Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 210, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 September 1912 — Age of Valleys. [ARTICLE]

Age of Valleys.

The erosive power of water H hard to estimate with any degree of exactness. A method of computing the probable age of valleys will therefore be welcome, even if the figures may seem to some open question. A' French scientist has lately reported the results of his studies of the erosive action of an ancient spring in the valley of Lauroux, near Lodeve, France. This spring produces about three and one-half quarts of -water a second, and in every cubic meter of water (35,314 cubic feet), the scientist found 362 grams of calcareous sand. He estimates that the spring erodes 247 pounds of rock daily, or over 45 tons annually. In the course of a century a stream of this else would be able to hollow out a circular cave 52 feet in diameter and 62 feet in length. At the end of 1,060 years it would make a valley 32 feet deep* 64 feet wide and 238 feet long.