Quote:
Originally Posted by homerun
Rocks on the channel would slow the inflow of salinity into the lake which in turn slow it into the marsh. When ship channel was first dug land was all the way down the channel besides old river(jetties) and weirs were not needed. First washout (got its name from washing out due to channel flow) disappeared then 9 mile to super cut. Just a thought
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No, weirs WERE needed and this change took time, once the weirs were placed in, the damage had already began.
Again, its not an overnight process, its slow, but not really in geological terms, a hundred years is the blink of an eye in geological terms. You are answering your own questions. The land begins to erode due to wave action, saltwater intrusion kills the vegetation that holds the land together, the land becomes mud, the erosion washes away the mud into the ship channel, gets dredged, repeat. When man interferes with hydrology, the water body tries to correct itself. Look at any pass out into the gulf, one side of the jetties will be shallow and the other side will be highly eroded, and you just keep adding rocks to reduce the problem but the problem will always be there. Rocks and dredging are a temporary fix to a permanent problem