A bottomland is a lowland formed by alluvial deposit near a river, lake, or stream, which is flooded irregularly lasting for varying periods of time. Flooding in bottomlands can last from several days to several months.
Swamps are areas of very low topographic relief (they are flat) usually associated with a river or a lake.
The most immediate lands in the vicinity of the Mississippi River within that great river's flood plain, the Southeast Missouri bottomlands, have experienced regular flooding over millions of years converting the land to a swamp.
A series of great earthquakes in 1811, known as the new Madrid earthquake altered the topography of the southeast lowlands, sinking some of the land in the Southeast Bootheel and in Northeast Arkansas, adding even further to the flooding in the area.
This process of repetitive flooding, over millions of years created the Bottomland Hardwood Forests in Southeast Missouri and created the conditions that led some to call it Swampeast Missouri.
in the late 1800s some 2,000,000 acres of this bottomland hardwood forest was clear cut logged, and land owners seeing an opportunity began draining the swamp and converting the fertile alluvial soil to farmland.
Several local business owners and residents got together in an effort to save a large burr oak and 89 acres of land around it. Surrounded by agricultural lands, Big Oak Tree State Park is one of the very few remaining places where you can experience the Bottomlands of Swampeast Missouri in their natural state.
To claim this EarthCache please send me a message with answers to the following questions.
- Using your GPSr, determine the elevation at Reference Point 1 (N 36° 38.636 W 089° 17.271)
- Describe the ground at Reference Point 1 (N 36° 38.636 W 089° 17.271)
- Using your GPSr, determine the elevation at the final coordinates (N 36° 38.498 W 089° 17.872)
- Describe the ground at the final coordinates (N 36° 38.498 W 089° 17.872)
- Given that the Mississippi River, at it's closest point is two kilometers to the Southwest of this position and is at an elevation of 84 meters (278ft) and the river exits Missouri at the Arkansas border at an elevation of 70 meters (232 feet), Would you expect flooding in this area to be frequent or infrequent?