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Too Thick to Drink, Too Thin to Plow
Spanish missionary Fray Francisco Garces, while exploring the region in 1776, named the river Rio Colorado -- Colorado River -- inspired by its reddish color.
Before Glen Canyon Dam was built, the Colorado River was free-flowing. It carried 86 million tons of sediment through Grand Canyon every year.
The clear green water that flows through Grand Canyon today is sediment-starved. Choked back by Glen Canyon Dam, the sediments settle to the bottom of Lake Powell.
A muddy Colorado River echoes its former character, carrying sediment delivered by flooding tributaries downstream of Glen Canyon Dam. |