Photograph of a collapsing wall of the Rio Puerco arroyo. The wall is approximately 6m high. Thousands of similar collapses along all sections of the arroyo place loose sediment directly in the stream channel. With such a constant supply, streams are fully saturated with sediment. The muddy flows that result gave the Rio Puerco its name, which means "pig river" or "dirty river" in Spanish.

The Rio Puerco at the Interstate 40 crossing exhibits arroyo walls with slumps, vegetated terraces, and natural
levees along the margin of the inner channel. The slumping arroyo wall is approximately 6m high.

Return to paper