Don't play with nature boys, it'll sort you out!
June 22, 2018 2:15 PM   Subscribe

The Mahlongwa River needs to be in that Ocean RIGHT NOW! Watch as a tiny trickle turns into a raging torrent. Part One and Part Two
posted by Just this guy, y'know (25 comments total) 29 users marked this as a favorite
 
What happens when the freshwater fish are suddenly introduced into the saltwater sea?
posted by Atom Eyes at 2:34 PM on June 22, 2018


That was oddly satisfying. I think it would be even more satisfying if it was just a static tripod shot from a good angle.

What happens when the freshwater fish are suddenly introduced into the saltwater sea?

Littoral fish are usually adapted, and going from fresh water to salt water and back is often part of their breeding and life cycle. See: Salmon.
posted by loquacious at 2:46 PM on June 22, 2018 [13 favorites]


why is stuff like this so fascinating? I could watch it all day.

also, oldy but goody not nature taking its course so much as nature schooling silly humans on building pit mines so close to the ocean.
posted by supermedusa at 2:51 PM on June 22, 2018 [2 favorites]


Water plays the long game. Never bet against water.
posted by Thorzdad at 3:09 PM on June 22, 2018 [19 favorites]


Thousands of gallons of seawater breaches the mine creating a spectacular show of force.

It's funny, I think the guy says the same enormous understatement of volume in the first river breach video . A thousand liters is just one cubic meter of water, right? There's a whole lot more water moving here......
posted by thelonius at 3:19 PM on June 22, 2018 [2 favorites]


Water plays the long game. Never bet against water.
Because it'll stay solvent longer than you!
All its assets are liquid!
posted by thewumpusisdead at 3:19 PM on June 22, 2018 [26 favorites]


This happens regularly, I think, it's a relatively shallow river meeting an ocean current that brings in sand? From the map/satellite it's not like there was a lower reach that this break-through stranded, that's just the mouth of the river.
posted by clew at 3:20 PM on June 22, 2018 [2 favorites]


“How did you go broke?”

“Two ways,” Mahlongwa said. “Gradually and then suddenly.”
posted by gwint at 3:49 PM on June 22, 2018 [8 favorites]


When I was a kid, I loved the process of the spring melt. We were in a valley, so as the snow melted it would form channels in itself, twisting and changing and reforming itself as the water gradually made its way down. (Not always naturally - as a kid, I did not have the patience to just watch, and tweaking the snow here and there to help the water flow was a big part of the fun.)

There was nothing nearly so spectacular as part 2 of this breach, but there's still something inherently fascinating and satisfying about even a little stream of water transforming itself as it flows.
posted by clawsoon at 4:03 PM on June 22, 2018 [7 favorites]


Wow, this was crazy. I wonder how he knew this was going to happen then, or if he just happened across it, or if between video 1 and video 2 he helped that channel along at all in any tiny way. So fascinating to be there right as that was happening, and in such a short time frame.
posted by limeonaire at 4:12 PM on June 22, 2018


wow The World Famous that looks so fun!!
posted by supermedusa at 4:19 PM on June 22, 2018


What happens when the freshwater fish are suddenly introduced into the saltwater sea?

BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD COD
posted by GCU Sweet and Full of Grace at 4:37 PM on June 22, 2018 [7 favorites]


It must have taken so much self-control not to start damming up the initial trickle.

Lovely piece. Thanks!
posted by flabdablet at 5:26 PM on June 22, 2018 [1 favorite]


For me the best was that first tiny trickle winding its way across the the sand. Then, après moi, le déluge...
posted by jim in austin at 5:27 PM on June 22, 2018 [3 favorites]


The river to the ocean goes, a fortune for the undertow.

That was gorgeous.
posted by Ruki at 6:05 PM on June 22, 2018 [1 favorite]


When I was an avid hiker, I met the cinder cones of California. They are incredible! Just imagine, solid stone twisted like the Devil's Postpile. It's amazing the life we live on! (And OMG: the Racetrack!)
posted by SPrintF at 6:17 PM on June 22, 2018


Jeepers!

Started to get worried for him towards the end. The tide was clearly coming in, and he mostly had his back on the waves...
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 6:32 PM on June 22, 2018 [2 favorites]


When I was a kid, I loved the process of the spring melt. We were in a valley, so as the snow melted it would form channels in itself, twisting and changing and reforming itself as the water gradually made its way down. (Not always naturally - as a kid, I did not have the patience to just watch, and tweaking the snow here and there to help the water flow was a big part of the fun.)

Scaled up:
Frazil ice flowing in Yosemite in the springtime. Youtube link
posted by jjj606 at 7:01 PM on June 22, 2018 [3 favorites]


Geez, does anyone else start getting anxious towards the end of the second video where he is STANDING on the collapsing bank?
posted by Paladin1138 at 7:32 PM on June 22, 2018 [2 favorites]


What I really did not expect was the micro-Niagra like arc of falls eating back into the bank-adjacent riverbed.
posted by jamjam at 8:07 PM on June 22, 2018 [5 favorites]


Yeah, I mean, I guess since we're seeing the video, he survived, but jeezy creezy, my hand to Bob's Eternal Pipe, I thought he was a goner there at the end.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 9:25 PM on June 22, 2018


SO South African. "It's ABSOLUTELY freezing here! It's about, oh...11 or 12 Celsius!"

Now I am homesick for a place that isn't home. Been to that location. But I lived over-looking an estuary, in South Africa, and watched it swell, and then flow, many times.
posted by Goofyy at 7:29 AM on June 23, 2018


jeezy creezy, my hand to Bob's Eternal Pipe, I thought he was a goner there at the end

Part 2, six minutes in: "Where I'm standing now, I'm below the water level of the river, standing on the rocks here"

From that point onwards I was wondering how long it would take him to conclude that this was perhaps not the greatest idea he's ever had.

Quite glad he eventually did, though. Well, I'm just kind of assuming that this isn't footage retrieved from a phone washed up on a beach somewhere.
posted by flabdablet at 9:54 PM on June 23, 2018


SecretAgentSockpuppet: he survived, but jeezy creezy, my hand to Bob's Eternal Pipe, I thought he was a goner there at the end.

Youtube's algorithm led me to this flash-flood watcher (and his wife, and his buddy, and "Now, go!") in Utah.
posted by clawsoon at 4:58 AM on June 24, 2018


SO South African. "It's ABSOLUTELY freezing here! It's about, oh...11 or 12 Celsius!"

*laughs in Canadian*
posted by spoobnooble II: electric bugaboo at 5:34 AM on June 24, 2018 [1 favorite]


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