The Colorado River is one of the major rivers in the Southwest of the United States and northern Mexico (the other being the Rio Grande). The 1,450-mile (2,330 km) river runs a vast, dry stream of water that includes parts of seven US and two Mexican states. Beginning in the central Rocky Mountains of Colorado, the river flows generally to the southwest across the Colorado Plateau and through the Grand Canyon before reaching Lake Mead on the Arizona-Nevada border, where it veers south towards the international border. Upon entering Mexico, Colorado approached the mostly dry Colorado River Delta at the end of California Bay between Baja California and Sonora.
Known for its dramatic valley, rafting, and eleven US National Parks, the Colorado River, and its tributaries are an important source of water for 40 million people. Rivers and tributaries are controlled by extensive dams, reservoirs, and waterways, which in the years have largely shifted their entire streams to agricultural irrigation and domestic water supplies. Its large stream and steep gradient are used to generate hydroelectric power, and the main dam regulates peaking power demand in most of Intermountain West. Intensive water consumption has dried lower 100 miles (160 km) of rivers, which rarely reach the sea since the 1960s.
Starting with a small group of nomadic hunter-gatherers, Native Americans have inhabited the Colorado River valley for at least 8,000 years. Between 2000 and 1,000 years ago, the watershed was home to a major agricultural civilization - considered to be some of North America's most sophisticated native cultures - eventually declining due to a combination of severe drought and poor land-use practices. Most of the natives who inhabit the region today are descendants of other groups who settled there starting about 1,000 years ago. The Europeans first entered the Colorado River Valley in the 16th century, when explorers from Spain began mapping and claiming the area, which became part of Mexico in its independence in 1821. Initial contact between Europeans and Native Americans in general limited to the feather trade upstream. and sporadic trade interactions along the lower rivers.
After much of the Colorado River basin became part of the US in 1846, much of the river journey remains a myth and speculation. Several expeditions mapped Colorado in the mid-19th century - one of them, led by John Wesley Powell, was the first to run rapids in the Grand Canyon. American explorers gather valuable information that is then used to develop rivers for navigation and water supply. The large-scale settlement of the lower basin began in the mid to late 19th century, with steamers providing transportation from the Gulf of California to landing along rivers associated with wagon roads into the interior. Beginning in the 1860s, gold and silver strikes attracted gold seekers to parts of the upper Colorado River valley.
The major engineering work began around the beginning of the 20th century, with key guidance set out in a series of international and inter-state agreements known as the "Law of the River". The US federal government is the main driving force behind the construction of dams and waterways, although many state and local water bodies are also involved. Most of the major dams were built between 1910 and 1970; the Keystone system, Hoover Dam, was completed in 1935. Colorado is now considered among the most controlled and litigated rivers in the world, with every drop of its water fully allocated.
The environmental movement in Southwest America has opposed the damming and diversion of the Colorado River system because of its detrimental effects on the ecology and natural beauty of rivers and tributaries. During the construction of Glen Canyon Dam, environmental organizations vowed to block further development of the river, and a number of later dams and water channel proposals were defeated by citizen opposition. As Colorado River water demand continues to rise, the rate of human development and river control continues to generate controversy.
Video Colorado River
Course
Colorado begins at La Poudre Pass in the Southern Rocky Mountains of Colorado, just under 2 miles (3 km) above sea level. After a short run to the south, the river turns west below Grand Lake, the largest natural lake in the state. For its first 250 miles (400 km) only, Colorado carved its way through the mountainous mountain Slopes, a sparsely populated region defined by the western part of the Continental Divide. As it flows to the southwest, it gains the power of many small tributaries, as well as larger ones including the Blue, Eagle, and Roaring Fork rivers. After passing through De Beque Canyon, Colorado emerges from the Rockies to the Grand Valley, the main farm and farm area where it meets one of its largest tributaries, the Gunnison River, in Grand Junction. Most of the upper rivers are a rushing flow of water ranging from 200 to 500 feet (60 to 150 m) wide, depths ranging from 6 to 30 feet (2 to 9 m), with some notable exceptions, such as Blackrocks reaching where the river is almost as deep as 100 feet (30 m). In some areas, such as the swampy Kawuneeche Valley near the upstream and the Grand Valley, it exhibits braided characteristics.
Headed northwest, Colorado began across the Colorado Plateau, a vast plateau centered at the Four Corners in the southwestern United States. Here, the climate becomes significantly drier than in the Rocky Mountains, and the river becomes entrenched in deep rocky canyons, beginning with Ruby Canyon and then Westwater Canyon upon entering Utah, now once again heading southwest. Further downstream, it receives the Dolores River and defines the southern border of Arches National Park, before passing through Moab and flowing through "The Portal", where it exits the Moab Valley between 1,000ft (300m) rock cliffs.
In Utah, Colorado flows primarily through the "slickrock" state, which is characterized by its narrow gorges and unique "creases" created by the slope of the sedimentary rock layers along the fracture. This is one of the most difficult areas to reach in the continent of the United States. Under the encounter with Green River, its largest tributary, Canyonlands, Colorado National Park enters the Cataract Canyon, named after a dangerous cascade, and then Glen Canyon, known for its archaic carved arches and Navajo sand formations. Here, the San Juan River, carrying runoff from the southern slopes of the Colorado Mountains of San Juan, joins Colorado from the east. Colorado then enters northern Arizona, where since the 1960s Glen Canyon Dam near Page has been flooding the Glen Canyon river range, forming Lake Powell for water supplies and hydroelectric power.
In Arizona, the river passes through Ferry Lee, an important crossroads for early explorers and settlers and since the early 20th century the main point where the Colorado River flow is measured for the distribution of the seven US and two Mexican states in the basin. Downstream, the river enters Marble Canyon, the start of the Grand Canyon, passing under the Navajo Bridge on the southern path now. Under a meeting with the Little Colorado River, the river swings westward toward the Granite Gorge, the most dramatic part of the Grand Canyon, where the river cuts up to a mile (1.6 km) into the Colorado highlands, showing some of the oldest visible rocks on Earth, dating for a long time as 2 billion years. The 277 miles (446 km) of the river that flows through the Grand Canyon is largely covered by the Grand Canyon National Park and is known for their difficult rafting, separated by a pond that reaches up to 110 feet (34 m) in depth.
