Australia lake river mountains. The largest rivers in Australia

The smallest continent of the Earth, despite the fact that a third of the territory is occupied by deserts, is rich in water resources. The rivers and lakes of Australia differ not only in size, but also in hydrological characteristics. Many rivers are fully functional only after heavy torrential rains, and in the southeast a large Murray-Darling hydrological system has formed. Let's go to the ends of the earth and find out which is the largest river in Australia, and what other major rivers are famous for. And we already wrote about the "green continent" in one of our articles.

Longest rivers in Australia:

Murray. 2,508 km

Our list opens with the longest river in Australia called the Murray, which originates in the picturesque landscapes of the Australian Alps.

Total length water artery equal to 2508 m, and it flows into the Great Australian Bay. Many of the Murray's tributaries dry up as a result of natural causes or agricultural activities. But even despite such factors, this is one of the deepest rivers on the mainland.

In the past, great damage to the ecosystem of the river was caused by rabbits, which destroyed the coastal vegetation, and carps, loosening the channel, thereby preventing the growth of algae.

Murrumbidgee. 1485 km

The main tributary of the Murray carries its waters across the expanses of the state of New Wales, flowing through the Namadzhi National Park, which is not far from the Australian capital city of Canberra.

The Tantangara Dam was built on Murrumbidgee, as well as a system of reservoirs of unique beauty, which regulate the main flow of the river.

Such an unusual name was given to the river by local Aboriginal tribes, who lived along its banks in the recent past, and literally in the language of the Wiradjuri tribe, its name means “big water”, or “good place”.

Darling. 1472 km

Together with the Murray, the Darling River constitutes the largest hydrological system in Australia, the length of which is 3672 km, and the basin of both rivers covers 14% of the mainland.

With the onset of heavy rains, the river overflows strongly, and its level rises by 9–15 m. Plants characteristic of semi-deserts grow along the banks, and animals typical of the continent are also found, including the Australian echidna, such a funny animal with needles.

The first European who saw the river in 1829 was the famous explorer and traveler Charles Sturt, and he named it in honor of the Governor of New Wales, Ralph Darling.

Did you know that they live in Australia, which cannot be found in other parts of the world ?.

Cooper Creek. 1,410 km

The name already indicates that the river dries up, and it flows through the arid expanses of the states of Queensland and South Australia.

It is famous for the fact that traces of the missing expedition were found on its shores, which included famous travelers Robert Burke and William Wills. Of all the participants in that expedition, only 18-year-old John King survived, who went to the ocean and lived with the natives for a long time.

The water artery is also interesting in that during the period of drought, the water comes down, and locals they collect fish and crayfish along the bottom with ordinary shovels.

Warrego. 1380 km

Mount Ka-Ka-Mundi rises above the expanses of the Carnarvon National Park, and it is on its slope that the source of Warrego is located.

Flowing through the territories of two states, New Wales and Queensland, it flows into the Darling at the small town of Bourke. The source of the river is located at an altitude of 625 m above sea level, and the mouth itself is at a level of 95 m.

The first European to reach its shores was the explorer Thomas Mitchell, who described it in his diary following the expedition of 1845-1846.

Loklan. 1,339 km

In the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range is the source of the Loklan, which, flowing through the territory of New Wales, flows into the Marraibidgee.

In spring and summer, during high water, Loklan becomes navigable, and its waters are actively used by local farmers to irrigate fields. The local Aboriginal tribes call it Capare, and it was first explored in 1815 by George Williams Evans.

In the history of the river, multiple floods have been recorded, and the highest level to which the water rose was noted in 1870, when the level rose to a mark of 15.9 m.

Flinders. 1004 km

From the southern slope of Mount Gregory, the river begins, which is the longest in the state of Queensland, and flows into the Gulf of Carpentaria in two branches.

Captain John Stoke, visiting the river delta, named it in honor of the famous navigator and explorer of the South Seas Matthew Flinders. It is full-flowing during the rains, and in the dry period it practically dries up, aft of the lower reaches.

