Having paddled canoes and kayaks on Houston’s waterways for some time, Tom Douglas had noticed that many of them flow from west to east. Many of the world’s rivers must make detours on their way to the sea, but why have so many of ours veered off to the east at places where their southward path toward the Gulf appears to have been blocked? After considerable reading and consulting with a couple of bona fide fluvial geomorphologists, he learned the answer.

Along with water, rivers also carry sediment. How this sediment is moved around and eventually deposited can have many effects, both in the short term and the long term. In our region, these processes have posted many “left turn only” signs for streams as they work their way to the south. We will also see how a story that began several million years ago continues to influence our daily lives.