At the lower end of the Grand Canyon, Colorado extends to Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the continent of the United States, formed by the Hoover Dam on the border of Arizona and Nevada. Located in the southeastern metropolis of Las Vegas, this dam is an integral component to the management of the Colorado River, controlling flooding and saving water for farms and cities in the lower Colorado River valley. Under the river dam passes below Mike O'Callaghan -The Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge - which at nearly 900 feet (270 m) above the water is the highest concave bridge in the western hemisphere - and then turns south towards Mexico, defining the Arizona-Nevada border and Arizona-California.
After leaving the boundaries of the Black Canyon, the river emerges from the Colorado Plateau to the Lower Colorado River Basin (LCRV), a desert region that relies on irrigated agriculture and tourism and is also home to some of India's major bookings. The river widened here into vast waters, quite in an average of 500 to 1,000 feet (150 to 300 m) and reached up to 1 / 4 Miles (400 m), with depths ranging from 8 to 60 feet (2 to 20 m). Before Colorado's distribution in the 20th century, the lower rivers experienced frequent changes caused by seasonal flow variations. Joseph C. Ives, who surveyed the lower rivers in 1861, wrote that "channel shifts, banks, islands, bars are so continuous and rapid that detailed descriptions, obtained from the experience of a single journey, will be found to be incorrect, not only during the next year, but perhaps within a week, or even a day. "
LCRV is one of the most populous areas along the river, and there are many cities including Bullhead City, Arizona, Needles, California, and Lake Havasu City, Arizona. Here, many interesting diversions from the river, providing water for local and remote uses including the Salt River Valley in Arizona and Southern California metropolis. The last major US transfer is at Imperial Dam, where more than 90% of the remaining river flows are transferred to the All-American Channel to irrigate the California Imperial Valley, the most productive winter agricultural area in the United States.
Under Imperial Dam, only a small part of the Colorado River is outside Yuma, Arizona, and a meeting with the alternating Gila River - carrying runoff from western New Mexico and most of Arizona - before determining about 24 miles (39 km) from the Mexican-American border. In Morelos Dam, the rest of the Colorado stream is diverted to irrigate the Mexicali Valley, among Mexico's most fertile agricultural lands. Under San Luis RÃÆ'o Colorado, Colorado passes fully into Mexico, defining the Baja California-Sonora border; in many years, the Colorado stretch between here and the Gulf of California is dried up or formed by backflow of irrigation. The Hardy River provides most of the flow to the Colorado River Delta, a vast alluvial floodplain covering about 3,000 square miles (7,800 km 2 ) from northwestern Mexico. A large estuary formed here before Colorado empties into the Gulf about 75 miles (120 km) south of Yuma. Before the development of the 20th century Colorado drained low, large tidal holes were present in the delta and estuaries; the first historical record was made by Croatian missionaries in Spanish devotion Pastor Ferdinand Konik on July 18, 1746. During the spring, the local ebb and eruption named El Burro was formed at the estuary of Montague Island in Baja California and propagated upstream.
The main tributary
Colorado joins more than 25 significant tributaries, where the Green River is the largest with length and discharge. The Green takes drainage from the mid-western Wyoming Wind River Range, from the Uinta Mountains of Utah, and from the Rockies in northwestern Colorado. The Gila River is the second longest and drains a wider area than Green, but has a much lower flow due to the drier climate and greater diversion for irrigation and the city. Both the rivers of Gunnison and San Juan, which take up most of their water from the Rocky Mountains snow, donate more water than Gila does naturally.
Maps Colorado River
Debit
In its natural state, the Colorado River pours about 16.3 million acre feet (20.1 km 3 ) into the Gulf of California each year, at an average flow rate of 22,500 cubic feet per second (640Ã, Â ° m 3 /s). The flow regime is completely unstable - indeed, "before the construction of dams and reservoirs, Colorado is an extreme river like any other in the United States." Once, the river reaches a peak of more than 100,000 cubic feet per second (2,800 m 3 /s) in summer and low currents of less than 2,500 cubic feet per second (71 m 3 /s) in winter each year. In Topock, Arizona, about 300 miles (480 km) upstream from the Gulf, the maximum historical discharge of 384,000 cubic feet per second (10.900 m 3 /s) was recorded in 1884 and a minimum of 422 cubic feet per second ( 11.9 m 3 /s) was recorded in 1935. In contrast, the discharge rate set under Colorado under the Hoover Dam rarely exceeded 35,000 cubic feet per second (990 m> 3 soups /s) or dropped below 4,000 cubic feet per second (110 m 3 /s). The annual runoff volume ranged from a high of 22.2 million feet (27.4 km 3 ) in 1984 to a low of 3.8 million acre feet (4.7 km 3 ) in 2002, although in most of the year only a small fraction of this flow, if any, reached the Gulf.
Between 85 and 90% of Colorado River discharge comes from snow melt, mostly from the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and Wyoming. The three main major tributaries of Colorado - Gunnison, Green, and San Juan - alone deliver nearly 9 million feet (11 km) to the year to the main trunk, mostly from snow melt. The remaining 10 to 15 percent comes from a variety of sources, mainly groundwater ground flows and summer summer storms. The latter often produces very large local floods in lower streams of rivers, but does not often contribute to significant volume runoff. Most annual runoffs in the basin occur with the melting of the Rocky Mountain snowpack, which starts in April and peaks during May and June before tiring in late July or early August.
The current in the mouth has steadily declined since the beginning of the 20th century, and in the years after 1960 the Colorado River has dried up before it reaches the ocean. Urban irrigation, industry and diversion, evaporation from reservoirs, natural flows, and the possibility of climate change all contribute to this substantial flow reduction, threatening future water supplies. For example, the Gila River - formerly one of Colorado's largest tributaries - accounts for a little more than most years because of its water use by towns and farms in central Arizona. The average flow rate from Colorado at the northernmost point of the Mexico-United States border (NIB, or the Northern International Border) is about 2,060 cubic feet per second (58 m 3 /s), 1.49 million acre feet (1.84 km 3 ) per year - less than 10 from natural flow - due to upstream water use. Below here, all the remaining flows are diverted to irrigate the Mexicali Valley, leaving the dry river from the Morelos Dam into the sea complemented by alternating streams of irrigation water. There are exceptions, however, that is, from the beginning to the mid-1980s, when Colorado once again reached the ocean for several years in a row of record-breaking and snowstorm events. In 1984, so much excess runoff occurred that about 16.5 million feet (20.4 km 3 ), or 22,860 cubic feet per second (647 m 3 /s ), poured into the sea.
