Lake Mead bathtub ring, by John Fleck, February 2015
One of the members of my brain trust was speculating idly the other day about how different the Colorado River dialogue might be if the hydro-geo-chemistry of the bathtub ring was different – if the dropping water didn’t leave a white mark, letting you see how much Lake Mead has dropped, letting people like me take a picture to put on my blog.
Standing atop Hoover Dam last week, I heard one of the Bureau of Reclamation tour guides emerge from the elevators, pointing out the bathtub ring and saying:
I don’t think as long as I live I will ever see it get to the top again.
I’m sure he or she does not speak for the Bureau and the Secretary of the Interior on this sensitive point.
John, what’s the approx height of the ring?
Connie – About 130 feet, give or take a few. Hard to get a sense of scale in these pictures, isn’t it?
Whoa! I remember visiting the dam in 1993. Wasn’t anything like that!
1993 was maybe 25-30 feet below the top.