An interesting document on the Niagara River

[ExiledInIllinois]

1 minute ago, plenzmd1 said:

Mom, Pops, Brother all dead from cancer, hell yea I think it contributed. What i don't do is place blame on any one entity..lots of blame to go around.

Wow! So sorry!  I recall you telling Us this.  I think of this all the time when I hear the "Love Canal" tragedy.

 

Just /smh in disgust and sadness.

[plenzmd1]

2 minutes ago, ExiledInIllinois said:

Wow! So sorry!  I recall you telling Us this.  I think of this all the time when I hear the "Love Canal" tragedy.

 

Just /smh in disgust and sadness.

no worries..no need to be sorry for sure...it is a weird story and truly don't think about it much.

 

just remember, don't ever dump in the black goop!

[ExiledInIllinois]

39 minutes ago, plenzmd1 said:

no worries..no need to be sorry for sure...it is a weird story and truly don't think about it much.

 

just remember, don't ever dump in the black goop!

For sure!!!

 

It's just beyond me what would posses them to bury dioxin in a hole 200' above where The Falls will eventually erode away to and from the gorge!

 

I guess... Because there was a hole in the ground, nice rock to entomb it, and heck... Why worry about 1,000s of years in the future.  Yikes!

 Yeah... It didn't last 20-30 years!  /smh

Edited December 15, 2018 by ExiledInIllinois

[Wacka]

Read yesterday that they started installing the ice boom.  Goes in when the lake temp hits 39. 

[Nextmanup]

I spoke with a geologist some years ago and he mentioned how the "dead end" in the Niagara River where the whirlpool is was formed in a matter of DAYS as the river intersected a filled in old river bed or some such.

 

The power of the falls and its moving water just scrubbed the river bed clean and formed that weird dead end part of the river.  

 

The Falls normally retreats like a few inches a year or whatever the number is, but in this case, it went hundreds of feet in days.  
 

I always thought that was interesting.

 

[ExiledInIllinois]

1 hour ago, Nextmanup said:

I spoke with a geologist some years ago and he mentioned how the "dead end" in the Niagara River where the whirlpool is was formed in a matter of DAYS as the river intersected a filled in old river bed or some such.

 

The power of the falls and its moving water just scrubbed the river bed clean and formed that weird dead end part of the river.  

 

The Falls normally retreats like a few inches a year or whatever the number is, but in this case, it went hundreds of feet in days.  
 

I always thought that was interesting.

 

Nice.  To further add...

 

It hit "St. David's Buried Gorge" which was pre-glacial.

 

Full explanation:

 

https://www.niagarafallsinfo.com/niagara-falls-history/niagara-falls-geology/niagara-geological-areas/st-davids-buried-gorge/

 

Whirlpool formed @ 4,200 years ago.  St.David's about 22,000 years ago.

 

I posted earlier.  During the Lake Chippewa/Stanley, Early Erie/Ontario elevation phase (pic #3 below) of the Lakes @ 7,000 years ago... There was no (what's present now) Niagara outlet.  Assuming that @ ~4,000 years ago... The rest of the ice melted causing all the present day Lakes to fill like reservoirs (pic #4).  The mouth of Lake Erie/Niagara Escarpment acted like a dam.  When the melting glacial water began to fill... It began to go over "the dam" like a emergency spillway in the Nipissing phase (pic #4). Then the slow march was on, hit the buried gorge, to rapid turn and slow march again.

 

Great drawing from the early 1900s depicting the Nipissing Great Lakes.  Notice Georgian Bay too... Acts like the emergency spillway too.  Like the upper drain hole in a bathtub or bathroom sink.

 

 

Interesting tidbit... In thousands of years Falls will reach BFLo 8 miles upstream.  Supposedly, they theorize when Falls hits mouth of L.Erie where Peace Bridge is... The rush of water will drop Lake Huron & Lake Michigan 150' below its present elevation.

 

To all you nature freaks: That's one way hell of a way to close off the Chicago Diversion. ?