The United States Geological Survey (USGS) operates or has operated 46 flow meters to measure Colorado River discharge, from upstream near Grand Lake to Mexico-US. abutting. The table in the right list data is related to these eight gauges. River currents as measured in Lee's Ferry, Arizona, about half the length of Colorado and 16 miles (26 km) below Glen Canyon Dam, are used to determine the water allocation in the Colorado River basin. The average recorded debit is about 14,800 cubic feet per second (420 m 3 /s), 10.72 million acre feet (13.22 km 3 ) per year, from 1921 to 2010. This figure is strongly influenced by upstream diversion and evaporation of the reservoir, especially after the completion of the Colorado River Storage Project in the 1970s. Prior to the completion of the Glen Canyon Dam in 1964, the average discharge recorded between 1912 and 1962 was 17,850 cubic feet per second (505 m 3 /s), 12.93 million acre feet (15.95 km) of soup> 3 ) per year.
Water Stream
The Colorado River drainage basin covers 246,000 square miles (640,000 km 2 ) in southwestern North America, making it the seventh largest on the continent. Around 238,600 square miles (618,000 km 2 ), or 97 percent of the watershed, are in the United States. Rivers and tributaries spend most of western Colorado and New Mexico, southwestern Wyoming, east and south of Utah, southeastern Nevada and California, and almost all of Arizona. The dried areas in Baja California and Sonora are very small and do not contribute to measurable runoff. Most of the basins are arid, defined by the Sonoran desert and the Mojave and the Colorado Highlands stretch, although significant forest strands are found in the Rocky Mountains; the Kaibab, Aquarius, and Markagunt highlands in southern Utah and northern Arizona; Rim Mogollon through central Arizona; and other smaller mountains and islands of the sky. The altitude ranges from sea level in the Gulf of California to 14,321 feet (4,365 m) at the peak of Uncompahgre Peak in Colorado, with an average of 5,500 feet (1,700 m) across the basin.
The climate varies greatly throughout the watershed. Means the high monthly temperature is 25.3 Ã, Â ° C (77.5Ã, Â ° F) in the upper basin and 33.4 Ã, Â ° C (92.1Ã, Â ° F) in the lower basin, and the lowest average -3.6 and 8.9Ã, Â ° C respectively (25.5 and 48.0 Â ° F). The average annual rainfall of 6.5 inches (164 mm), ranging from over 40 inches (1,000 mm) in some areas in the Rockies is only 0.6 inches (15 mm) along the Mexican river range. The upper basin generally receives snow and rain during winter and early spring, while rainfall in the lower basin falls mainly during the intense but rare summer storm brought by Monsoon North America.
In 2010, approximately 12.7 million people live in the Colorado River basin. Phoenix in Arizona and Las Vegas in Nevada is the largest metropolitan area in the watershed. Population density is also high along the Colorado River lower below Davis Dam, which includes Bullhead City, Lake Havasu City, and Yuma. Other significant population centers in the basin include Tucson, Arizona; St. George, Utah; and Grand Junction, Colorado. The Colorado river basin is among the fastest growing in the US; Nevada's own population increased by about 66% between 1990 and 2000 when Arizona grew by about 40%.
The Colorado River Valley shares the borders of drainage with many of the main river basins in North America. The Continental Divide of the Americas forms much of the eastern boundary of the water, separating it from the hollow of the Yellowstone River and Platte River - the two tributaries of the Missouri River - to the northeast, and from the upper Arkansas River to the east. The Missouri and Arkansas Rivers are part of the Mississippi River system. Further south, the Colorado River basin borders the Rio Grande drainage, which along with the Mississippi flows into the Gulf of Mexico, as well as a series of endoritical drainage basins (enclosed) in southwestern New Mexico and extreme southeastern Arizona.
For a short stretch, the Colorado watershed meets the drainage basin of the Snake River, a tributary of Columbia River, in the western Wyoming River Valley. To the southwest there, the northern part of Colorado DAS circles the edge of the Great Basin, bordering the closed drainage basin of the Great Salt Lake and the Sevier River in central Utah, and other enclosed basins in southern Utah and Nevada. To the west in California, the Colorado River watershed is bordered by small enclosed valleys in the Mojave Desert, the largest of which is the Salton Sea drainage in the northern Colorado River Delta. In the south, the river basins of Sonoyta, ConcepciÃÆ'³n, and Yaqui, all flow into the Gulf of California, bordering Colorado.
Geology
In the recent Cretaceous period about 100 million years ago, much of western North America remained part of the Pacific Ocean. The tectonic powers of the Farallon Plate collision with the North American Plate pushed the Rocky Mountains between 50 and 75 million years ago in an episode of mountain construction known as the Laramide orogeny. Colorado was first formed as a flowing stream to the west that flows southwest of its range, and its appointment also diverts the Green River, once into a tributary of the Mississippi River, west to Colorado. Around 30 to 20 million years ago, volcanic activity associated with orogeny led to the Mid-Tertiary flare-up ignimbrite, which created smaller formations such as the Chiricahua Mountains in Arizona and stored large amounts of volcanic ash and debris over the watershed. The first Colorado Plateau began to increase during the Eocene, between about 55 and 34 million years ago, but did not reach its current height until about 5 million years ago, around when the Colorado River established its course now into the Gulf of California.
The time scale and sequence in which the current river flow and the Grand Canyon are formed are uncertain. Before the Gulf of California formed about 12 to 5 million years ago with a fault line along the boundary of the North American and Pacific plates, Colorado flowed west to outlets in the Pacific Ocean - perhaps Monterey Bay on the coast of Central California, and may have played a role in the formation of the canyon Monterey submarine. Crustal extensions in the Basin and Range Province began about 20 million years ago and the modern Sierra Nevada began to form about 10 million years ago, eventually diverting Colorado south to the Gulf. When the Colorado Plateau continued to increase between 5 and 2.5 million years ago, it maintained its ancestral path (as a predecessor river) and began to cut the Grand Canyon. Antesedence plays a major role in shaping other geographic features in the watershed, including the division of the Dolores Paradox Valley River in Colorado and cutting the Green River through the Uinta Mountains in Utah.
