What's the area's physical geography like?
Well, the city sits on some fairly flat land that is nestled in between a series of mountains that increase in height as you get further from town. They literally wrap around the city, as they can be seen in in any direction you look from my apartment, except to the northeast where the bay is. They aren't exactly the Swiss Alps, but they run around 5,000 to 6,000 feet high or so, which makes them comparable to most of the Appalacians. Becasue they increase in height moving out, you can see short ones up close, medium a little further away, and tall in the background, like they are rolling away from your perspective. They are also covered from bottom to top with trees, vines, and bamboo, and are quite beautiful.
Four rivers run from the west and southwest to the northeast, all of which are relatively small, being 75 to 150 yards across at best. They're shallow, too, and when it rains hard they rise quickly and flow fast. But, when the rain stops, they drain out just as speedily, which is typical of small-channel, short-run, high-gradient streams and rivers. All have been flanked by fairly tall man-made levees, most of which have been concreted over. So, while the rivers rise drastically at times, there's still no worry about flooding.
They all merge as they approach the nearby bay, and enter it as one large, very-shallow channel. There are a number of low, flow-over type dams throughout the City that keep the saltwater from the bay from creeping up the rivers, as well. My guess is that this keeps the river water completely fresh and usable for agriculture, as the saltwater "intrusions" in many such rivers would prevent it from being used for crops. I've seen several channels/canals that cut off the rivers and are used to irrigate rice fields.
The coastline 2 miles to the northeast is actually a scattered mix of rock, muddy tidal flats, and a few sandy beaches. In many spots the mountains run right up the water and you can see trees hanging out over it. The sand is really neat too, as it is much darker in color than the blinding quartz sand beaches of Florida, and is absolutley full of tiny mica flakes and bits of pink and flesh-colored feldspar. I looks almost like something you'd want to sprinkle over a cake. On some of the beach areas there are large bolders made of highly-deformed metamorphic rocks, showing thick bands of light-colored quartz in a dark mineral, wavy matrix. To my surprise, you can also find pieces of just about every type of igneous rock if you look around enough.
Suo Bay is much larger than Tampa Bay and when you look out over it, you'd think it was a sea. Tampa Bay is 10? miles across, but Suo Bay is more like 35 or 40 at the widest point. You look out and across and you see mountain tops, but no shore, as the shoreline is actually well below the horizon. The water is fairly murky, as the rivers constantly pour sediment into it, but the thousands of crabs and fishes I've seen don't seem to mind too much. I don't either.
|
|
|
|