I went to Richard B. Russell State Park in Elberton, Georgia over spring break. The park is located on the Savannah River and the Georgia/South Carolina border. The river bank was made of orange clay and had a gummy consistency. I researched why the clay was orange and it is because of iron oxidation. There is iron in the clay – it has been exposed to high levels of oxygen because the depth of the river is steadily decreasing. Clay is being exposed to the atmosphere, which contains oxygen. A local in the area told me the depth of the river is decreasing because of the Richard B. Russell Dam.
The river bank at the park in Georgia is different than the one that I usually attend on the Lamoile River in Milton. The river bank in Milton is brown and rocky. Water is covering up the land more so than what I saw in Georgia.