The sediments carried from the highlands by the Colorado River create a wide delta made of more than 10,000 cubic kilometers (42,000 km 3 ) of the walled material of the northernmost part of the bay in about 1 million years. Cut from the sea, the northern portion of the delta bay finally evaporates and forms Salton Sink, which reaches about 260 feet (79 m) below sea level. Since then the river has changed its course to Salton Sink at least three times, turning it into Lake Cahuilla, which at maximum size flooded the valley to the current Indio, California. The lake took about 50 years to evaporate after Colorado returned to the Gulf. The Salton Sea today can be considered the most recent incarnation of Lake Cahuilla, albeit on a much smaller scale.
Between 1.8 million and 10,000 years ago, the large flow of basalts from the Uinkaret volcanic fields in northern Arizona stemmed the Colorado River inside the Grand Canyon. At least 13 lava dams are formed, the largest of which is more than 2,300 feet (700 m) tall, supporting the river up to nearly 500 miles (800 km) up to now Moab, Utah. The lack of associated sediment deposition along this stretch of the Colorado River, which will accumulate in lakes over time, indicates that most of these dams did not last for more than a few decades before they collapsed or drifted. The failure of lava dams caused by erosion, leakage and cavitation caused a flood disaster, which may be the largest ever occurring in North America, rivaling the late Pleistocene-Missoula Flood in the northwestern United States. The mapping of the flood deposits shows that a 700-foot (210 m) peak passes through the Grand Canyon, reaching a peak discharge of 17 million cubic feet per second (480,000 m 3 /s).
History
The first humans of the Colorado River valley are probably the Paleo-Indians of Clovis and Folsom cultures, who first arrived in the Colorado Plateau about 12,000 years ago. Very little human activity occurred in the watershed until the Archaic Cultural Desert, which from 8,000 to 2,000 years ago constituted the bulk of the human population in the region. These prehistoric populations led a generally nomadic lifestyle, gathered plants and hunted small animals (though some were the earliest hunt for larger mammals that became extinct in North America after the end of the Pleistocene Age). Another notable early group is the Fremont culture, whose inhabitants occupied the Colorado Plateau from 2,000 to 700 years ago. The Fremont is probably the first person from the Colorado River valley to tame the plants and build stone houses; they also left a large number of rock art and petroglyphs, many of which still survive today.
Beginning in the early centuries BC, Colorado River Valley people began to form a large agricultural-based society, some of which lasted hundreds of years and grew into a well-organized civilization that included tens of thousands of inhabitants. The Ancient Puebloan (also known as Anasazi or Hisatsinom) people from the Four Corners region come from the Desert Archaic culture. The Puebloan people developed an elaborate distribution system to supply drinking and irrigation water at Chaco Canyon in northwest New Mexico.
The Puebloans dominate the San Juan River valley, and the center of their civilization is in Chaco Canyon. In Chaco Canyon and surrounding land, they built more than 150 multi-story pueblos or "big houses", the largest, Pueblo Bonito, consisting of over 600 rooms. The Hohokam culture is present along the mid-Gila River starting at about 1 A.D. Between 600 and 700 A.D. they began to use irrigation on a large scale, and did so more productively than other indigenous groups in the Colorado River basin. An extensive irrigation canal system is built on the Gila and Salt rivers, with an estimated total length ranging from 180 to 300 miles (290 to 480 km) and capable of irrigating 25,000 to 250,000 hectares (10,000 to 101,000 ha). Both civilizations support large populations at their altitude; Chaco Canyon Puebloans totaled between 6,000 and 15,000 and estimates for the Hohokam range between 30,000 and 200,000.
These sedentary people greatly exploit their environment, practice harvesting and harvesting other resources on a large scale. The construction of an irrigation canal has caused significant changes in the morphology of many aqueducts in the Colorado River basin. Before contact with humans, rivers like Crazy, Salt, and Chaco are shallow shallow streams with low bank vegetation and large floodplains. In time, flash floods caused a significant decrease in irrigation channels, which in turn caused the flow of native rivers into arroyos, making agriculture difficult. Various methods were used to overcome these problems, including the construction of large dams, but when megapolitan hit the region in the 14th century AD, the ancient civilizations of the Colorado River basin suddenly collapsed. Some Puebloans migrate to the Rio Grande Valley in central New Mexico and central-south Colorado, becoming the forerunner of the Hopi, Zuni, Laguna, and Acoma tribes in western New Mexico. Many tribes who inhabit the Colorado River valley during European contact are descended from the surviving Puebloan and Hohokam people, while others already have a long history of life in the region or migrate from adjacent lands.
Navajo are Athabaskan people who migrated from the north to the Colorado River valley around 1025 AD. They soon established themselves as indigenous Native Americans in the Colorado River valley, and their territory spans over parts of Arizona, New Mexico today, Utah and Colorado - in the native land of Puebloans. In fact, Navajo acquired agricultural skills from Puebloans before the collapse of the Pueblo civilization in the 14th century. The abundance of other tribes makes a perpetual presence along the Colorado River. The Mohave has lived along the rich lowlands under Colorado under the Black Canyon since 1200 AD They are fishermen - navigate streams on raft made of reeds to catch Gila and Colorado pikeminnow trout - and farmers, relying on annual river floods from irrigation to watering their crops. The Ute community has inhabited the valleys of the northern Colorado River, especially in Colorado now, Wyoming and Utah, for at least 2,000 years, but did not become established in the Four Keuru area until 1500 AD. Apache, Cocopah, Halchidhoma, Havasupai, Hualapai, Maricopa, Pima, and Quechan are some other groups that live together or have territories adjacent to the Colorado River and its tributaries.
Beginning in the 17th century, contact with Europe brought significant changes to the lifestyle of Native Americans in the Colorado River basin. The missionaries sought to convert indigenous peoples into Christianity - a sometimes successful effort, as in the meeting of Father Eusebio Francisco Kino in 1694 with "the benign Pimas of the Gila Valley [ready] to receive Father Kino and his Christian teachings." The Spaniards introduced sheep and goats to Navajo, which came highly dependent on them for meat, milk and wool. In the mid-16th century, Utes, having gained horse from Spain, introduced them to the Colorado River valley. The use of horses spread through the hollow through trade between different tribes and greatly facilitated the hunting, communication and travel for indigenous peoples. More warlike groups like Utes and Navajos often use horses to their advantage in attacks on slower tribes to adopt them, such as Goshutes and Southern Paiutes.
