The Mississippi's Curious Origins

Scientific American ^ | January 2007 issue | Roy B. Van Arsdale and Randel T. Cox

[SunkenCiv]

A mountain range once separated the continental interior of the U.S. from the Gulf of Mexico. Some clever geologic sleuthing has revealed how that barrier was breached, allowing the river to reach the Gulf... [S]omehow the once continuous Ouachita-Appalachian range was cleaved in two, leaving room for the Mississippi River to flow into the Gulf of Mexico. The explanation for the split, which the two of us have been investigating for most of the past decade, touches on many other mysteries of North American geology, too -- such as why you can find diamonds in Arkansas and why the largest earthquake that was ever recorded in the contiguous U.S. occurred not in California or Washington but in Missouri, of all places...

[SunkenCiv]

Update.

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[SunkenCiv]

Update.

[SunkenCiv]

btw, carpers, here’s the PDF of the full paper. Now shaddap.

https://physics.ucf.edu/~britt/Geophysics/Readings/G12a-origin%20of%20the%20miss.pdf

for those like me who are new(tered) internet challenged:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:NyBXQk5Z5voJ:https://physics.ucf.edu/~britt/Geophysics/Readings/G12a-origin%20of%20the%20miss.pdf+The+Mississippi’s+Curious+Origins+Roy+B.+Van+Arsdale+and+Randel+T.+Cox&hl=&ct=clnk