colorado river
"The Colorado River is like a huge conveyor belt for transporting finer particles to the ocean, temporarily (geologically speaking) dropping its load into Lake Mead."
"Now, the Grand Canyon was way different than I thought it would be. There are a bunch of areas where you can go see it, so maybe I've seen pics of a different part or something. But it was very cool! I had no idea how the Grand Canyon came to be. The little learning center (the Geology Museum, where you can also look out over the Canyon) explained that basically (and don't quote me on this) the Colorado River, along with it's tributaries (which are rivers that flow into the Colorado River) is like a saw or liquid sand paper, and just keeps cutting deeper and deeper into the rock. Then, when it cuts deeper, the side rocks wear away (I forget how...). Anyway, it's taken like, millions of years to do, and it's still doing it!"
METAMIA is a free database of analogy and metaphor. Anyone can contribute or search. The subject matter can be anything. Science is popular, but poetry is encouraged. The goal is to integrate our fluid muses with the stark literalism of a relational database. Metamia is like a girdle for your muses, a cognitive girdle.