Landsat View Unveils Congaree’s Ancient Floodplain Giants
NASA’s Earth Observatory uses a Landsat 9 image to show the Congaree River winding through Congaree National Park’s floodplain forests—one of the largest intact tracts of old-growth bottomland hardwood forests in the United States. The meandering river creates paleochannels, oxbow lakes (like Weston Lake and Bates Old River), and sloughs, with floods depositing nutrient-rich silt that sustains unusually large trees. The park, spared from widespread logging, was designated a national monument in 1976 and became a national park in 2003.