A Forest Buried
by Alluvial Deposits.
A remarkable instance of the rapid formation of alluvial
deposits from overloaded streams has
been discovered by the government geological expedition
on the Yahtse River, in Alaska. This river in its course from the Chaix
Hills to the sea passes through a tunnel in the Malaspina glacier, some
6 or 8 miles in length. When it finally emerges into the open air it is
a very swiftly flowing stream of dark muddy water, 100 feet wide and about
20 feet in depth. Near the point where the river emerges from the ice it
flows through a forest of large trees, and the gravel and sand carried
along by the stream are deposited here to the depth of many feet. Some
of the tallest trees still project through the deposit and retain their
branches. The greater part, however, have been broken off and completely
covered up by the sand. In other places the presence of vast forests is
indicated by a few dead branches projecting through the deposits. In places
where the deposits are thickest all signs of the trees have disappeared
and in their place nothing may be seen but broad sand flats. These are
inundated in stormy weather, and are of about the consistency of quicksand.
source:A Forest Buried by Alluvial Deposits, Manufacturer
and builder / Volume 26, Issue 11, New York: Western and Company,
November 1894, p 255.
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