Europeans settled the river basin in 1864, and today its banks are actively used as pastures and agricultural land.

Gascoigne. 978 km

The river, named after Captain Gascoigne, flows through the expanses of the Western Australian Plateau, and flows into Shark Bay.

The river is wayward, during periods of drought it completely dries up, and from the end of spring floods begin, flooding huge coastal areas. Previously, it was of great economic importance, and today the port of Carnarvon continues to operate on the river.

George Gray, who visited these parts in 1839, explored it and gave the name to the unique waterway.

Diamantina. 941 km

One of the few rivers in the world that flows into a swamp, and this is exactly what the Diamantina is, originating from the town of Longrich.

The climate of the territories through which the river flows is hot and arid, but frosts are sometimes recorded when the thermometer drops to -1.8 ° C. The luxurious Diamantina Park stretches along the banks, with flora and fauna characteristic of this part of the continent.

Such a romantic name was given to the waterway by William Landsborough in honor of the wife of the first governor of Queensland.

Murchison. 780 km

On the southern slopes of the Robinson Mountains is the source of this river, and, flowing mainly in a westerly direction, the Murchison flows into the waters indian ocean.

On its way, it changes the direction of the current several times, and the mouth is an amazing estuary, with courageous islands and shallow reservoirs.

George Gray explored it and named the river after the Scottish geologist. The river delta became a popular resort area, and the British founded a tourist camp during the war years, where British and Australian soldiers and officers were trained.

Summarize

So we found out which is the largest river in Australia. Most of the rivers of the continent, as drying up, are marked on maps with a dotted line, and the drying up rivers of Australia are called "creek", while in Asia they are called "uzba", and in Africa they are called "wadis". The editors of TopCafe are expecting interesting comments from you about the rivers of Australia.

Despite the fact that the central part of the Green Continent is a zone of arid climate, the entire territory of this amazing and at the same time deserted continent flows more than seventy large and small rivers.

From the rivers of other continents, the rivers of Australia differ in that they are shallow and do not spill like rivers, for example, European countries.

Since ancient times the rivers of Australia feed on seasonal rainfall, which formed among the indigenous people a special attitude towards fresh water and the full flow of individual rivers.

The filling of the channels here is irregular, so people are waiting for floods as a real miracle, and the long Murray River of Australia protected and respected local residents.

The hydrological basin of the Green Continent is conditionally divided into three parts: central, eastern and western.

In the east of the country in the peaks of the Great Dividing Range, which is also called Australian Alps, most of the Australian rivers begin.

This is where the Murray River starts. celebrates Australia's major rivers, having a special position in the river system of the mainland.

Main feature of the Murray River is that it is full-flowing, unlike other rivers of the mainland, as it is supported by fairly large and long tributaries.

River Darling is the most significant tributary of the Murray and together they form the largest river system in Australia, which is full of water even in the dry season.

For the rest of the rivers of the river hydrological basin of Australia, periods of drought are not very favorable. The channels of most rivers partially dry during the dry season, turning into separate hydraulic systems.

Western rivers of Australia

Amazing natural phenomenon In Australia, the so-called screams are considered - rivers that are seasonal and dry up completely during the drought period. They are concentrated in the center of the mainland.

The river, which is the most significant for the western regions of Australia, is dry and dry Ashburton River.

It flows into the Indian Ocean, which makes it unique, because the tributaries of most of the western rivers are lakes and swamps.

Closer to the south is the largest lake in Australia -, the bottom of which at the peak of the drought becomes the lowest point on the mainland. Air is a tributary of inland rivers in Australia such as Diamantina, Cooper Creek and Georgina. The rivers of Australia can be divided in the direction of flow into those that flow to the center and to the ocean.

Longest river in Australia and the rivers of the Great Dividing Range

A cutting mountain network stretches for 4000 km from north to south of the country. Right here many rivers originate on which the cities of Australia stand.

