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[Phys-L] Re: New Orleans



At 21:11 -0400 9/26/05, Anthony Lapinski wrote:

I personally could never live in a
place that is below sea level.

Then I suppose you have never visited Death Valley, the Dead Sea, or
anywhere in Holland. And I also suppose that if you have ever taken
the Holland or Lincoln Tunnels in NYC, or ridden the BART across San
Francisco Bay, or crossed Hampton Roads tunnel/bridge at the entrance
to Chesapeake Bay, or the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel, or the Channel
Tunnel between England and France, you did it only with some
trepidation.

I have a friend who, until fairly recently lived on the banks of the
Mississippi River in Arkansas. One time, when I was visiting him, he
took me to the top of the levee holding back the river. It was clear
from standing on that dike that the river level was 10-20 feet higher
than the ground on the dry side. He lived above sea level, but most
certainly was below river level. I admitted to some concern about
this, but it didn't seem to bother him.

But to answer your question about NO, it seems obvious that it is
pretty much a natural location. It sits at the mouth of the major
river system of North America, where a significant fraction of the
agricultural production of the midwest finds its outlet to the
outside world, even today. It has also not always been below sea
level. The land beneath NO is subsiding, due to pumping of the oil
that lies below it as well as the water, and the level of the river
has been rising, due at least in part to the extensive diking of the
river along much of its length, which has served to confine the river
and keep the water that once was able to spill out onto the plains of
its drainage basin trapped until it reaches the gulf. That has also
robbed the delta of much of the silt that once enabled the land level
to remain fairly stable.

Many of the people who live there do so because they are not in a
position to go anywhere else. I'm sure that now that they have found
themselves dislocated to other areas, many will take the opportunity
to not return. But many will have to, since they have no other
possible place to earn a living.

Hugh
--

Hugh Haskell
<mailto:haskell@ncssm.edu>
<mailto:hhaskell@mindspring.com>

(919) 467-7610

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