Science And Society

Doesn’t Water Flow Downhill?

9 Comments

I just saw a report on concerns among Gulf-shore residents about oil from the Gulf infiltrating the wetlands.

It’s springtime, right? It’s flooding a couple states north of there. The rivers are all flowing outward through the deltas. Short of major on-shore winds, how would this happen?

I should add, that they should be happy that this didn’t happen in hurricane season. Of course, if they don’t stop staunch the flow soon, it will be.

[Update a while later]

D’oh!

Per comments, I forgot tides. As a someone familiar with orbital mechanics, do I feel stupid?

Do you really need to ask?

9 thoughts on “Doesn’t Water Flow Downhill?”

  1. Unfortunately this accident happened at the worst possible time. Just when people were actually considering to begin oil exploration at the coast of California, to support sea drilling near a state known for its beaches is now tantamount to political suicide.
    Even if it is the appropriate route to follow no politician with any measure of self-preservation instinct will do it.
    As for New Orleans it is a shame. Such a charming city (worth visiting even if just for the French Quarter) hit by two calamities in so short a time.

  2. It will take a week or more for the floodwaters of Tennessee to get south of New Orleans. In the meantime, you’re dealing with tidal estuaries, where the current flows in at every high tide.

  4. Thanks to my advanced U.S. Navy training, I’m pretty sure that the tide rolls in twice a day no matter which way the rivers are running…

  7. I live in New Orleans. Many of our marshes are a very interesting confluence of fresh water and sea water. There are some fishing locations where you can catch a large mouth bass on one cast, and then a speckled trout on the next cast. (Down here, “speckled trout” is the name we give to a saltwater species which might be known elsewhere as the “spotted sea trout”.)

    Here’s another interesting example. Most people know that the actual mouth of the Mississippi River is a good 60+ miles down river from New Orleans. Yet, when the river level is low and the tides are high, a “salt water wedge” can work its way up the river, and bring salt water species all the way up to New Orleans. I’ve heard about river anglers catching salt water species (the aforementioned “speckled trout”) in the vicinity of Jackson Square.

    —Tom Nally

  8. So I just saw this video via Glenn. Some are suggesting the slow response to this oil spill is “Obama’s Katrina”. Heck, Matt Drudge is trying really hard to push that meme.

    The real comparison to Katrina is what is going on in Nashville, and as the video suggests, it really isn’t being discussed by anybody at a national level. There’s a lot of people, who should be embarrassed that the plight in Nashville is not getting the attention it deserves.

  9. There’s a lot of people, who should be embarrassed that the plight in Nashville is not getting the attention it deserves.

    And there are all kinds of reasons — none of them legitimate of course — why Nashville isn’t getting the attention it deserves.

    Starting with: “There’s no way to blame it on Bush (without looking really, really stupid, anyway).”

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