Baby, I love your curves

June 18, 2010 1:37 PM

Alluvial porn (SFW)

Bonus centerfolds!

Previously linked

posted by emilyd22222 (29 comments total)

*examines links*

*looks up alluvial*

*examines links again*

Hrm...

Apparently I don't swing that way?

Neat pictures, though. :)
posted by zarq at 1:47 PM on June 18, 2010 [1 favorite]

oh, man, that's delicious. No staples either!
posted by toodleydoodley at 1:47 PM on June 18, 2010

God I love Pruned.

Anyone know if it would be possible to turn this into a very nice, very high-resolution poster?
posted by (Arsenio) Hall and (Warren) Oates at 1:48 PM on June 18, 2010

pretty sure second link is a double... nice though
posted by nathancaswell at 1:53 PM on June 18, 2010

oh wait, I see... maybe I remembered it from the comment section
posted by nathancaswell at 1:54 PM on June 18, 2010

Nice deposits!
posted by Babblesort at 1:54 PM on June 18, 2010

Gorgeous, especially that second link.
posted by reductiondesign at 1:56 PM on June 18, 2010

Anyone know if it would be possible to turn this into a very nice, very high-resolution poster?

You could try training ¡Mapa Gigante! on this area.
posted by iloveit at 1:57 PM on June 18, 2010 [2 favorites]

There are parts of that pic of Jupiter in the third link that could actually qualify as porn. Because... wow, vagiclitoriffic!
posted by heyho at 1:57 PM on June 18, 2010

Ahhhh... it's all coming back to me now. Geology Prof: "It's NOT DIRT, it's SEDIMENT!"

GREAT link, thanks. Seriously cool.
posted by Ron Thanagar at 1:59 PM on June 18, 2010

Neat! Thanks!
posted by brundlefly at 2:01 PM on June 18, 2010

Zoomable
http://www.seadragon.com/view/14ko
http://www.seadragon.com/view/14kq
posted by hanoixan at 2:11 PM on June 18, 2010

River ass
posted by twoleftfeet at 2:19 PM on June 18, 2010

that first link is seriously one of the most beautiful things ive seen, i want the book
posted by PinkMoose at 2:51 PM on June 18, 2010

related
posted by phrontist at 2:55 PM on June 18, 2010

Is that an oxbow in your delta, or are you just happy to see me?
posted by Devils Rancher at 3:19 PM on June 18, 2010

I often fly Beijing-Seattle and have fallen in love with the alluvial plain of the lower Amur River. Watching the setting sun reflecting off the endless oxbows is a nice way to finish a trip (protip, get a window seat on the left of the plane).
posted by boydmain at 3:37 PM on June 18, 2010

fap fap fap fap.
posted by Iron Rat at 4:10 PM on June 18, 2010

Mmm, I love me some viscous fingering.
posted by vruba at 4:12 PM on June 18, 2010

fap fap fap fap.

MAP MAP MAP
posted by pseudostrabismus at 5:10 PM on June 18, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'LL BE IN MY BUNK
posted by desjardins at 5:46 PM on June 18, 2010 [1 favorite]

Is it wrong to be turned-on by this?
posted by ZenMasterThis at 5:49 PM on June 18, 2010

I'm a New England kinda guy. The only rivers we got are more like streams, rocky, twisty, shallow, and more importantly, unnavigable. Rivers are places you go to swim if you live someplace too far away from a nice warm pond or "the beach." The only places worth sailing to were over the ocean.

Then I moved to New Orleans for a year, and I started to get it... and then I read Fevre Dream by George R. R. Martin. Vampires, bleah, an immense and interconnected riverine trade system in the heart of America, whoah. Martin's description of paddleboat life is more vivid and intense than Twain's, who actually was a paddleboat pilot during its height.

Since then, I pay attention to rivers... from Minneapolis to Philadelphia, many of the landlocked cities in the US aren't landlocked at all.

And then I was curious if Europe was the same way... oh, yeah, with spurs on!

