For my blog post, I decided to go to a meeting about hydrology in the Grand Canyon. The meeting took place on March 27th in the Francis Marion hotel. The reason I chose to do my blog post on this speech is that hydrology and geology are fairly similar, and both interest me. For those who don’t know what hydrology is, it’s the study of the movement and properties of water. The lecture was done by women named Laura J. Crossey who is a professor at the University of New Mexico. She works in the department of Earth and planetary sciences and teaches geosciences at the university.
The lecture started out by explaining the different unconformities and rock types found in the Grand Canyon. All 3 types of unconformities can be found and the main rocks the canyon are made out of are limestone, shale, and sandstone. She went onto to explain these rock types are what cause the rivers distinctive color. The little Colorado river has a system of springs that run into the Grand Canyon. When the water first surfaces, it’s clear green. The farther down it goes, the more it becomes brown.
She also talked about carbonic springs that flow into the river system. A lot of people (including me) didn’t know that there are actually young volcanos forming near the Grand Canyon. Volcanos are one of the main distributors for carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. These springs absorb the co2 which makes the water more acidic. Professor Crossey said it didn’t necessarily make it harmful for humans to touch but definitely suggested not to drink it. She then referred back to the little Colorado Springs and how local towns drinking water usually came from those areas and not near the carbonic springs. Since this is a natural process, there’s nothing we can do to stop it at this time. If the co2 issue continued and spread in that area, there could soon be a problem of where they could get there drinking water from. A higher carbon presence within the water could also be very destructive to the microorganisms in it and possibly larger animals in the environment.
The Grand Canyon is a large tourist attraction year-round. It nearly brings in 5 million people per year and is not getting any less popular. Professor Crossey explained that this high amount of traffic coming through the Grand Canyon could have a negative effect on the area. She then talked about how the hotels in the local area are starting to hurt the groundwater and spring systems in the Grand Canyon. A water treatment plant is helping expand the possible usage of the Grand Canyon as an aquifer, but the rise in tourism in the future might call for further action in order to keep the canyon safe.
In recent years, companies have begun to mine the Grand Canyon for its uranium. This is a big deal because of the contamination it could cause to the river below. Some companies have been known to make promises to the surrounding local towns that all waste is properly disposed of. Unfortunately, these towns later find that the promise of safe and responsible waste disposal was not upheld on part of the company. This ultimately results in contamination and pollution of the surrounding area and detrimental health effects to the wildlife. There are also Indian reservations downstream from the mining site which could hurt their community if anything was to happen.