There are few thing that I remember from my K-8 years, certainly the bulk of it is experiential rather than academic, but there are a couple of items that stand out. Truly aha, I’m in awe of that fact, I can’t help but share with everyone my new knowledge, kind of items: like learning about retroviruses in high school advanced bio. One was from 8th grade geology: how rivers meander.
Ok, it was 8th grade geology, so most people probably already know this, but I will explain for the few of you who hung out in the basement instead of class. You know who you are.
Water flows along a path of least resistance when you pour it on the ground. In a natural environment that path likely includes some turns and curves. Because the water current shifts along those curves it has a tendency to pick up particles on the outside of a curve and drop particles on the inside a curve. Over time a gentle curve may turn more and more into a dramatic S shape. The erosion of one side of the river builds up the other side. That alone was fascinating but not what floored me. What really got to me is that if the S grows so exaggerated that the river is effectively looping back on itself, water will seek a way to cut through the S to straighten itself. It does this not through a slow return to its original state, but it does it dramatically and can be hastened at the time of a flood or water overflow. The remaining loop can be cut off from the new straighter river as new silt accumulates.
Depending on its depth, the abandoned parts of the river can form an isolated body of water.
Is that my fate? Have I eroded so much that parts of me have been lost?