The Power of Water

This boulder measures about three feet thick and about four feet aross. The tree trunk next to it measures about 2 feet wide and ten feet long. That iron pipe measures about 5 inches across and about six feet long. What force in nature could have moved all of these objects? I will give you a hint. I took this picture 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, rush down mountains, 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 fun to float down the Los Angeles River during a big storm and they wound up 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 to push or transport this boulder, tree trunk, and pipe across the land. The objects move 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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