Rio Grande

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"Río Bravo" redirects here. For other uses, see Río Bravo (disambiguation).

For other uses, see Rio Grande (disambiguation).

Rio Grande
Map of the Rio Grande Watershed.
Origin	southern Colorado, in Hinsdale County
Mouth	Gulf of Mexico; Cameron County, Texas, and Matamoros municipality, Tamaulipas
Basin countries	United States, Mexico
Length	3,034 km (1,885 mi)
Source elevation	3,900 m (12,800 ft) at source to sea level at mouth
Avg. discharge	averages 160m³/sec
Basin area	607,965 km² (234,737 sq mi)

Known as the Rio Grande in the United States and as the Río Bravo (or, more formally, the Río Bravo del Norte) in Mexico, the river, 1,885 miles (3,034 km) long, is the third longest river system in the United States^[1] and serves as a natural boundary along the border between Texas and Mexico.

1 Description
2 Names and pronunciation
3 Literature
- 3.1 Folklore
- 3.2 In Fiction
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Description

The Rio Grande rises in the east Rio Grande National Forest in the U.S. state of Colorado. It is formed by the confluence of several streams at the base of Canby Mountain, just east of the continental divide. From there, it flows through the San Luis Valley, then south into New Mexico through Albuquerque and Las Cruces to El Paso, Texas, where it begins to form the border between the U.S. and Mexico. A major tributary, the Río Conchos, enters at Ojinaga, Chihuahua, below El Paso, and supplies most of the water in the 1,254 miles (2,018 km) Texas border segment. Other known tributaries include the Pecos and the smaller Devils, which join the Rio Grande on the site of Amistad Dam. Despite its name and length, the Rio Grande is not navigable by oceangoing ships, nor are there smaller craft using it as a route. In fact it is barely navigable at all. Its natural flow is only 1/20 the volume of the Colorado River, and less than 1/100 that of the Mississippi.

The river has, since 1848, marked the boundary between Mexico and the United States from the twin cities of El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, to the Gulf of Mexico. As such, it was across this river that Texan slaves fled when seeking their freedom, aided by Mexico's liberal colonization policies and abolitionist stance.^[2]

The major international border crossings along the river are Ciudad Juárez and El Paso; Presidio, Texas and Ojinaga, Chihuahua; Laredo, Texas and Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas; McAllen-Hidalgo, Texas, and Reynosa, Tamaulipas; and Brownsville, Texas, and Matamoros. Other notable border towns are the Texas/Coahuila pairings of Del Rio–Ciudad Acuña and Eagle Pass–Piedras Negras.

The Rio Grande flowing in Big Bend National Park.

The US and Mexico share the waters of this river under a series of agreements administered by the joint US-Mexico Boundary and Water Commission. The most notable of these were signed in 1906 and 1944.

Use of that belonging to the US is regulated by the Rio Grande Compact, an interstate pact between Colorado, New Mexico and Texas. The Rio Grande is over-appropriated, that is, there are more users for the water than there is water in the river. Because of both drought and overuse the section from El Paso downstream through Ojinaga was recently tagged "The Forgotten River" by those wishing to bring attention to the river's deteriorated condition.

In the summer of 2001 a 100 m wide sandbar formed at the mouth of the river, marking the first time in recorded history that the Rio Grande failed to empty into the Gulf of Mexico. The sandbar was subsequently dredged, but it re-formed almost immediately. Spring rains the following year flushed the re-formed sandbar out to sea, but it returned in the summer of 2002. As of September 2006, the river once again reaches the Gulf. However, ecologists fear that unless rainfall returns to normal levels during the next few years and strict water conservation measures are adopted by communities along the river, the Rio Grande may soon become extinct.^{[citation needed]}

The Rio Grande rises in high mountains and flows for much of its length at high elevation; El Paso is 3,762 feet (1,147 m) above sea level. In New Mexico, the river flows through the Rio Grande Rift from one sediment-filled basin to another, cutting canyons between the basins and supporting a fragile bosque ecosystem in its floodplain.

The Upper Rio Grande near Creede, Colorado

From El Paso eastward the river flows through desert. Only in the sub-tropical lower Rio Grande Valley is there extensive irrigated agriculture. The river ends in a small sandy delta at the Gulf of Mexico. Due to the persistent period of dry weather, the river has only occasionally emptied into the Gulf Of Mexico since 2002. Google Satellite Map

Millions of years ago, the Rio Grande ended at the bottom of the Rio Grande Rift in Lake Cabeza de Vaca. But about one million years ago the stream was "captured" and began to flow east.

The Rio Grande was designated as one of the American Heritage Rivers in 1997.

[edit] Names and pronunciation

Río Grande is Spanish for "Big River" and Río Grande del Norte means "Great River of the North". In English, Rio Grande is pronounced either IPA: /ˈɹiːoʊ gɹænd/ or /ˈɹiːoʊ ˈgɹɑndeɪ/. Because "río" means "river" in Spanish, the phrase "Rio Grande River" is redundant. In Mexico it is known as Río Bravo del Norte, "bravo" meaning fierce.

The Rio Grande in its lower course, between Matamoros (right side) and Brownsville (left side)

[edit] Literature

Paul Horgan, Great River: The Rio Grande in North American History. Volume 1, Indians and Spain. Vol. 2, Mexico and the United States. 2 Vols. in 1, 1038 pages - Wesleyan University Press 1991, 4th Reprint, ISBN 0-8195-6251-3

The Rio Grande at Bernalillo, New Mexico, with the Sandia Mountains

[edit] Folklore

Many children who were raised in some of the school systems in Albuquerque, New Mexico in the 1970s were taught that the Rio Grande was a Pandora's box. The river was claiming many young lives. Mythology was brought into classrooms in hopes of keeping the children away from the river. The children were told that if they went near the river, Pandora was going to take them and they would never be seen again. It was thought that Pandora was a spirit in the river.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] In Fiction

In Star Trek there was a Starfleet Runabout called the USS Rio Grande assigned to Deep Space Nine. All Starfleet Runabouts are named after Earth rivers. The USS Rio Grande had the honour of discovering the Bajoran Wormhole and being the only runabout to survive all seven seasons of Deep Space Nine.