From NASA's Earth Observatory page:
It's also interesting to see the comparison of the Connecticut with the Thames River. When I first looked at the image, I assumed that there was less sediment from the Thames because its drainage area received less rainfall but that's not the only reason:
Nearly a week after Hurricane Irene drenched New England with rainfall in late August 2011, the Connecticut River was spewing muddy sediment into Long Island Sound and wrecking the region's farmland just before harvest. The Thematic Mapper on the Landsat 5 satellite acquired this true-color satellite image on September 2, 2011.
It's also interesting to see the comparison of the Connecticut with the Thames River. When I first looked at the image, I assumed that there was less sediment from the Thames because its drainage area received less rainfall but that's not the only reason:
To the east, the Thames River appears to be carrying very little sediment at all on September 2. According to O'Connell, the Thames "drains glaciated terrain, so fine sediment was removed long ago." Most of the land surface in the Thames basin is "just bedrock, till, and glacial erratics." Unlike the Connecticut, areas within the Thames watershed only received 2 to 4 inches of rain in most locations.
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