Course of the Colorado River. The Colorado River is a major river of the western United States and northwest Mexico in North America. Its headwaters are in the Rocky Mountains where La Poudre Pass Lake is its source.
Flows at the mouth of the river have steadily declined since the beginning of the 20th century, and in most years after 1960 the Colorado River has run dry before reaching the Pacific Ocean.
It is much longer than the Colorado above their confluence and carries a larger load of silt, though the Colorado has a slightly greater flow. Before an act of Congress changed the name in 1921 this confluence marked the official beginning of the Colorado River proper.
The Mohave have lived along the rich bottomlands of the lower Colorado below Black Canyon since 1200 A.D. They were fishermen—navigating the river on rafts made of reeds to catch Gila trout and Colorado pikeminnow — and farmers, relying on the annual floods of the river rather than irrigation to water their crops.
Rafting, canoeing, kayaking, paddle boarding, and boating can all be experienced on Moab's slice of the Colorado River. As the Colorado River passes Moab, the water is calm and the river valley wide before it becomes a mix of rapids and canyon waters.
The Colorado River is severely threatened by human overuse, environmental issues, and poor river management technique. As an extremely over-apportioned water resource, the water quality of the river is jeopardized by agricultural overdraw, which increases the salinity of the river.
The Colorado originates in the Rocky mountains and traverses seven US states, watering cities and farmland, before reaching Mexico, where it is supposed to flow onwards to the Sea of Cortez. Instead, the river is dammed at the US-Mexico border, and on the other side the river channel is empty.
Today, the Colorado River is still used for irrigation , but it is also used to generate hydroelectric power and to supply water to distant urban areas. The Colorado River has been a central feature in the history and development of the American West.
Drought, Population growth, urban sprawl, and water waste.
These severe impacts of drought clearly affect our wildlands and communities, including vegetation mortality and increased risk of large, high severity wildfire. Historic drought and low-runoff conditions have impacted the Colorado River Basin since 2000.
The Mexican Water Treaty of 1944 allotted to Mexico a guaranteed annual quantity of 1.5 million acre feet of water from the Colorado River, plus additional or less deliveries in specific circumstances. In 1944, the State of Arizona finally ratified the Colorado River Compact of 1922.
The Colorado River no longer reaches the Gulf, and instead peters out of existence miles short of the sea. Two factors have conspired to turn this once mighty river into a trickle: climate change and overuse by the very states that rely on its waters. A section of the Colorado River.
Dams along the Colorado River's length in the U.S. and Mexico draw its water away to serve farms and cities throughout the region. Rather than emptying into the ocean, its water grows citrus in Arizona and greens up lawns in Los Angeles.
Basin tribes hold water rights to about 3 million acre-feet of Colorado River water, which equates to about 25% of the river's current average annual flow. That percentage will only increase as climate change continues to reduce the amount of water available to states with newer water rights.
La Poudre Pass LakeColorado River / SourceLa Poudre Pass Lake is a small lake located in the Rocky Mountains of northern Colorado in the United States. The lake is located within Rocky Mountain National Park, generally in La Poudre Pass, just south of the Continental Divide. The lake lies just southeast of La Poudre Pass Creek. Wikipedia
The area also marks the general boundary between the Colorado Plateau and the Mojave Desert. Shortly west of that point it begins to form the border of Nevada to the north/west and Arizona to the south/east.
Here, the Colorado River ranges in width from 700 to 2,500 ft (200 to 800 m) and from 8 to 100 ft (2 to 30 m) in depth. It becomes a losing stream, with a gradual reduction in volume both due to evaporation in the hot desert climate and massive diversions for irrigation, urban areas, industry and thermo-electric power generation. The average flow rate of 14,000 cubic feet per second (400 m 3 /s) at Davis Dam diminishes to just 1,600 cubic feet per second (45 m 3 /s) at the Mexican border.
The river was finally diverted back to its present course in 1907. Geological evidence suggests that this has happened naturally many times in the past, filling Lake Cahuilla, with the floodwaters slowly evaporating over spans of decades before being re-flooded by the Colorado.
