Mississippi Aulacogen.

Nik

An aulacogen is the failed arm of continental rifting...

To the West, forming Atlantic left aulacogens at what's now the Amazon and Mississippi...

If Mississippi had opened to eg Red Sea size before 'failing' at New Madrid, leaving a significant seaway, what are the implications ??

I'm assuming that there's enough scour & tidal resonance to prevent 'inland' silting ...

I would expect the Great Lakes to empty South via Chicago River, perhaps with Spring Thaw floods spilling via Niagra...

I suspect the weather would be 'livelier' on Plains due 'lake effect'.

Thoughts ??

Nik
 

Nik

More or less...

Would the Great Lakes survive the better drainage ?? Or are they 'temporary' features due glacial depression & scouring...

Would the emptying of glacial Lake Missoula etc create dry-valley 'routes' ??

I started down ATL wondering if partial rifting could leave US East coast, Appalacians etc in mid-Atlantic, perhaps with more left on West of Scotland / Ireland / Western Isles etc than one, disputed rock...

Nik
 

DuQuense

The french moved inland to Quebec due to that wide bay at the end of the St Lawerance. If there where a larger bay at the mouth of the Mississippi, early explorers whould have entered the centre of the US in larger Numbers. Whe would have ended with a wave of settlers moving east, meeting the wave moving west from the atlantic coast.
The Question is ? What nationality would theses be?.
 

David S Poepoe

Banned
Since it was the Spanish that first extensively explored the Gulf Coast area of North America, it would be them that would be the first discover this new gulf and to have explored up to its shores. It would be likely that Spanish explorers would have penetrated up the Ohio River and further up along the Missississippi and Missouri Rivers in the search for El Dorado. There would be a more easily defined border between New Spain/Louisiana and British North America during the 1700s. Perhaps New Madrid, even if rebuilt, would be the equivalent of New Orleans in TTL.
 
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