In this picture, I see the location where Lilly Branch flows into the North Oconee River. Of course, there is some water and some tree branches in the foreground marking what is supposed to be a natural setting.
There are two things that are particularly striking: (1) the lack of water (2) trash. This is a river, so I expected more water to be flowing through it. I also noticed that the cans were situated close to each other (more about that next).
As a result, I would interpret that someone or a group of people had disposed of their cans within a similar time frame and that during the following days the water level was low enough to send the trash towards the North Oconee connection, but there was not enough water to flood the dirt deposit and the cans collected there. I also interpret that the small dirt deposit is a result of Lilly Branch carrying eroded dirt along the stream. When the dirt particulates reach the North Oconee, a perpendicular entry point, a certain amount of dirt having greater inertia cannot successfully turn with river’s direction while maintaining enough velocity to evenly distribute. As the particulates slow they are more susceptible to other forces that go against the direction of the stream. That dirt is then attracted to vortexes (sections of water with a net velocity of zero) which allow the dirt to accumulate. Note that this doesn’t happen to all dirt as water is strong enough to carry most of the dirt along with it with minimal depositing. However, as the water level changes throughout the year, the net effect is an overall accumulation of dirt which is seen clearly in the picture below. Problems could arise if this dirt dam grows.
I feel that many of the answers to our problems are out there. It just takes time and detail-oriented observation to find them.
I think this picture is about the problem of pollution, littering, and poor planning. It shows how interconnected decisions are to seemingly random results (the idea of cause/effect). At least we know where we can find litter for clean-up projects: perpendicular connections.
Note: This is the same as the previous picture; however, it is zoomed out to show the scale of the dirt deposit