The slopes in the east are the channel fast rivers, such as the longest river Australia - Murray, which originates on the slope of Kosciuszko - the highest mountain of the Green Continent, and ends its journey more than 2000 km in Lake Alezandrina. The rivers Angas, Finnis and Bremer also flow into this.

Interesting fact! The Murray River changed its course quite often. One recreational itinerary for tourists is to view the former Murray bed.

The Murray tributary Darling, together with its own tributaries, is 300 km longer than the Murray. And although Darling is longer, Murray is more deep river. That is why Murray - main river australia.

It also flows into it, and second largest river Green Continent - Murrumbidgee. To date, due to the construction of reservoirs and dams, the full flow of this river has been significantly affected.

But, despite this, the Murrumbidgee watercourse is sufficient to form a year-round full-flowing Murray-Darling hydraulic system.

Rivers of Tasmania

As for the river system of Tasmania, on the island, unlike the mainland, the situation with the full flow of the rivers is different and more positive.

The mountainous terrain of Tasmania has given rise to abundance of rivers, some of which are even navigable. These are the rivers Derwent and South Esk.

The arid tropical Australian climate is the reason special hydrological situation and the mainland. Thus, most of the Australian rivers have an internal flow with a source of water in the form of seasonal precipitation.

A real salvation for the Australians, as well as the flora and fauna of the Green Continent, is a gigantic underground water reservoir - Great Artesian Basin, which is located at a depth of 300 m to 2 km. It is he who serves as a priority source of drinking water, which is so valued on this picturesque and beautiful mainland of the planet.

Introduction

Relevance: the study of the relief, climate and hydrography of the mainland is relevant, as this makes it possible to examine the nature of Australia in more detail and carefully.

The Australian continent is one of the oldest land masses, the flattest of all continents and, apart from Antarctica, the driest. This is the smallest continent in the world (7.6 million km2). From the north, west and south, Australia is washed by the Indian Ocean, and from the east - by the Pacific. In the north, archipelagos of islands and inland seas link it with Southeast Asia. Off the south coast is the largest island of the mainland - Tasmania. The northeastern coast of the continent is washed by the Coral Sea. The entire central part of the southern coast is washed by the waters of the Great Australian Gulf. The area of ​​the mainland is 7.7 million km2.

Almost one third of the mainland area, mostly inland, is a desert or semi-desert, not occupied by agricultural land. 60% of the territory is drainless, only one large system Murray-Darling in the southeast of the country is used for shipping and irrigation.

Australia is poor in surface water, which is associated with the dominance of dry tropical and subtropical climate, the absence of high mountains with snow and glaciers. Of all the atmospheric moisture falling on the territory of Australia, only 10-13% enters water bodies, the rest either evaporates or seeps into the soil and is consumed by plants. This is the main reason for the exceptional poverty of the continent in surface waters. During the year, only 350 km3 of water flows into the ocean from the entire area of ​​\u200b\u200bAustralia (less than 1% of the total flow of the Earth's rivers). The distribution of surface waters across the mainland is very uneven. More than half of the volume of river runoff falls on the share of poorly developed areas north of the tropic. There are few rivers and lakes in Australia, about 60% of the mainland has no flow into the ocean. No other continent has such a relatively large area of ​​internal runoff. For the main part of the mainland, especially for its inland desert and semi-desert regions, temporary drains - screams - are characteristic. Water appears in them only after rare rains and for a short time. The remaining rivers of the mainland belong to the basins of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. The rivers of the Indian Ocean basin are short, shallow, and often dry up during the dry season. The Pacific Ocean includes rivers flowing from the eastern slopes of the Great Dividing Range. These rivers are full of water throughout the year, as there is a lot of rainfall here; short and curvy. The food of most rivers of the mainland is predominantly rain, and in the Australian Alps it is mixed. There are about 800 lakes in Australia. Most of them are relic lakes, the basins of which were formed in more humid geological epochs. Many of Australia's modern lakes are dry basins filled with loose clay-saline silt, covered with a crust of salt or gypsum. They fill with water only after rare showers that fall in Western Australia once in a few years. Against the backdrop of a sparse hydrographic network and the almost complete absence of fresh lakes, Australia's amazing wealth of groundwater is striking. The area of ​​all artesian basins occupies 1/3 of the territory of the mainland. More than 15 artesian basins are confined to platform basement syneclises between the plateaus of Western Australia and the Great Dividing Range. The depth of groundwater is from 100 to 2100 m. Sometimes The groundwater under natural pressure come to the surface in the form of mineral springs. Australia's largest groundwater storage facility is the Great Artesian Basin.

