The Colorado River, often called "lifeline of the American Southwest", is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The 1,450-mile-long (2,330 km) river, the 5th longest in the United States, drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. states and two Mexican states.[1]
Coverage[]
The Colorado River is featured in the documentary, in line in the effects of Hoover Dam if people disappeared.
With the shutdown of Hoover Dam, Colorado River begins to run dry.
In 1 year after people, without people to remove quagga mussels, it spreads into the small pipes that brought cooling water to the generators of Hoover Dam. Bill Bruninga explains that once the mussels clog up the pipes, the generators couldn't cool down causing a high temperature alarm leading to the automatic control system to begin the shutdown sequence of the generators until all the generators of the Hoover Dam fails and the power plant shuts down. The shutting down of the generators has lead to no water passing through Hoover Dam, causing the Colorado River to run dry. However, Lake Mead on the other side of the dam, causing it to spill over through the spillways, allowing water to pass through the Hoover Dam and to continue to flow through the Colorado River as long as Lake Mead continues to overspill the dam.
The collapse of Hoover Dam after 10,000 years.
With the collapse of the Hoover Dam in 10,000 years after people, it is assume that Lake Mead would cease to exist as a reservoir, allowing water to continuously flow through the Colorado River again.