Underground Rivers - University of New Mexico

March 1960
July 1961
October 1975
Chapter 22 -- Boys' Life
"So You Want to be a Geologist."
For example, there are geologists who trace hidden underground
water sources in regions having precious little water. One
method of doing this is with a radioactive tracer. A water-poor
area may have an underground river flowing beneath it. If
engineers could plot the hidden course of the river, they could
tap the underground water by installing pumping stations along
the path. The geologist helps in this task by pouring radioactive
material into a river at the point where it disappears underground.
Then with radioactive detection instruments on the surface he
follows the underground radioactive current and so plot the
course of the river. Geologists do still other kinds of work equally
exciting and helpful to men.
"Pouring radioactive material into a river at the point where it
disapperas underground." For further interesting experiments,
the Scout needed the Gilbert Atomic Energy Kit.
We'll cover groundwater tracers in Chapter 46, Finding the
Underground Rivers.
"On the Cahokia Pilgrimage"
From the levee the trail winds through a quarry and past a falling
spring, appropriately named Falling Springs, where an
underground stream pours out about 50 feet up on the side of a
bluff.
Non fiction with a common error of nomenclature -- "underground
river" again used where the correct term is "spring."
"Hiking a Raft Down the Underground River"
The raft of inner tubes, canvas, and plywood lurched forward a
few feet in the murky water -- then ground to a halt on the sandy
bottom of the Salinas River.
"So this is why it's called an underground river," Brian Dana said.
For the tenth time in 15 minutes Brian, Dan Dutra, and Byron
Foster jumped from the deck of the raft and tugged on the craft's
towropes.
A wry observer, Scout Brian Dana. We'll see, however, that the
Salinas may have a deeper underground tie in Chapter 86, The
Rio San Buenaventura.
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