Purpose: to characterize the hydrographic resources and show their impact on the nature of mainland Australia.

1. study the literature on the subject of Australian hydrography;

2. study the features of lakes and river systems in Australia;

3. show the impact of groundwater on the nature of the mainland.

Object: Australian continent

Subject: hydrographic objects of the mainland

Research methods:

Statistical;

Research;

Cartographic.

Structure term paper:

The introduction reveals the relevance, purpose, objectives, object, subject, as well as research methods for course work.

The first chapter deals with the geological structure and climatic conditions of the continent. Australian platform throughout geological history the mainland was subjected to slow uplifts, lowerings and faults. The climate is dry and continental.

The second chapter reflects the features of the hydrography of the mainland. Approximately 10% of the territory has a drain into the Pacific Ocean, the rest belongs to the Indian Ocean basin. There are many lake basins on the territory of Australia, but all of them are currently deprived of water and have turned into salt marshes. A distinctive feature of Australia is the wealth of groundwater. They accumulate in artesian basins that occupy the troughs of the ancient basement along the edges of the Western Plateau and in the Central Lowland.

In conclusion, a summary of the material of the two chapters is summarized, the results of the study are highlighted, and a conclusion is made on the entire course work.

Literature review: when writing a term paper, I mainly used the following sources: Ed. Pashkanga K.V., Physical geography for preparatory departments of universities, M., 1995 .; Korinskaya V.A., Dushina I.V., Shchenev V.A., Geography 7th grade, M., 1993.; Vlasov T.V., Physical geography of the continents, M., "Enlightenment", 1976.-304p.; Pritula T. Yu., Physical geography of continents and oceans: textbook. higher allowance textbook institutions / T. Yu. Pritula, V. A. Eremina, A. N. Spryalin. – M.: Humanitarian. ed. center VLADOS, 2004. - 685 p.

The geological structure of Australia is the simplest in comparison with other continents. The Precambrian platform and the Hercynian foldbelt stand out in it. The Precambrian platform composes 2/3 of the mainland area of ​​the Western Plateau and almost the entire Central Lowland. The western part of the platform represents the anteclise of the ancient basement, where Precambrian crystalline rocks and, to a lesser extent, Proterozoic and younger sedimentary formations are exposed. East End ancient foundation syneclise platforms. The Precambrian base is lowered here and covered by a layer of Mesozoic (mainly Cretaceous), Paleogene and Neogene marine and lacustrine sediments. Hercynian folded structures compose the eastern mountainous belt of the mainland. In addition to the Paleozoic folded-sedimentary formations, volcanic and intrusive rocks of all ages take part in its structure. The Australian platform was subjected to faults and oscillatory movements that occurred in connection with tectonic movements in geosynclines that framed it from the west and from the east. The West Australian geosyncline, which originated in the Precambrian, was part of a vast geosynclinal zone that framed the Archean and Proterozoic land cores in the southern hemisphere. The Lower Paleozoic folding and oscillatory movements that took place in this zone created land connections between the Precambrian platforms of Australia, Southeast Asia and Africa, which persisted in the Paleozoic era and in the first half of the Mesozoic. The splits that led to the separation of Australia from Africa and Southeast Asia occurred only in Cretaceous. In the East Australian or Tasmanian geosyncline, the Lower Paleozoic folding formed mountain country, which in the west adjoined the leveled Australian platform, and in the east went beyond the modern outlines of the mainland. However leading role in the formation of the mountains had the Upper Paleozoic folding, as a result of which a huge area of ​​mountainous land of Tasmania was raised from under the sea level, extending on the site of the Tasman and Coral Seas. Since the end of the Paleozoic, the land of Tasmania has experienced slow fluctuations; at the beginning of the Mesozoic, the troughs captured the Central Lowland. They led to the transgression of the seas and to the formation of vast lake basins, in which limestone and clay-sand strata were deposited. Seas and lakes have long isolated the western leveled land of Australia from the eastern mountainous country. The general uplift of the mainland at the end of the Cretaceous caused the retreat of the seas and the shallowing and drying up of lakes. The northern and eastern margins of the Precambrian structures in Australia and the Hercynian structures in Tasmania were framed by the Alpine geosyncline.