Then the river then turns abruptly west directly across the folds and fault line of the plateau, through the Upper and Lower Granite Gorges of Grand Canyon, which is 217 miles (349 km) long and from 4 to 20 miles (6.4 to 32.2 km) between the upper cliffs. The walls, 4,000 to 6,000 ft (1,200 to 1,800 m) high, drop in successive escarpments of 500 to 1,600 ft (150 to 490 m), banded in splendid colors toward the narrow gorge of the present river. The river itself is a nearly uninterrupted series of violent rapids separated by calm, short pools. Deep inside the canyon it is joined from the north by Kanab Creek, which flows from southern Utah, and then from the south by Havasu Creek, known for the waterfalls it forms on the Havasupai Reservation. Further downstream it passes the Uinkaret volcanic field, where basalt eruptions millions of years ago formed huge lava dams across the Colorado. Although the dams have mostly been erased by erosion, a small portion remains as Lava Falls, generally considered the most difficult and dangerous rapids on the Colorado River.
At the southern end of Marble Canyon, the river is joined by another tributary, the capricious Little Colorado River, which drains the Painted Desert region of northeast Arizona and western New Mexico. Although normally a calm and clear spring-fed stream, it can rise dramatically following monsoon storms over the Colorado Plateau.
Prior to the mid 20th century, the 3,000-square-mile (7,800 km 2) Colorado River Delta provided a rich estuarine marshland; while today it is now essentially desiccated, the river is still an important salt-water estuary resource. The estuary of the Colorado River was subjected to a major tidal bore that has almost disappeared with the drastic reduction in the freshwater flow following the irrigation diversions of the Colorado River, and to a lesser extent because of some dredging of the estuary channel. The first historical record of the tidal bore was that of the Croatian missionary in Spanish service Father Ferdinand Konščak on 18 July 1746. During spring tide conditions, the tidal bore formed in the estuary about Montague Island and propagated upstream. It was called locally 'El Burro' or ' burro '. Today the tidal bore is rarely seen although there are still some anecdotal observations.
The lake is divided into three main bodies – from upstream to downstream they are the Gregg, Virgin and Boulder Basins, of which Virgin Basin is the largest. Virgin Canyon connects Gregg Basin to Virgin Basin, and the much narrower Boulder Canyon links Virgin Basin to Boulder Basin. Overton Arm, stretching northward for more than 40 miles (64 km) from Virgin Basin, is fed by the Virgin River – which flows from Utah's Zion National Park – and the Muddy River, which drains a large area of the southern Nevada desert. Before Lake Mead was filled in the 1930s the Muddy River flowed into the Virgin River, which ran southward through what is now Overton Arm to join the Colorado River near the now-ghost town of St. Thomas, Nevada.
The Colorado begins at La Poudre Pass in the Southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado, at 10,184 ft (3,104 m) above sea level. After a short run south, the river turns west below Grand Lake, the largest natural lake in the state.
In its natural state, the Colorado River poured about 16.3 million acre-feet (20.1 km 3) into the Gulf of California each year, amounting to an average discharge of 22,500 cubic feet per second (640 m 3 /s).
Beginning with small bands of nomadic hunter-gatherers, Native Americans have inhabited the Colorado River basin for at least 8,000 years.
Below the confluence with the Green River, its largest tributary, in Canyonlands National Park, the Colorado enters Cataract Canyon , named for its dangerous rapids, and then Glen Canyon, known for its arches and erosion-sculpted Navajo sandstone formations.
The 1,450-mile-long (2,330 km) river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states.
Starting in the latter half of the 19th century, the lower Colorado below Black Canyon became an important waterway for steamboat commerce. In 1852, the Uncle Sam was launched to provide supplies to the U.S. Army outpost at Fort Yuma. Although this vessel accidentally foundered and sank early in its career, commercial traffic quickly proliferated because river transport was much cheaper than hauling freight over land. Navigation on the Colorado River was dangerous because of the shallow channel and flow variations, so the first sternwheeler on the river, the Colorado of 1855, was designed to carry 60 short tons (54 t) while drawing less than 2 feet (0.6 m) of water. The tidal bore of the lower Colorado also presented a major hazard; in 1922, a 15-foot (4.6 m)-high wave swamped a ship bound for Yuma, killing between 86 and 130 people. Steamboats quickly became the principal source of communication and trade along the river until competition from railroads began in the 1870s, and finally the construction of dams along the lower river in 1909, none of which had locks to allow the passage of ships.