And the there's Iquitos, in Peru - a massive, modern city you can't drive to. Riverboat up the Amazon, take a jet, or nothing.
posted by Slap*Happy at 6:50 PM on June 18, 2010

Ultra hot animated (manga?) version! (SFW)
posted by Big_B at 7:27 PM on June 18, 2010 [2 favorites]

adds "start cartography porn site" to to-do list
posted by desjardins at 9:28 PM on June 18, 2010

These Oxbows, they... grind their own curves so much that they fall off of the body of the river?? Like they wind forever, turning normal saltation into some kind massive force for river altering good;
How too Make Oxbow?
Time, Gentlemen, Time -Oxbow.

Unless otherwise defined in a specific scheme "meandering" and "sinuosity" here are synonymous and mean any repetitious pattern of bends, or waveforms. In some schemes, "meandering" applies only to rivers with exaggerated circular loops or secondary meanders; that is, meanders on meanders.

Can anyone see if there are meanders on those meanders? A three way meander if you will... or just a proper meandering. Eh, I heard you liked meanders; So I Meandered a meander with your meander, while it was meandering in sinuosity! (SFW)
Meanwhile those are some beautiful Aeolian processes or something else magical or magnetic going on on Jupiter.
These are strongly reminding me to rewatch rivers and tides on Andy Goldsworthy (He's been here previously, and has a strong 'connection' [artistic] with that Oxbow or meandering river shape, flowing, in and out of his lifetimes work and his consciousness). Thank you for sharing these links.

This is hilarious, in a way that makes me both sad and happy that I am an unofficial part time geology ner... meander in Geology, and I may be wrong, but I am wanting to put Oxbows under an umbrella as one of a great many variations or 'expressions' of the effects of one of the various types of 'turbation' let loose. Now quickly google that, I don't think that there is one link to the actual thing on the first page at all (besides a link to the German Wiki on turbation)... it's ALL "Weapons of MASS-Turbation" specific websites, when the weird joke out-ranks and pushes the originating scienc-y word off google charts... does the original word cease to exist? Or just cease to 'mean'.

"Geology; always the first field in science for the Arcane-Knowledge, and jargon-lingo to not only be turned into bodily function entendres, or euphemisms, and sex jokes... but to actually have the bodily function joke usage supplant usage as Jargon".

thinking about it more now [more than anyone should ever think about how geology jargon is used as joke fodder] there are a lot of bad usages of geology for joke material over the ages... someone want to do a 'content analysis of reality' and tell us how many bad geology (related) jokes are extant? I say related, because one of the funniest people I know is a Geologist (actually a Sedimentologist) and he would always be talking about geology and also be funny. So there's that. Journalists seem to love geology puns, more than most [It wins ironic fans; but it loses conservatives and other Trilobites who don't use technology]
Very Possibly Irrelevant Annoying Pedant Question; On reflection would not the action depicted in the first two links be more fluvial than alluvial? *Ducks.
I guess I am just meandering around saying "I like the links a lot", yes, why yes, I suppose I do rather like rocks, and also the nexus of advancing technology and earth sciences... thank you for the links.
posted by infinite intimation at 11:09 PM on June 18, 2010

“Open your watershed,” he urged as he parted the folds of her alluvium and deposited himself on the riverbed. “You are so wet down there.” He stroked and probed her fluvial terrace with meandering fingers. He inserted one finger in her anastomosis, and she felt her riffle stir. He raised himself and plunged his enormous point bar into her moist delta. He was bringing her to a pitch of ecstasy when she felt his bedload spurt deep inside her. “Don’t stop,” she clamored...
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 7:28 AM on June 19, 2010 [4 favorites]

Pathological Geomorphology.
posted by ovvl at 9:35 AM on June 19, 2010 [1 favorite]

It looks like the marbled paper mentioned in the Calligraphy thread.

(maybe I just really want to marble some paper)
posted by rubah at 5:10 PM on June 21, 2010