The entry of European explorers, the United States, wealth seekers and settlers into the region gradually led to a conflict that forced many Native Americans to abandon their traditional lands. After the acquisition of the Colorado River valley from Mexico in the Mexican-American War in 1846, US military forces ordered by Kit Carson forced more than 8,000 Navajo men, women and children from their homes after a series of failed attempts to constrain their territory, many who met with violent resistance. In what is now known as the Long Walk of the Navajo, the prisoners marched from Arizona to Fort Sumner in New Mexico, and many died along the route. Four years later, Navajo signed an agreement that moved them to a reservation in the Four Corners area now known as the Navajo Nation. This is the largest American Native reservation in the United States, covering 27,000 square miles (70,000 km 2 ) with a population of over 180,000 in 2000.
Mohave was expelled from their territory after a series of small battles and attacks on wagon trains that passed through the area in the late 1850s, culminating in the battle of 1859 with American troops ending the Mohave War. In 1870, Mohave was transferred to a reservation at Fort Mojave, which stretches across the border of Arizona, California, and Nevada. Some Mohave also moved to the Reservoir Indian River Colorado on the Arizona-California border, originally established for the people of Mohave and Chemehuevi in ​​1865. In the 1940s, some Hopi and Navajo were also transferred to this reservation. The four tribes now form a geopolitical body known as the Colorado River Indian Indians.
Native American water rights in the Colorado River basin were largely ignored during the development of vast water resources conducted on rivers and tributaries in the 19th and 20th centuries. Dam construction often has a negative impact on tribal peoples, such as Chemehuevi when their rivers flood land after the completion of Parker Dam in 1938. Ten Native American tribes in the valley now hold or continue to claim water rights to the Colorado River. The US government has taken some measures to help measure and develop the Native American reservation water resources. The first federal government-funded irrigation project in the US was the construction of an irrigation channel at the Colorado River Indian Reservation in 1867. Other water projects include the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project, which was authorized in 1962 for land irrigation in parts of the Navajo Nation in north-central New Mexico. Navajo continues to seek extension of their water rights due to difficulties with the water supply in their reservations; about 40% of the population must carry water by speeding miles into their homes. In the 21st century, they have filed lawsuits against the governments of Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah to raise the right to water. Some of these claims have been successful for Navajo, such as the 2004 settlement where they received 326,000-acre-foot (402,000 ML) rations from New Mexico.
Initial explorer
During the 16th century, Spain began to explore and colonize western North America. The original motive was the search of Seven Golden Cities, or "Cibola", rumored to have been built by Native Americans somewhere in the Southwest desert. According to a US Geological Survey publication, it is possible that Francisco de Ulloa was the first European to see the Colorado River when in 1536 he sailed to the head of the Gulf of California. Francisco VÃÆ'¡squez de Coronado's 1540-1542 expedition began as a Golden City quest, a fairy tale, but after learning from natives in New Mexico from the great river to the west, he sent GarcÃÆ'a LÃÆ'³pez de CÃÆ'¡rdenas to lead a small contingent to find it. With the guidance of the Indian Hopi, CÃÆ'¡rdenas and his men became the first outsiders to see the Grand Canyon. CÃÆ'¡rdenas was reportedly unimpressed with the canyon, assuming the width of the Colorado River at 6 feet (1.8 m) and estimating rock formations as high as 300 feet (91 m) for human size. After a failed attempt to get down to the river, they left the area, defeated by a difficult terrain and blistering weather.
In 1540, Hernando de AlarcÃÆ'³n and his fleet reached the mouth of the river, intending to provide additional supplies for the Coronado expedition. AlarcÃÆ'³n may have waded through Colorado upstream as the current California-Arizona border. Coronado never reached the Gulf of California, and AlarcÃÆ'³n finally gave up and left. Melchior DÃÆ'az reached the delta in the same year, intending to establish contact with AlarcÃÆ'³n, but the last one had passed on Dauz's arrival. Daz named the Colorado River Rio del Tizon ("Firebrand River") after seeing the practices used by locals to warm themselves. The name Tizon lasted for the next 200 years, while the name Rio Colorado ("Red River") was first applied to the Gila tributary, probably the Verde River, around 1720. Map first known to label the main trunk when Colorado was drawn by French cartographer Jacques-Nicolas Bellin in 1743.
During the 18th and early 19th centuries, many Americans and Spaniards believed in the existence of the Buenaventura River, said to run from the Rocky Mountains in Utah or Colorado to the Pacific Ocean. The name Buenaventura was given to Green River by Silvestre VÃÆ'  © lez de Escalante at the beginning of 1776, but Escalante did not know that Green was drained to Colorado. Many maps then show the headwaters of the Green and Colorado rivers connecting with the Sevier River (Rio San Ysabel) and Lake Utah (Lake Timpanogos) before flowing west through Sierra Nevada to California. The mountain man Jedediah Smith reached Colorado low through the valley of the Virgin River in 1826. Smith referred to Colorado as "Seedskeedee", because Green River in Wyoming was known by the fur-trapper, correctly believing it as a continuation of Green and not a separate river as anyone believed under the myth of Buenaventura. Great Basin Expedition by John C. Frà © m mont 1843 has proved that no river crosses the Great Basin and Sierra Nevada, which officially denies the Buenaventura myth. Exploration and navigation under Fort Yuma, 1850-54 >
Between 1850 and 1854, the US Army explored the lower reaches of the Colorado River from the Gulf of California, searching for rivers to provide a cheaper route to supply the outposts of Fort Yuma. The first was from November 1850 to January 1851, by its transport schooner, Invincible under Captain Alfred H. Wilcox and then by a longboat commanded by Lieutenant George Derby. Later, Lieutenant Derby, in its expedition report, recommended that shallow superficial sternwheel draft would be a way to send supplies to the river to the fortress.
The next contractor George Alonzo Johnson with his colleague Benjamin M. Hartshorne, carrying two barges and 250 tons of supplies arrived at the mouth of the river in February 1852, on the Sierra Nevada aircraft carrier under Captain Wilcox. Blending the barges over Colorado, the first barge sank with its total loss. The second finally, after a long struggle forced into Fort Yuma, but what little done was immediately consumed by the garrison. Furthermore, the carts were again sent from the fort to transport the balance of the land supply from the estuary through the swamps and forests of the Delta.
