This is what I wanna do when I grow up.

[athelind]

People are always sending me "cool" links from places like BoingBoing, but it's always stuff related to SF and fantasy, or gaming and superheroes, or gadgets and space travel.

Among my various job titles over the years is "Historical Bathymetry Change Analyst", and that's the one I got to pick myself. I love maps. I love history. I love teasing out patterns from reams of data. Examining the way bodies of water change over decades and centuries fascinates me.

Ladies and gentlemen, This is Relevant to My Interests:



That's the course of the Mississippi River, as it's changed and meandered over tens of thousands of years.

Look at that incredible image.

Just look at it.

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Comments

[bigtig.livejournal.com]

Did you see the recent NatGeo documentary on early man in the valley between europe and england during the last ice age.

At one point they combined a large amount of sonar information and created a river-map layout of the land that is now flooded under the english channel. Amazing.

[leonard-arlotte.livejournal.com]

Changing of rivers has always been one of my favorite aspects of geology... I was really excited a couple years ago when the Wabash River became 6 miles shorter by this process. The resulting island is now the largest on the Wabash, but the oxbow is expected to fill in eventually.

[tombfyre.livejournal.com]

That is some amazing stuff right there. ^^ I can definitely see the attraction to such a profession.

[araquan.livejournal.com]

Indeedy. And this is why Carter Lake, IA is on the 'wrong' side of the Missouri, among other geographical oddities along the big rivers. It's fascinating stuff.

[rikoshi.livejournal.com]

Man, now I'm remembering my time in college, studying paleontology and checking out dinosaur fossils in the Pioneer Valley, thinking about how we were at the bottom of what was once Lake Hitchcock.

[thoughtsdriftby.livejournal.com]

http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/mapping/csmp/

[quelonzia.livejournal.com]

hrmmm...wonder why I see dragonishness in that picture? :)

[athelind.livejournal.com]

Cuz you're incorrigible, sweetness. =)