The Power of Water

What force in nature could have snapped a railroad track into two pieces, moved this 1/2 ton boulder for miles, and tossed this piece of concrete around like a toy? I will give you a hint. I took these pictures while standing in a dry creek bed. When the rains come in the winter, many tiny drops of water come together to make rivulets. These rivulets join together, rushing down a mountain, and become creeks. The creeks flow further down the slope, and grow into a rushing river.

Have you ever seen a news story about someone who thought it might be exciting to float down the Los Angeles River during a big storm? Someone jumps in expecting a fun ride; but, then they wind up almost drowning, and having to be rescued by a helicopter. It is hard to imagine how much energy is possessed by a flooding river.

Imagine that a raindrop weighs the same as a popcorn kernel. That’s pretty light. Now think about holding a bag or jar of popcorn kernels. Now imagine the
weight of 1,000,000 jars of popcorn. That would be enough weight to break this railroad track, to push (transport) this boulder, and to bend that piece of iron on top of the concrete. Objects are broken off, moved a distance, and then are deposited or placed in different areas. This process is called deposition. Deposition and other processes change the surface of the Earth. Some of these changes are relatively slow, and some happen very quickly. Do you think it took minutes, days, years or centuries to move this boulder down the mountain?

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