‘Mud glaciers’ and sand waves: Unearth trapped sediment’s influence on the ever-changing Lake Powell
Sand waves flow behind Jack Stauss, repeatedly rolling and breaking near a debris-heavy section of the river as he discusses sediment-related phenomena in Lake Powell. …Sand waves are one of many sediment-related phenomena at Lake Powell. They form in water containing a high percentage of sediment when the river’s bottom isn’t perfectly flat. … Created on the Utah-Arizona border with the 1963 construction of the Glen Canyon Dam, Lake Powell, the nation’s second-largest reservoir, could once hold almost 26 million acre-feet of water. But, according to a 2022 report from the U.S. Geological Survey, its capacity has since dropped by nearly 7%, primarily due to sediment deposited by the Colorado River’s tributaries and trapped by Lake Powell’s still waters.
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