In the end, Derby's recommendation was taken care of and in November 1852, Uncle Sam, a 65-foot steamship steamer, built by Domingo Marcucci, became the first steamer on the Colorado River. It was brought by the Capacity schooner from San Francisco to the delta by the next contractor to supply the castle, Captain James Turnbull. It's assembled and launched at the estuary, 30 miles above the mouth of the Colorado River. Equipped with just a 20-horsepower engine, Uncle Sam can only carry 35 tons of supply, taking 15 days to make the first 120 miles journey. It made many trips up and down the river, taking four months to complete bringing supplies to the castle, increasing river time to 12 days. The omission caused him to drown on the dock beneath Fort Yuma, and then drift before it could be raised, in the spring of floods in 1853. Turnbull in financial trouble, disappeared. Nevertheless, it has shown the value of steamers to solve the supply problems of Fort Yuma.
George Alonzo Johnson with his colleague Hartshorne and new pair Captain Alfred H. Wilcox (formerly of Invincible and Sierra Nevada), formed George A. Johnson & amp; Company and obtained subsequent contracts to supply the castle. Johnson and his colleagues have all learned from their failed attempt to ride Colorado and with the example of Uncle Sam, carrying parts of the stronger side wheels, which are General Jesup , with them to the mouth of Colorado from San Francisco. There it was reassembled in a landing on the river water over the river and reached Fort Yuma, 18 January 1854. This new ship, capable of carrying 50 tons of cargo, was a very successful trip back and forth from the estuary to the fortress for only four or five days. Costs are deducted from $ 200 to $ 75 per ton.
Lorenzo Sitgreaves led the first Corps of the Topographical Engineers mission across northern Arizona to the Colorado River (near Bullhead City, Arizona), and along its eastern edge to the river crossing of the Southern Immigrant Trail at Fort Yuma in 1851.
The second corps of the Topographical Engineers expedition across and across Colorado was a 1853-1854 Pacific Railroad Survey along the 35 parallel north from Oklahoma to Los Angeles, led by Lt. Amiel Weeks Whipple.
George A. Johnson was instrumental in gaining support for funding Congressional military expeditions to the river. With these funds, Johnson is expected to provide transportation for the expedition but is angry and disappointed when the commander of the Lt. expedition Joseph Christmas Ives declined his offer from one of his steamships. Before Ives finished re-assembling his nails in the delta, George A. Johnson departed from Fort Yuma on December 31, 1857, doing his own exploration of the river above the castle on his steam vessel General Jesup. He climbed into the river in twenty-one days as far as the first rapids in the Canyon Pyramid, over 300 miles (480 km) above Fort Yuma and 8 miles (13 km) above the modern Davis Dam site. Out of food, he turned around. When he returned, he met Lt. Ives, Whipple's assistant, who led the expedition to explore the feasibility of using the Colorado River as a navigation route in the Southwest. Ives and his men use specially crafted steamships, shallow US drafts. Explorer , and travel to the river as far as the Black Canyon. He then took a small boat outside the canyon to Fortification Rock and Las Vegas Wash. After experiencing many groundings and accidents and been obstructed by low water in the river, Ives stated: "We have become the first, and no doubt will be the last, white man's party to visit this area that has no advantage. that the Colorado River, along the greater part of its lonely and majestic road, will be forever unoccupied and undisturbed. "
Until 1866, El Dorado Canyon was the real head of navigation on the Colorado River. That year Capt. Robert T. Rogers, led the steamer Esmeralda with barges and ninety tons of goods, arrived in Callville, Nevada, on October 8, 1866. Callville remained the head of navigation on the river until 7 July 1879 , when Captain JA Mellon at Crazy left the landing of Mount El Dorado, steered through the rapids of the Black Canyon, making time notes to Callville and busy overnight. The next morning he billowed through the rapids in Boulder Canyon to reach the mouth of the Virgin River in Rioville July 8, 1879. From 1879 to 1887, Rioville, Nevada was Head of High Water Navigation for Steamers and Sloop mining company Sou'Wester who brought the salt needed to reduction of silver ore from there to a factory in El Dorado Canyon.
Powell Expedition, 1869-1871
Until the mid-19th century, the long stretch of the Colorado and Green rivers between Wyoming and Nevada was largely unexplored because of its remote location and the danger of navigation. Due to the dramatic decrease in river heights, there are rumors about big waterfalls and rough rapids, and the original American tales reinforce their credibility. In 1869, a veteran of the Civil War consisting of one John Wesley Powell led an expedition from Green River Station in Wyoming, which aimed to run two rivers along the way to St. John's. Thomas, Nevada, near the current Dam Hoover. Powell and nine men - neither of them had any experience before the Flood - set in May. After challenging the rapids at Lodore Gate, Cataract Canyon, and other canyons along Colorado, the entourage arrived at the mouth of the Little Colorado River, where Powell recorded the most famous words ever written about the Grand Canyon of the Colorado:
We are now ready to embark on a journey to the Great Unknown. Our boat, tied to a common pole, was shaken each other, as they were thrown by a fussy river. They ride high and light, because their load is lighter than we want. We have one month remaining. The flour has been sifted back through the mosquito filter; the stale meat was dried, and the worst was boiled; some pounds of dried apples have spread in the sun, and again shrink to their normal shape; sugar has melted all, and gone down the river; but we have plenty of coffee. Boat lighting has the advantage: they will ride the waves better, and we will have less to carry when we make portage.
We are three quarters of a mile in the depths of the earth, and the great river shrinks to nothing, for it springs from its angry waves against walls and cliffs, which rise into the world above; they are only small ripples, and we but the pygmies, running up and down the sand, or lost among the big boulders. We have an unknown distance to run; an unknown river to explore. What is there, we do not know; what rocks hit the channel, we do not know; what looms over the river, we do not know; Ah, all right! we can think of many things. Men talk cheerfully as usual; jokes were freely heralded this morning; but to me, the cheers are gloomy and the jokes are terrible.
On August 28, 1869, three people left the expedition, convinced that they could not possibly survive the Grand Canyon. They were killed by Native Americans after arriving at the edge of the canyon; two days later, the expedition ran from the rapids of the Grand Canyon and reached St. Thomas. Powell led the second expedition in 1871, this time with financial support from the US government. Explorers mention many features along the Colorado and Green rivers, including Glen Canyon, Dirty Devil River, Flaming Gorge, and Lodore Gate. In what may be an irony of irony, modern-day Lake Powell, which flooded Glen Canyon, was also named for their leader.
