Where rivers flow upstream.

Submitted: Saturday, Mar 07, 2009 at 10:19
ThreadID: 66590 Views:2157 Replies:4 FollowUps:6
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Greetings,
it was in the Great Artesian Basin, Australia’s driest and hottest and strangest spot. A relentless sun above, below the largest fresh water reservoir in the world. The rivers mostly dry, the trees along them living on the memory of water.
I camped at Eyre Creek. A tiny sprig floated very, very slowly from right to left. I put up tent, played with dog Rusty, cooked a meal. Then a gentle breeze came up, and that sprig, like an old friend, came back again - floating very, very slowly from left to right.
With an average gradient of 17cm/km that land is so flat even a weak breeze can change the flow of a river. Madigan, some 70 years back, had observed the same. Much of the land is covered by stony deserts. Explorer Sturt in 1845 '..the most cheerless and the most forbidding of any landscapes our eyes had wandered over..’
No Kentucky Fried, no MacDonalds - and no tourists. I love that piece of land.
Klaus and Rusty
Nature & Wilderness, Quotations & Geology
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Reply By: Hairy (NT) - Saturday, Mar 07, 2009 at 11:06

Saturday, Mar 07, 2009 at 11:06
Gday,
Your an engineer, arent you? Hahahaha
AnswerID: 352697

Reply By: Member - Willie , Sydney. - Saturday, Mar 07, 2009 at 12:22

Saturday, Mar 07, 2009 at 12:22
Klause,

I have been working my way through your geological info on your web site. It is easy to read and understand and I have enjoyed them a lot.

I have just been reading about Uluru and the oft quoted myth of it being a single rock. One thing I have learned lately is that there is some doubt about Uluru being the aboriginal name for Ayers Rock. Some say that Uluru was the name of a reliable rockhole on the rock, not the rock itself. I am not sure how true this is though.

Thanks very much,

Willie.
AnswerID: 352706

Follow Up By: Member - Willie , Sydney. - Sunday, Mar 08, 2009 at 07:35

Sunday, Mar 08, 2009 at 07:35
Sorry about the extra "e"
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FollowupID: 621033

Follow Up By: Member - Klaus J (NSW) - Monday, Mar 09, 2009 at 11:47

Monday, Mar 09, 2009 at 11:47
Hi Willie, you improved on my name. Always wanted an 'e' behind it!
And thanks for your kind remark about my site. Glad it does something for you.
re: the name 'Uluru' and what exactly it refers to - I don't know. Haven't heard about it. There are 2 pretty reliable water holes at the rock, and both have an Aboriginal name.
Cheers - Klaus and Rusty
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FollowupID: 621228

Reply By: Member - Royce- Saturday, Mar 07, 2009 at 12:49

Saturday, Mar 07, 2009 at 12:49
Hmmmmmm

But surely the sprig was simply blown back across the top of the water?

If not that, then the surface of the water moved back over the body of water that was still slowly flowing downhill.

I can't believe the river flowed backwards!

and.... the floating was how the sprig stayed up. Flowing or moving was the action you noticed.
AnswerID: 352708

Follow Up By: Member - Fred G NSW - Saturday, Mar 07, 2009 at 14:14

Saturday, Mar 07, 2009 at 14:14
Royce, ya just bleep tered a very serene moment I was enjoying ...LOL..ah well, back to reality :-(

Thanks for the brief moment Klaus :-)

Fred
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FollowupID: 620877

Follow Up By: Member - Klaus J (NSW) - Monday, Mar 09, 2009 at 12:05

Monday, Mar 09, 2009 at 12:05
Hallo Royce, your skepticism made me think.
The breeze I was referring to was so gentle, it didn't even ruffle the surface of the water. So I took it as the same experience C.T.Madigan was referring to ('Crossing the Dead Heart'). He introduced aerial cartography in Australia and meticulously catalogued fauna and flora of the Simpson. He was the first motorised explorer through that desert; he had a scientific mind.
However, thinking about it, I believe now that a more substantial body of water - say Cooper Creek - could not be influenced by a breeze. There would be too much volume pushing from behind. Eyre's Creek however is rather sporadic with rarely much push from upstream. It could decide to flow either way under right circumstances.
The same phenomenon of flow being pushed back by wind was observed in the shallow channel between Lake Eyre North and South.
Thanks for questioning - Klaus and Rusty
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FollowupID: 621233

Follow Up By: bgreeni - Monday, Mar 09, 2009 at 12:34

Monday, Mar 09, 2009 at 12:34
There are certainly rivers in inland Qld that can flow either direction depending on where it rains, what the Flinders river is doing etc...

There are sections of the railway around Nonda that have been washed out by the same stream flowing N-S and S-N. A flood in the flinders will push water from North to South whereas rain around Winton will make the creeks flow South to North.
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FollowupID: 621239

Follow Up By: get outmore - Monday, Mar 09, 2009 at 15:03

Monday, Mar 09, 2009 at 15:03
well and truly possible. Water in a salt lake will sit in the lowest spot bt yet is easily blown around by wind.

I used to walk to work across a lake and after rain I could be ading through water one day and bone dry the next with the water visable blown to the far shore
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FollowupID: 621255

Reply By: Member - Russnic [NZ] - Monday, Mar 09, 2009 at 17:44

Monday, Mar 09, 2009 at 17:44
Hi Folks
When you get an expanse of water and little fall the natural forces have a big effect. Moon phases barometric pressures and wind over a shallow surface can all affect liquids, the more fluid and little gradient I would think would create a bigger effect.
Just like the old barometers, still measured from the same base.
Last time I crossed Eyre creek even the Dingo Poo was not moving.
I am sure it will be well flushed now.
Tide, Wind, Baro pressure will change where the water is or flowing, ie shallow mass of a liquid body and external forces will make it move even uphill?.
It Will Move when nature lets it.
Cheers
Russ
AnswerID: 353102

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