Further south, the Colorado River basin borders on the Rio Grande drainage, which along with the Mississippi flows to the Gulf of Mexico, as well as a series of endorheic (closed) drainage basins in southwestern New Mexico and extreme southeastern Arizona.
The Colorado River is home to one of the seven natural wonders of the world, the Grand Canyon. There are eleven U.S. national parks along the Colorado River. The biggest sport along the Colorado River is whitewater rafting. Several sections of the river are used, including Westwater Canyon, Fisher Towers, Cataract Canyon and the Grand Canyon.
The Colorado River was known as the Red River due to the particles of silt carried in its waters. However, after the Glen Canyon Dam was built in 1963, the colored silt was trapped behind the dam and the river stopped looking red.
James River Facts. Here are some facts about the Colorado River. The Colorado River is 1450 miles in length. The river flows through seven U.S. states (including, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California) and two Mexican states. Its source in La Poudre Pass in Rocky Mountains, and it flows into the Sea of Cortez at the Gulf of California, ...
The river was nicknamed the River of Law because of all the legal disputes that have involved the flow of the river and its water over the years. It is now one of the most highly controlled rivers in the world. Colorado River (Source)
20 Colorado River Facts for Kids. The Colorado River is a watercourse in North America. The Colorado River is best known for the beautiful canyons it flows through and its whitewater rapids. The Colorado River flows through the famous Grand Canyon in Arizona, United States. The Colorado River flows through two countries in North America.
The two countries the Colorado River flows through are the United States of America and Mexico. The Colorado River flows through the U.S states of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada and California. The Colorado River flows through the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California.
The Hoover Dam was built to control the Colorado River, generate electricity and supply drinking water.
A picture of the shoreline along the Colorado River. A picture of the Colorado River turned brown from rain. A picture of some rapids on the Colorado River.
The Colorado River supplies water to irrigate millions of acres of farmland in the southwest United States.
The Colorado River is the 47th longest river in the world.
30 Wonderfully Interesting Facts About the Colorado River. The Colorado River is a majestic creation. It is not only beautiful, but has also been useful for the development of the people living near it. Vacayholics provides some facts about this river. The Colorado River is a majestic creation. It is not only beautiful, ...
The width here is merely 76 feet. ▶ It flows through 7 states, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, Wyoming, California, and Nevada. ▶ The name Colorado originates from the Spanish word for red color. This is because of the red sandstone silt that would cover the river basin, making it look red.
▶ Four critically endangered fish species, the Humpback Chub, the Bonytail, the Razorback Sucker, and the Colorado Pikeminnow, reside in this river.
▶ The first ever dam to be built on the river was the famous Hoover, in 1935. This dam is 726.4 feet (221 meters) high.
This is because of the red sandstone silt that would cover the river basin, making it look red. ▶ Before reaching the Grand Canyon, this river originates in the Rocky Mountains. Its starting point is over 9,000 feet in altitude.
The earliest settlers along the Colorado River Basin are believed to be the Paleo-Indians, who belonged to the Clovis and other cultures. They are estimated to have landed up at this location over 12,000 years ago.
This dam is 726.4 feet (221 meters) high. ▶ One of the nicknames given to this river is River Of Law, because of the high number of legal disagreements over its water. Now, nearly all the water of the river is controlled. ▶ The river stopped looking red in 1963, after the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam.
To me, the most important priorities for dealing with the water resource problems of the Colorado River basin are the inefficient water use, climate change, and water pollution. A large amount of water is wasted on the way sending to other states, which is the major cause of the problem. A climate change resulting from the lack of water hastens the situation. Water pollution, which is another result of removing large amount of water, is threatening the biodiversity in that area and may lead to serious consequences.
