Moving Waters May Still Be Muddy
A new study shows that under the right conditions mud can form in moving water. The finding affects engineers as well as geologists and paleontologists looking at earth's history. Steve Mirsky explains, with reporting by Harvey Black.
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The last time you thought about mud might have been when you were making pies out of it. But scientists just cleared up some muddy ideas. It had been thought that mud forms only in still water. But researchers writing in the December 14th issue of the journal Science report that mud still can occur when water is moving.
To sift out this conclusion the scientists got down and dirty. They built a flume, a channel for moving water. And they suspended fine clay particles in the liquid. Mud of course formed when the water wasn’t moving. But when a motorized paddle created a current, mud also formed.
Cleaning up misconceptions about mud is interesting on its own. But the researchers say the finding should also help engineers who have to maintain harbors, shipping lanes and canals. Because they now have the real dirt on the conditions that lead to mud. And since mud is a big part of the geological record, we may have to re-examine ideas about the conditions that existed millions of years ago and led to the rock formations we find today.
—Steve Mirsky, with reporting by Harvey Black
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