Floods are examples of short-term environmental change. They cause substantial damage and change for only a short time, such as a couple of weeks. The damage done to crops can last for an entire growing season, but in most cases, the landscape goes back to normal after the floodwaters recede. In some cases, however, a flood can cause more lasting change.

This flood changed the course of the Wabash River just above where it flows into the Ohio River. We have to go to a different Landsat image to see this happen, the one just south of the scene we’ve been examining. Images show a new cutoff that was formed from this flooding. About 2,200 acres of the land was rendered inaccessible by the new cutoff and shortened the river by about 7.5 miles.