American Settlement
Beginning in the second half of the 19th century, under Colorado under the Black Canyon became an important waterway for steamship trading. In 1852, Uncle Sam was launched to provide supplies to the US Army outpost at Fort Yuma. Although the ship accidentally broke down and drowned early in its career, commercial traffic quickly mushroomed because river transport was much cheaper than transporting goods on land. Navigation on the Colorado River is dangerous because of the shallow channels and variations of streams, so the first sternwheeler on the river, Colorado in 1855, is designed to carry 60 short tons (54 Â ° C) while drawing less than 2 feet (0 , 6 m) water. Bora tides from low Colorado also present a great danger; in 1922, a waves as high as 15 feet (4.6 m) - high drowned a ship to Yuma, killing between 86 and 130 people. Steamboat quickly became a major source of communication and trade along the river until competition from railroads began in the 1870s, and finally the construction of a dam along the lower river in 1909, no one had the key to allowing the passage of the ship.
During the Manifest Destiny era in the mid-19th century, American pioneers settled in many western states but generally avoided the Colorado River valley until the 1850s. Under Brigham Young's great vision for the "great empire of the desert", (The Deseret State) the Mormon settlers were one of the first white men to establish a permanent presence in the watershed, Fort Clara or Fort Santa Clara, in the winter of 1855 - 1856 along the Santa Clara River, a tributary of the Virgin River. In lower Colorado mining was a major impetus for economic development, copper mining in the southwest of the New Mexico Territory in the 1850s then the Mohave War and the gold rush on the Gila River in 1859, the El Dorado Canyon Rush in 1860 and the Colorado River Gold Rush in 1862.
In 1860, anticipating the American Civil War, the Mormons established settlements to plant cotton along the Virgin River in Washington County, Utah. From 1863 to 1865, the Mormon colony established St. Thomas and other colonies on the Muddy and Virgin Rivers in northwestern Arizona, (now Clark County, Nevada). Ferry Stone was founded by colonists in Colorado at the mouth of the Virgin River to bring their produce on the wagon road to the mining district of Mohave County, Arizona to the south. Also, in 1866, a steamboat landing was erected in Callville, intended as a way out to the Pacific Ocean through the Colorado River, for Mormon settlements in the Great Basin. These settlements reached a peak population of about 600 before being abandoned in 1871, and for almost a decade these valleys became a haven for the culprits and the livestock enthusiast. A Mormon settler, Daniel Bonelli, remained, operated the ferry and began mineing salt at nearby mines, taking him to the barge, down the river to El Dorado Canyon where the stone was used to process the silver ore. From 1879 to 1887, the Steamboat Steamboat Colorado company carried salt, operated streams in high flood springs, through Boulder Canyon, to landings in Rioville at the mouth of the Virgin River. From 1879 to 1882, the Southwestern Mining Company, the largest in El Dorado Canyon, brought Sou'Wester's 56-foot lifeboat sailing up and down the river carrying salt in low water years until it was destroyed in the Quick and Glow of the Black Canyon Gile.
Mormons established settlements along the Duchesne River Valley in the 1870s, and filled the Little Colorado River valley at the end of this century, settling in cities like St. John's. Johns, Arizona. They also established settlements along the Gila River in central Arizona beginning in 1871. These early settlers were impressed by the extensive ruins of the Hohokam civilization that had previously occupied the valley of the Gila River, and are said to have "dreamed of their new agricultural civilization rising as mythical birds phoenix from the ashes of the Hohokam community ". The Mormons were the first white men to develop water resources from large-scale basins, and built complex dam networks and canals to irrigate wheat, oats and barley in addition to building extensive sheep and livestock farms.
One of the main reasons Mormons were able to colonize Arizona was the existence of the Jacob Hamblin ferry boat across Colorado at Lee's Ferry (later known as Pahreah Crossing), which began operating in March 1864. This location is the only part of the river for hundreds of miles in both directions where the canyon walls are down, allowing for the development of transport routes. John Doyle Lee established a more permanent ferry system on site in 1870. One reason Lee chose to run the ferry was to escape from the Mormon leaders who held him responsible for the Mountain Meadows Massacre, where 120 immigrants in a wagon train were killed by a militia locally masquerading as Native Americans. Though located along major travel routes, Ferry Lee is very remote, and there Lee and his family set up a properly named Dell Farm. In 1928, the ferry sank, resulting in the death of three people. Later that year, the Navajo Bridge finished at a point 5 miles (8 km) downstream, making the ship obsolete.
The gold strikes from the mid-19th century to early 20 played a major role in attracting settlers to the upper Colorado River valley. In 1859, a group of adventurers from Georgia found gold along the Blue River in Colorado and established the Breckenridge mining boomerang. During 1875, even larger strikes were conducted along the Uncompahgre and San Miguel rivers, also in Colorado, and this led to the creation of Ouray and Telluride, respectively. Since most of the gold deposits along the upper Colorado River and its tributaries occur in lode deposits, extensive mining systems and heavy machinery are required to extract them. Mining remains a substantial contributor to the upper basin economy and has caused acidic mine drainage problems in several regional streams and rivers.
The naming of the Upper Colorado River and the controversy
Before 1921, the Colorado River at the top of the meeting with the Green River in Utah had various names. Pastor Dominguez and Escalante named him Rio San Rafael in 1776. By the mid-1800s, the river between Green River and Gunnison River was best known as the Great River. The river over the junction with the Gunnison River, however, is known as the Bunkara River, Northern Fork of the Big River, Blue River, and the Big River. The last name was not consistently applied until the 1870s.
In 1921, US Representative Edward T. Taylor of Colorado petitioned the Congressional Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce to rename the Grand River as the Colorado River. Taylor noticed the fact that the Colorado River began outside its borders as an "abomination". On July 25, the name change was made official at House Joint Resolution 460 of the 66th Congress, over the representative objections of Wyoming, Utah, and USGS, noting that Green River is longer and has a larger drainage basin above. his encounter with the Grand River, although the Grand contributes to a larger flow of water.
