this rich sedimentary residue downstream and restores natural sandbars that are essential to native plant and fish species.
Leave a Reply