Amicalola+River

Amicalola River

Physical Properties: Air temp: 54°F Soil temp: 40°F Soil texture: loamy sand Soil pH: 6.5 very slightly acid

Ahhh! It's a clear sunny day as you arrive at your first stop, the Amicalola River. Located in the mountains and ridges of the Southern Blue Ridge, the Amicalola River is a swift flowing major **tributary** to the Etowah River. It begins as a relatively shallow mountain stream at it's source, Amicalola Falls. However, it quickly becomes deeper as it widens into a whitewater stream and enters the **floodplain** to converge with the Etowah River. The area is surrounded by the Dawson Forest providing mixed stands of pines and hardwoods including oaks, hickory, black cherry, and dogwoods.

Starting down the path you notice some of the geology and features of the landscape. The area is comprised of **mafic** and **felsic** **igneous** rocks like granite as well as **metamorphic** rocks such as gneiss, schist, and some metavolcanic rocks of the Georgia Gold Belt. Metavolcanic rocks are metamorphic rocks that were formed by volcanoes (ie. lava) a long, long time ago. Eventually they became buried where they were subjected to high pressure and temperatures causing them to recrystallize. Metavolcanic rocks can contain the minerals quartz, feldspar, and amphibole.

Early settlers, exploring the area from the mountain "coves" of the eastern part of Dawson County to its junction with the Etowah River, were the first Europeans to settle the area. Many of the old structures and rock walls, along with forgotten remains of long-cold moonshine stills, can be found beside the stream bed or tucked away near a hidden spring.( 6 ) The old homesteads have since grown over with rhododendron, mountain laurel, and azalea thickets but evidence still remains of their existence in these mountains. As you continue walking southbound down the path, you start to hear the sound of rushing water.



You arrive at the class IV rapids known as the Edge of the World. These rapids were named by canoeists and paddlers who thought the river seemed to disappear off the edge of the world when they arrived at this section of the river. Rapids are hydrologic features of streams and rivers that are not quite cascades (waterfalls) but are more turbulent than a run (a smooth flowing section of river). Rapids typically feature "whitewater" which is caused by air being mixed up in the fast moving water as it crashes around rocks. This impressive whitewater is created by the Brevard Fault Line, which runs from northeast to southwest across the heart of North Georgia.( 7 ) A fault is a fracture in the earth's crust caused by blocks of rock moving in some way against or across each other. The Brevard Fault was made many many years ago and the upthrusting movement caused large rocks to disrupt the earth's surface. As the Amicalola River flows over these exposed rocks it gives us the rapids you see before you. The Amicalola River has an average annual stream discharge of 148 cubic feet per second, but because of all the rain lately, the stream discharge is up to 316 ft 3 /s.( 8 ) It's a graded stream with bedload consisting of boulders, cobble, gravel, and sand. All of these materials can be deposited along the river's shore in sandbars or gravelbars that jut out into the river, these bars are also known as **shoals**. After basking on the shoals of the river you continue on to your next stop, the City of Atlanta Tract of the Dawson Forest.




 * Question 1: What type of rocks are found in the Georgia Gold Belt?**