In other cases, water has been transferred to arid areas primarily to irrigate farm fields. For example, when you have lettuce in a salad in the United States, chances are good that it was grown with the use of heavy irrigation in the arid Central Valley of California. In fact, the California State Water Project is one of the world's largest freshwater transfer projects. It uses a maze of giant dams, pumps, and lined canals, or aqueducts, to transport freshwater from the High Sierra Mountains of northeastern California to heavily populated cities and agricultural regions in water-poor central and southern California. One reason why such damaging water transfers have taken place is that governments have subsidized the costs of such transfer for inefficient uses such as the irrigation of lettuce and other crops that need lots of water in desert-like areas. In central California, agriculture consumes three-fourths of the water that is transferred and much of it is lost through inefficient irrigation systems. The shrinkage of the Aral Sea has also altered the area's climate. The once-huge sea acted as a thermal buffer that moderated the heat of summer and the extreme cold of winter. Now there is less rain, summers are hotter and drier, winters are colder, and the growing season is shorter. The combination of such climate change and severe salinization has reduced crop yields by 20-50% on almost one-third of the area's cropland-the opposite of the project's intended consequences.
The two most widely used methods for desalination water are distillation and reverse osmosis. Distillation involves heating saltwater until it evaporates and condenses as freshwater. Reverse osmosis uses high pressure to force saltwater through a membrane filter with pores small enough to remove the salt and other impurities. There are three major problems with the widespread use of desalination. First is the high cost, because it takes a lot of increasingly expensive energy to remove salt from seawater. A second problem is that pumping large volumes of seawater through pipes and using chemicals to sterilize the water and keep down algae growth kills many marine organisms and also requires large inputs of energy. A third problem is that desalination produces huge quantities of salty wastewater that must go somewhere. Dumping it into nearby coastal ocean waters increases the salinity of those waters, which can threatens food resources and aquatic life, especially if it is dumped near coral reefs, marshes, or mangrove forests. Disposing of it on land could contaminate groundwater and surface water. So why do we allow for such large losses of freshwater? According to water resource experts, there are two major reasons. First, the cost of freshwater to users is low. Such underpricing is mostly the result of government subsidies that provide irrigation water, or the electricity and diesel fuel used by farmers to pump freshwater from rivers and aquifers, at below-market prices. Because these subsidies keep freshwater prices artificially low, due to a failure to apply the full-cost pricing principle of sustainability, users have little or no financial incentive to invest in water-saving technologies. However, farmers, industries, and others who benefit from government freshwater subsidies argue that the subsidies promote the farming of unproductive land, stimulate local economies, and help to keep the prices of food, manufactured goods, and electricity low. Higher prices for freshwater encourage water conservation but make it difficult for low-income farmers and city dwellers to buy enough freshwater to meet their needs. When South Africa raised freshwater prices, it dealt with this problem by establishing lifeline rates, which give each household a set amount of free or low-priced freshwater to meet basic needs. When users exceed this amount, they pay higher prices as their freshwater use increases. This is a user-pays approach.
Finally, water is an environmental issue because excessive withdrawal of freshwater from rivers and aquifers has resulted in falling water tables, decreasing river flows, shrinking lakes, and disappearing wetlands.
Building dams, cutting trees, and withdrawing water. We should be more thoughtful in building dams so they are not interrupting the nature as much; cutting less trees and choose a more sustainably way of getting lumbers; use water more sustainably so we do not need to withdraw as much water. I think we need to prevent some of the harmful actions so the nature services are not stopped.
Because a large amount of water is shared by a large population, individuals usually view their effect too little on the total water supply. To most of us, individual action cannot make a big difference of the entire water supply, therefore underestimating the effect of their actions.
More than 30 countries-most of them in the Middle East and Africa-now face stress from freshwater scarcity. By 2050, some 60 countries, many of them in Asia, with three-fourths of the world's population, are likely to be suffering from such freshwater stress. In 2006, the Chinese government reported that two-thirds of China's 600 major cities faced freshwater shortages. Currently, about 30% of the earth's land area-a total area roughly 5 times the size of the United States-experiences severe drought. By 2059, as much as 45%of the earth's land surface-about 7 times the area of the United States-could experience extreme drought, mostly as a result of projected climate change caused by warmer atmosphere, according to 2007 study by climate researcher David Rind and his colleagues. In each of 263 of the world's water basins, two or more countries share the available freshwater supplies. However, countries in only 158 of those basins have water-sharing agreements. This explains why conflicts among nations over shared freshwater resources are likely to happen more as populations grow, as demand for water increases, and as supplies shrink in many parts of the world.