Engineering and development
Currently, between 36 and 40 million people rely on Colorado River water for agricultural, industrial and domestic needs. The Southern Nevada Water Authority calls the Colorado River one of "the most controlled, controversial, and litigation-ridden rivers in the world". Over 29 large dams and hundreds of miles of canals serve to supply thirsty towns, provide irrigation water for about 4 million hectares (1.6 million hectares), and meet peak power demand in the Southwest, generating more than 12 billion kWh of power plants hydro power each year. Often called the "Nile America", Colorado is so carefully managed - with basin basins able to withstand four times the annual stream flow - that every drop of water is used an average of 17 times a year.
One of the earliest water projects in the Colorado River basin is the Grand Ditch, a 16-mile (26 km) diversion channel that sends water from the Never Summer Mountains, which naturally drains upstream of the Colorado River, to support supplies at the Colorado Front Front Urban Corridor. Built mainly by Japanese and Mexican workers, the moat was considered a technical marvel when completed in 1890, delivering 17,700 acre feet (21,800 ML) across the Continental Divide each year. Because about 75 percent of Colorado's rainfall falls in the west of the Rocky Mountains, while 80 percent of the population lives in the east of the area, more transfers of this interbasin water, locally known as transmiking diversion, are followed. While first imagined at the end of the 19th century, the construction of the Thompson Colorado-Big Project (C-BT) did not begin until the 1930s. C-BT now delivers more than 11 times the flow of the Grand Ditch from the Colorado River watershed to towns along the Front Range.
Meanwhile, large-scale development also begins at the end of the Colorado River. In 1900, the California Development Company (CDC) entrepreneurs looked to the Southern California Valley of the South as an excellent location for developing irrigated aquatic farms. Engineer George Chaffey was hired to design the Alamo Canal, which was separated from the Colorado River near the Knob Pilot, curved southward into Mexico, and dumped into the Alamo River, a dry arroyo that has historically brought Colorado's flood stream to Salton Sink. With a steady year-round flow on the Alamo River, the irrigators at Imperial Valley were able to start large-scale farming, and small towns in the region began to flourish with the inclusion of job seekers. In 1903, more than 100,000 acres (40,000 ha) in the valley were in cultivation, supporting a growing population of 4,000.
It was not long before the Colorado River began to cause chaos with erratic flow. In autumn, the river will fall below the channel canal level, and temporary brush stirrer dams have to be built. In early 1905, massive floods destroyed the main canal road, and water began to run uncontrollably down the canal toward Salton Sink. On August 9, the entire Colorado stream veered into the canal and began flooding the base of the Empire Valley. In a desperate gambling to seal the offense, the Southern Pacific Railroad crew, whose footsteps cross the valley, tried to stem Colorado over the canal, only to see their work destroyed by banjir bandang. It took seven attempts, over $ 3 million, and two years for railways, the CDC, and the federal government to permanently block offenses and send Colorado on a natural trail to the abyss - but not before part of the Imperial Valley was flooded beneath a 45 mile long lake (72 km), Sea of ​​Salton at the moment. Once the threat of flooding soon passed, it was realized that a more permanent solution would be needed to control Colorado.
Lower Basin Development, 1930s 50s
In 1922, six US states in the Colorado River basin signed the Colorado River Compact, which divides half of the river into the Upper Basin (drainage area above Lee's Ferry, which consists of parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming and a small part of Arizona) and Lower Basin (Arizona, California, Nevada, and parts of New Mexico and Utah). Each is entitled to 7.5 million feet (9.3 km 3 ) of water per year, a figure believed to represent half of the stream's minimum stream at Lee's Ferry. This was followed by a US-Mexican agreement in 1944, allocating 1.5 million acres (1.9 km 3 ) of Colorado River water to the last country per year. Arizona refused to ratify the Colorado River Compact in 1922 because it was feared California would take too much from the bottom of the basin; in 1944 a compromise was reached in which Arizona would gain a robust allocation of 2.8 million feet (3.5 km 3 ), but only if California 4.4-million-acre-foot (5 , 4 km 3 ) allocation is prioritized during the drought years. These and other nine decisions, compacts, federal measures and treaties made between 1922 and 1973 formed what is now known as the Law of the River.
On September 30, 1935, the United States Reclamation Bureau (USBR) completed the Hoover Dam at the Black Canyon Colorado River. Behind the dam, Lake Mead, the largest man-made lake in the US, is able to withstand more than two years of Colorado river flow. Hoover's development is a major step towards stabilizing the Colorado River's underwater channel, saving water for irrigation during drought, and providing much-needed flood control as part of a program known as the Boulder Canyon Project. Hoover is the world's highest dam at the time of construction and also has the largest hydroelectric power plant in the world. The flow arrangement of the Hoover Dam opened the door for rapid development on the lower Colorado River; The Imperial Dam and Parker followed in 1938, and the Davis Dam was completed in 1950.
Done in 1938 about 20 miles (32 km) above Yuma, the Imperial Dam redirected almost all Colorado streams into two irrigation canals. The All-American Channel, built as a permanent substitute for the Alamo Canal, is so named because it is located entirely in the US, unlike its ill-fated predecessor. With a capacity of over 26,000 cubic feet per second (740 m 3 /s), All-American is the world's largest irrigation canal, supplying water up to 500,000 acres (2,000 km 2 ) of the California Empire Valley. Due to the warm and sunny climate of the valley resulting in a year-long growing season in addition to the huge water supply provided by Colorado, the Empire Valley is now one of North America's most productive agricultural areas. In 1957, USBR completed its second canal, Gila Gravity Main Canal, to irrigate about 110,000 acres (450Ã, km 2 ) in southwest Arizona with Colorado River water as part of the Crazy Project.
The Lower Basin states also seeks to develop Colorado for municipal supplies. Central Arizona initially relied on the Gila River and its tributaries through projects such as Theodore Roosevelt and Coolidge Dams - completed in 1911 and 1928, respectively. Roosevelt is the first major dam built by USBR and provides the water needed to begin large-scale agricultural and urban development in the region. The Colorado River Aqueduct, which provided water nearly 250 miles (400 km) from nearby Parker Dam to 10 million people in the Los Angeles metropolitan area, was completed in 1941. The San Diego Aqueduct branch, whose initial phase was completed in 1947, 3 million people in San Diego and beyond. The Las Vegas Valley of Nevada is experiencing rapid growth in part due to the construction of Hoover Dam, and Las Vegas has tapped the pipeline to Lake Mead in 1937. Nevada officials, believes that the groundwater resources in the southern part of the country are sufficient for future growth, large quantities of dam water supply than water from Colorado; so they settle for the smallest allocation da
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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