Two Ancient Great Rivers In Midwest Rival Amazon

[TheMastersNemesis]

It only dawned on me in recent years that two great ancient rivers existed that would have rivaled the Amazon River today.
I grew up in Illinois and have traversed across central Illinois for years. The channels of the Illinois and Mississippi River are only streams today compared what they were at the end of the last Ice Age.

The distance between the bluffs of the Illinois River is about 5 miles and it is about 10 miles for the Mississippi. And these bluffs were probably over 100 feet high on each side. Imagine being around during the end of the last Ice Age when these basins were filled with water at least 50 feet deep or more for 5 or 10 miles in width. It would have take some bridge or bit of courage to cross these rivers in their prime. The present farm land in the basin is all old river bottom.

Most likel after all the ice melted they ended up their present size.

[hedgehog]

1. I like reading the land. The Niagara escarpment runs for miles across Ontario and New York.

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. As a former Alskan gold prospector

these things are money in the bank if you can find certain places along the ancient riverbed. For example, if you could an outcropping/uplift of bedrock that was once part of the ancient riverbed, the seams and cracks in that bedrock might offer up a great deal of gold. Also, you can look for things called "benches" along the banks and dig a great deal of gold out of those as well. While not a sure thing, these are some of the best places to look for gold.

Cheers!

[NickB79]

3. You might find the Missoula Floods interesting as well

U.S. Geological Survey hydrologist Jim O'Connor and Spanish Center of Environmental Studies scientist Gerard Benito have found evidence of at least twenty-five massive floods, the largest discharging ?10 cubic kilometers per hour (2.7 million m³/s, 13 times the Amazon River).[2] Alternate estimates for the peak flow rate of the largest flood include 17 cubic kilometers per hour[3] and range up to 60 cubic kilometers per hour.[4] The maximum flow speed approached 36 meters/second (130 km/h or 80 mph).[3]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missoula_Floods