General Coordination of Earth Observation / Inpe
The Cassiciare River channel, in black color, running south
At first glance, these watercourses make no sense. A new study explains why they are as they are – but it leaves more uncertainty than answers.
The rivers join downstream, run down and end up finding an ocean or a terminal lake: These are the rules fundamental to how watercourses and watersheds should work.
But the rules are made to be broken, note o.
In a new study, Robert Sowbyresearcher at Brigham Young University in the USA, and Adam sealfrom the University of Tennessee, they present Nine rivers and lakes in the Americas that challenge hydrological expectations.
These watercourses exhibit examples of bifurcationwhere a river is divided into downstream branches. But, unlike the typical bifurcationsthese examples do not return to the main watercourse after branching.
O Rio Casquiarein South America, for example, it is a navigable water course that connects the two largest watersheds on the continent, the Orenoco and Amazonas basins, acting as a Distributor of the first and tributary of the second.
Casiciare separates from orinoco and serpenty by lush and almost flat tropical forests to join the Negro River and, finally, to the Amazon. “This is the hydrological equivalent of a wormhole Between two galaxies, ”write the researchers, recently published in Water Resources Research.
Sowby and Siegel explain that a slight slope on the ground (less than 0.009%) is enough to send large volumes of water below and that this unusual case results from a incomplete uptake of the river.
Another peculiar water course is the remote Rio’sin Suriname, that the Dutch colonizers mapped for the first time in 1717.
At different heights, Wayambo may flow to east or westdepending on precipitation and human modifications of the flow using locks. The river is close to gold and bauxite minesas well as oil production sites, and their bidirectional flow makes it difficult to predict pollutant propagation.
Of all the rivers they analyzed, the researchers described the river Of the Mamishin northern Canada, as the “more disconcerting”.
“Echimamish” means “water that Run in both directions”In Cree. The river connects Hayes and Nelson and, according to some reports, flows out from your environment towards the two larger rivers.
However, Your course is flat and punctuated by Castore damss, which leads to uncertainty, even today, about the direction of its caudal and where exactly the direction changes.
Researchers conclude that although these rivers share certain characteristics that challenge conventional hydrologyremain very diverse and different from each other.
“Some exemplify Water masses in formation; Others are water masses prey in sensitive topography; others are examples of water masses whose flow direction is determined by wildlife“Note the investigators.
“Some water masses are sufficientlys to be transposed, while others are Lakes with over 100 km in length. Some are remote and wild; Others are highly developed and controlled, ”they add.
“Each is unique in its own way. As a whole, these hydrological curiosities illustrate the much we still have to learn about the dynamic surface of the earth, ”conclude the study authors.
