Here is my Map of where we were that fateful day at Ocmulgee River in Macon, Georgia! The lab was fun, and since I am not from Georgia, it was interesting to learn about the River, and how the River Walk came about. I lived In San Antonio and we truly loved going down to the River Walk there. Who knows, maybe one day, the Ocmulgee River Walk will develop into something as wonderful as the one I enjoyed in San Antonio. I went to MONDAY lab :) - it was fun, but I have to say, I was not a huge fan of getting into the water. Once in, though, it became only "slightly" traumatizing, and much more interesting than I thought it would be! :) Below the Map Image, I will explain what the Clam markings are! :)
Our assignment - should we have chosen to take it, was to go about the river, dig up the river sand and sift out the sediment. Behold! We should then be able to count the number of clams we find!. It turned out to be fun! Things to think about:
1. Where are clams more concentrated?
2. Do clams like shallow or deep water?
3. Do clams like fast flowing currents?
4. Do they like the sand bank areas more than actually in the river bed (under the water)?
5. Will the clams make protest for invading their privacy?
6. Will I be attacked by man-eatting animals - or reptiles whlile emerged in this lab?
As you will see from the markings on the map where we made our dig, and recorded the number of clams we found, clams like the sand banks much more than they like being in the deeper, faster flowing water. The ares close to the Land embankment, we found 5 clams. We also founf 5 clams in the slightly deeper, water moving down river a bit.
The clams LOVED the exposed sand bank area. When we dug up one level down, we found 9! Pretty fascinating. The other places where the clams were in abumdance was on the other side, close to the land embankment.....There were also 9....Immediately on the land bank, there were a TON, over 20...but all of them were dead! So sad :<.
It was theorized by Dr. Rood that perhaps the birds swoop in for their meals on these poor unsuspecting clams.
In the deeper, faster moving currents, we did not find any clams, and I also hoped we would not find any other moving creature moving around my submerged body.....
Once I looked up and saw 4 students riding a huge log down river! They looked like they were having fun. - The more adventurous fellows of the group :)
In the deepest water, we found NO clams.
River Elevation - TRANSVERSE MEASUREMENT.
I was not part of this group, so I am only going to explain what the attached Graph is depicting about the elevation of the river. The map is "simulated" because I did not see exactly where they took the measurements, but the simulated map will still give you an idea of where the students took theie measurements. Transverse measurement was taken ACROSS the river bed. We anted to get a sense of the elevation of the river. We used the starting point as Sea Level or ''0". *Please note that the Transverse Measurement is drawn with Red markers, and a teal blue measuring line. Okay, I'll explain below the Map, and the graph:
The graph shows the level of elevation of the River. At the start (Sea Level), we move down to enter the water, and at 100ft out, we find the elevation to be at one of its lowest points - 25 ft below sea level. As we continue to move across the river, 200 ft, it rises a bit to 20 ft below sea level. Between 200-300 Ft., we can see that the elevation fluctuates between 20-25 ft.. Once at the other side of the river (400 ft), the sea level elevation rises to about 7 ft below sea level. The other side of the river is at a bit lower elevation. The land scape slopes down a little from one transverse side to the other side's bank.
Fun lab! This was the first time I visited this place, and I told Anthony that I want to take us over one afternoon to ride bikes or walk - it is a very nice place and park :)
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