Some interesting stuff in my back yard.
Posted: Fri May 27, 2022 7:47 pmMSFS 2020 default scenery and the HPG Airbus H135 (freeware)
See that giant gravel pile under the skids? That's leftovers from an aggregate
stockpile (it looks like a small mountain when you drive by it) for the sand
and gravel necessary to make concrete. This is the former location of one of the two
aggregate plants on the Columbia river that provided the aggregate for the 12 million
cubic yards of concrete necessary to build this......
The Grand Coulee Dam. At 550 feet in height and nearly a mile long it was previously known as the
largest concrete structure on Earth (now Three Rivers holds the title).
There is enough concrete to lay a highway from Seattle to Miami.
Even though it's not the largest by size, this dam is still the largest power producer on the planet
coming in at around 7000 MW. It's resorvoirs, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Lake and Banks Lake
hold a combined volume of 9,562,000 acre-ft or 12km3 and cover an area of around 125 sq mi or 324 km2
(Since there is no model for this dam, if I get back into scenery design this is the first thing I'm doing)
But this isn't what I actually want to show you.
This is the upper resorvoir, Banks Lake. This resorvoir is an ancient dry river bed
that has been dammed at both ends to hold a reserve if Lake Roosevelt runs low.
But that's not the interesting part. This bed was created in the last Ice Age when a giant
glacial dam in (now) Montana lost it's integrity and let loose a massive amount of water,
by the time it reached this point it was a 400 foot wall travelling at 65-mph and jumped
the Columbia's previous course, carving out what you see now.
This is the best part....under the skids and extending directly right, is Dry Falls.
When all that water flooded the Columbia Basin it had to drain out. In the process it
created this extraordinary land mark. When water was flowing here the fall was 400 feet
in height and 3.5 miles long (5 times the width of Niagara).
I got the majority of it in this shot. It's a really cool place if you ever get to visit in person.
The area is full of flood basalt from long ago volcanic eruptions.
See that giant gravel pile under the skids? That's leftovers from an aggregate
stockpile (it looks like a small mountain when you drive by it) for the sand
and gravel necessary to make concrete. This is the former location of one of the two
aggregate plants on the Columbia river that provided the aggregate for the 12 million
cubic yards of concrete necessary to build this......
The Grand Coulee Dam. At 550 feet in height and nearly a mile long it was previously known as the
largest concrete structure on Earth (now Three Rivers holds the title).
There is enough concrete to lay a highway from Seattle to Miami.
Even though it's not the largest by size, this dam is still the largest power producer on the planet
coming in at around 7000 MW. It's resorvoirs, Franklin Delano Roosevelt Lake and Banks Lake
hold a combined volume of 9,562,000 acre-ft or 12km3 and cover an area of around 125 sq mi or 324 km2
(Since there is no model for this dam, if I get back into scenery design this is the first thing I'm doing)
But this isn't what I actually want to show you.
This is the upper resorvoir, Banks Lake. This resorvoir is an ancient dry river bed
that has been dammed at both ends to hold a reserve if Lake Roosevelt runs low.
But that's not the interesting part. This bed was created in the last Ice Age when a giant
glacial dam in (now) Montana lost it's integrity and let loose a massive amount of water,
by the time it reached this point it was a 400 foot wall travelling at 65-mph and jumped
the Columbia's previous course, carving out what you see now.
This is the best part....under the skids and extending directly right, is Dry Falls.
When all that water flooded the Columbia Basin it had to drain out. In the process it
created this extraordinary land mark. When water was flowing here the fall was 400 feet
in height and 3.5 miles long (5 times the width of Niagara).
I got the majority of it in this shot. It's a really cool place if you ever get to visit in person.
The area is full of flood basalt from long ago volcanic eruptions.