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How Humans Sank New Orleans
- dmckeon 9y agoThe unintended consequences of what seemed, at many times in the last 300 years, to be completely reasonable city planning and engineering decisions - to literally "drain the swamp" and pump out groundwater - that led to soil compaction as layers of peat and other organic material became dry, and thus able to decay and compress, leaving land that once was above sea level to now be below it - even without the effects of climate change and hurricanes.
- wahern 9y agoGreat user comments: Covfefe_Jesus • 8 hours ago If it wasn't for the "Old River Control Structure," upstream, the Mississippi would have found a new path to the sea and New Orleans would be history right now. Aedes • 4 hours ago If it wasn't for Captain Shreve removing the Great Raft, a log jam that blocked the Red River/Atchafalaya confluence, the Mississippi would still be flowing through New Orleans without the Old River Control Structure. SpartanWarrior • 2 hours ago If it wasn’t for the Reelfoot Rift, a failed longitudinal tectonic border that bisects the North American continent, the Mississippi would be flowing through Chicago into the Great Lakes regardless of the Old River Control Structure or Captain Shreve.
- dmckeon 9y agoClearly, people have been reading https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Control_of_Nature https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Control_of_Nature which also covers the causes of the recent debris flows near Montecito, California.