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RIO GRANDE

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 357 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RIO GRANDE , a See also:

North See also:American See also:river, which rises in the See also:San Juan Mountains of See also:southern See also:Colorado, flows S.E. and S. in Colorado, S. by W. and S.E. through New See also:Mexico, and S.E. between Tens and Mexico to the Gulf of Mexico. Its lengthis approximately 2200 in., and for about 1300 M. it forms the See also:international boundary between the See also:United States and Mexico. It presents many features of a complex physiographic type, being first a river of the Rocky Mountains; then of the -interior deserts . and then of the See also:Atlantic Coastal See also:Plain. It also presents a complicated See also:geological See also:history, as it includes what were originally several distinct streams. The Mexicans See also:call it the Rio del Norte in its upper course, the Rio See also:Bravo in the " Big See also:Bend," from the mouth of the Conchas river to the mouth of the Devils river, and the Rio Grande only in its course through the Coastal Plain. From its headwaters, 12,000 ft. above the See also:sea, it rushes rapidly down a See also:mountain See also:canyon to San Luis Valley, in Colorado. It flows with moderate See also:speed through' this broad valley, enters a See also:long canyon with a maximum See also:depth of 400 ft., about 4 m. above the boundary between Colorado and New Mexico, and is hemmed in between canyon walls rising as high as r000 ft. or between the sides of narrow mountain valleys throughout its course through New Mexico. It passes through a See also:series of picturesque canyons, some of them 1750 ft. in depth, in the " Big Bend," and becomes ' a silt-laden stream with a shifting channel in its passage through the Coastal Plain. Except in the See also:flood See also:season of May and See also:June, the quantity of See also:water which, for See also:irrigation and by evaporation, is taken from the Rio Grande between its entrance to the San Luis Valley and the mouth of the Conchas, is greater than that received, and as a See also:con-sequence it is an intermittent stream in this region. The flow of the Conchas is See also:constant, and in the " Big Bend" the See also:volume of the Rio Grande is enhanced by springs which break out in the See also:bed. The See also:total flow of the Rio Grande is ten times greater in some years than in others, and when its See also:waters have , been • highest there have been See also:great floods in its See also:lower course and so' much shifting . of its See also:banks as to cause international cdmplicationsi Even in its course through the Coastal . Plain its channel is so much obstructed by See also:sand bars that it is of little importance for See also:navigation.

As the increasing diversion of the water of the Upper Rio Grande for irrigation in Colorado and New Mexico resulted in a scarcity of water for this purpose in Mexico, that See also:

country complained, and to remedy the evil the Reclamation Service of the United States proposed the construction by the United States of a storage See also:dam across the river near Engle, New Mexico, which would See also:form a storage See also:reservoir having a capacity of 2,000,000 See also:acre-feet and from which Mexico should be furnished with 6o,o0o acre-feet of water annually. Mexico agreed to this proposal and a treaty covering the See also:matter was proclaimed in See also:January 1907. The See also:principal towns and cities on the river are: See also:Brownsville, See also:Texas; See also:Matamoros, Mexico; See also:Laredo, Texas; El Paso, Texas; and See also:Ciudad See also:Juarez, Mexico.

End of Article: RIO GRANDE

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