 

 

[SomeDudeAtHome]

This is all very fascinating. 

 

Exiled, would you happen to have any maps that show the flow of water? I'm familiar with this area obviously but you talk about the glacial melts, other great lakes and outlets which I'm not nearly as familiar with. 

[ExiledInIllinois]

5 minutes ago, SomeDudeAtHome said:

This is all very fascinating. 

 

Exiled, would you happen to have any maps that show the flow of water? I'm familiar with this area obviously but you talk about the glacial melts, other great lakes and outlets which I'm not nearly as familiar with. 

Off the top of my head:  Just ballparking.

 

Flow, top to bottom:

 

Lake Superior is 25 feet higher than Lakes Michigan/Huron.  Lakes Michigan/Huron 5 higher than Lake Erie. Lake Erie is 175 feet above Lake Ontario. Lake Ontario is 225 feet above @ Gaspe/Atlantic.

 

Here is a standard profile, more accurate:

 

 

The present day main navigation routes to & from the Great Lakes are:

 

1. St.Lawrence to Atlantic (St.Lawrence Seaway)

2. Niagara River to Atlantic (Erie Canal)

3. Chicago to Gulf of Mexico (2 entry points to & from Lake Michigan. (Illinois Waterway)

 

The main inteR-basin water diversions are:

 

1. St.Lawrence Seaway

2. Chicago Diversion

3. Erie Canal

 

The main intrA-basin water diversions are:

 

1. The Soo (Sault Ste.Marie)

2. Welland Diversion

3. Niagara (Power) Diversion

4. Trent-Severn Waterway (Lake Huron to Lake Ontario)

 

The main man-made water diversion INTO the Great Lakes:

 

1. Long Lac & Ogoki Diversions (To: Lake Superior from the Arctic watershed)

 

The lake residence times (mean) is the longest water will stay in a lake before it is fully flushed. 

 

This link will give you the stats, charts, maps of each Lake:

 

https://www.glerl.noaa.gov/education/ourlakes/lakes.html

 

These are GLERL's replacement/retention times or "Flushing times":

 

Superior = 173 years

Michigan = 62 years

Huron = 21 years

Erie = 2.7 years

 

 

 

Ontario = 6 years

 

Go to NOAA's GLERL's site... Loaded with data, maps, etc...

 

https://www.glerl.noaa.gov

 

You want ice coverage, historical data:

 

https://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/ice/

 

Maps, plates, charts galore!!! Enjoy!!!

 

 

 

 

 

[Greybeard]

On 12/12/2018 at 11:17 PM, ExiledInIllinois said:

Still not with out scares and shame.

 

IE:  "Love Canal" was supposed to be built as an All-American Canal to handle shipping and rival the Welland Canal around the dam/spillway structure (The Falls).  From Niagara Falls to Lake Ontario.  You know what happened there!  After Love's failed venture in late 1800s, early 1900s... It became the a nightmare as we all know.

 

There was a push in the 1950s to build an All-American Canal to compete with Welland.  Studies were done then quickly dropped!  Did they know what laid in the hole at the Love site! Of course they did.  The idea for an All-American Canal would quickly die during the 1960s!

 

 

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Buffalo/comments/3nw3fb/i_see_your_1960s_highway_plans_and_raise_you_the/

 

 

This was to go from the Upper River just above Tonawanda to the shores of Lake Ontario, rivaling the Welland.  Buffalo would have never been turned into "Radiator Springs" with the building of the St.Lawrence Seaway.

 

Yet... The timebomb was sitting there all the while @ the Love Canal site and wouldn't be publicly exposed for another 15+ years!!! 

 

Food for thought...

                 I just went back to read the newspaper article to see if they said where the canal was going.  I lived  about 300-400 yards from the NT-Wheatfield border.  We thought the canal was a sure thing when they moved the 3 houses down the street that were closest to the border.  This was a good thing for my friend and I as the basements were left open.  They filled with water and we spent endless hours putting snakes and field mice into the flooded basements.  

Edited December 16, 2018 by Greybeard