File:Utah State Route 128 Along Colorado River Near Moab, Utah (2407529095).jpg
Original file (2,048 × 1,536 pixels, file size: 467 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)
Captions
Summary
editDescriptionUtah State Route 128 Along Colorado River Near Moab, Utah (2407529095).jpg |
The Colorado River is the principal river of the Southwestern United States and northwest Mexico. The 1,450-mile (2,330 km) river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. and two Mexican states. Rising in the central Rocky Mountains in the U.S., the river flows generally southwest across the Colorado Plateau and through the Grand Canyon before reaching Lake Mead on the Arizona–Nevada line, where it turns south toward the international border. After entering Mexico, the Colorado approaches the large Colorado River Delta where it naturally emptied into the Gulf of California between Baja California and Sonora, though it no longer reaches its delta or the sea. Known for its dramatic canyons and whitewater rapids, the Colorado is a vital source of water for agricultural and urban areas in the southwestern desert lands of North America. The river and its tributaries are controlled by an extensive system of dams, reservoirs, and aqueducts, which divert 90% of its water in the U.S. alone to furnish irrigation and municipal water supply for almost 40 million people both inside and outside the watershed. The Colorado's large flow and steep gradient are used for generating hydroelectric power, and its major dams regulate peaking power demands in much of the Intermountain West. Since the mid-20th century, intensive water consumption has dried the lower 100 miles (160 km) of the river such that it has not consistently reached the sea since the 1960s. Europeans first entered the Colorado Basin in the 16th century, when explorers from Spain began mapping and claiming the area, which later became part of Mexico upon its independence in 1821. Early contact between foreigners and natives was generally limited to the fur trade in the headwaters and sporadic trade interactions along the lower river. After the greater Colorado River basin became part of the U.S. in 1846, the bulk of the river's course was still largely the subject of myths and speculation. Several expeditions charted the Colorado in the mid-19th century, one of which, led by John Wesley Powell in 1869, was the first to run the rapids of the Grand Canyon. American explorers collected valuable information that would later be used to develop the river for navigation and water supply. Large-scale settlement of the lower basin began in the mid- to late-19th century, with steamboats providing transportation from the Gulf of California to landings along the Colorado River that linked to wagon roads into the interior of New Mexico Territory. Lesser numbers settled in the upper basin, which was the scene of major gold strikes in Arizona and Nevada in the 1860s and 1870s. Major engineering of the river basin began around the start of the 20th century, with many guidelines established in a series of domestic and international treaties known as the "Law of the River". The U.S. federal government was the main driving force behind the construction of hydraulic engineering projects in the river system, although many state and local water agencies were also involved. Most of the major dams in the river basin were built between 1910 and 1970, and the system keystone, Hoover Dam, was completed in 1935. The Colorado is now considered among the most controlled and litigated rivers in the world, with every drop of its water fully allocated. The damming and diversion of the Colorado River system have been flashpoint issues for the environmental movement in the American Southwest because of their impacts on the ecology and natural beauty of the river and its tributaries. During the construction of Glen Canyon Dam, environmental organizations vowed to block any further development of the river, and a number of later dam and aqueduct proposals were defeated by citizen opposition. As demands for Colorado River water continue to rise, the level of human development and control of the river continues to generate controversy. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorado_River en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_of_Creative_Commons_... |
Date | Taken on 8 March 2008, 14:52 |
Source | Utah State Route 128 Along Colorado River Near Moab, Utah |
Author | Ken Lund from Reno, Nevada, USA |
Camera location | 38° 40′ 11.87″ N, 109° 29′ 55.22″ W | View this and other nearby images on: OpenStreetMap | 38.669964; -109.498672 |
---|
Licensing
edit- You are free:
- to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
- to remix – to adapt the work
- Under the following conditions:
- attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original.
This image was originally posted to Flickr by Ken Lund at https://flickr.com/photos/75683070@N00/2407529095. It was reviewed on 16 March 2016 by FlickreviewR and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-sa-2.0. |
16 March 2016
File history
Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.
Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
current | 07:53, 16 March 2016 | 2,048 × 1,536 (467 KB) | Ser Amantio di Nicolao (talk | contribs) | Transferred from Flickr via Flickr2Commons |
You cannot overwrite this file.
File usage on Commons
There are no pages that use this file.
Metadata
This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.
Camera manufacturer | Canon |
---|---|
Camera model | Canon PowerShot A540 |
Exposure time | 1/640 sec (0.0015625) |
F-number | f/4 |
Date and time of data generation | 14:52, 8 March 2008 |
Lens focal length | 5.8 mm |
Orientation | Normal |
Horizontal resolution | 180 dpi |
Vertical resolution | 180 dpi |
File change date and time | 14:52, 8 March 2008 |
Y and C positioning | Centered |
Exif version | 2.2 |
Date and time of digitizing | 14:52, 8 March 2008 |
Meaning of each component |
|
Image compression mode | 5 |
APEX shutter speed | 9.3125 |
APEX aperture | 4 |
APEX exposure bias | −0.66666666666667 |
Maximum land aperture | 2.75 APEX (f/2.59) |
Metering mode | Pattern |
Flash | Flash did not fire, compulsory flash suppression, red-eye reduction mode |
Supported Flashpix version | 1 |
Color space | sRGB |
Focal plane X resolution | 12,515.555555556 |
Focal plane Y resolution | 12,497.041420118 |
Focal plane resolution unit | inches |
Sensing method | One-chip color area sensor |
File source | Digital still camera |
Custom image processing | Normal process |
Exposure mode | Manual exposure |
White balance | Auto white balance |
Digital zoom ratio | 1 |
Scene capture type | Landscape |