Tectonic movements in it led at the end of the Cretaceous to the loss of land connections with Southeast Asia and the New Zealand structures that survived from submersion. Powerful folding in the Alpine geosyncline occurred in the Neogene. The high mountains of New Guinea, New Zealand, and the mountainous archipelagos of islands in between were erected. On the rigid bases of Australia and Tasmania, folding was reflected in faults, the movement of blocks along them, the introduction of intrusions, volcanic activity, slow deflections and uplifts. The western fault edge of the mainland has risen; on Tasman Land, the Kimberley horst massif, contoured by faults, stood out. The horst ranges of the Flinders Lofty separated from the southwestern margin of the Western Plateau by the Torrens Lake graben. The most significant changes in the relief, as well as in the size and shape of the mainland, occurred in the east. A significant part of Tasmania sank along the fault lines to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, its western margin, preserved from subsidence, rose high, which determined the orographic severity of the East Australian Mountains. Their ancient rocks were superimposed by basalt covers, which occupy especially large areas in the central and southern ranges. In the Quaternary period, the marginal parts of the mainland continued to slowly fluctuate. There was a final separation from the mainland of Tasmania and New Guinea; the subsidence of individual mountainous sections of the coast created finely indented rias shores on the island of Tasmania, in the northwest and east of the mainland. The nature of the relief of Australia is determined by the antiquity of the structures that make it up and the long-term peneplanation. The latter led to the leveling of vast territories, so that in the relief, first of all, its amazing uniformity is striking: the mainland is a plateau with an average height of 350 m, i.e. is after Europe the lowest part of the land. From the former more high levels flat-topped island mountains (in places where sedimentary suites occur) and peaked massifs (in places where crystalline rocks are exposed) have been preserved. The largest area is occupied by the leveling surface created during the period from the end of the Cretaceous to the Neogene, the so-called Great Australian Peneplain. It has a height of 300-500 m on the Western Plateau, does not rise above 200 m in the Central Lowland and is elevated to 700-1500 m in the East Australian Mountains, where it can be traced in the same levels of flat-topped massifs. The wide distribution and good preservation of planation surfaces and, in particular, Australian peneplain, are explained by the slowness of vertical land movements and the low degree of relief dissection in a predominantly desert climate, as well as the armoring effect of protective crusts.

The ferruginous and siliceous protective crusts have been preserved mainly since the Neogene, when the necessary climatic prerequisites for their formation were very hot and seasonally humid conditions. The formation of limestone, gypsum and sulfate protective crusts began at the end of the Neogene in a dry and hot climate and is now continuing in the interior of Australia. Short-term humidification and cooling during the pluvial epochs of the Quaternary period led to the formation of erosional landforms (river valleys, lake basins, etc.) that have been preserved in modern desert regions. Glacial sculptural forms, as well as the relief of glacial accumulation, are characteristic only of the Australian Alps, the only region where, in addition to the island of Tasmania, there was Quaternary glaciation. Features of the tectonic structure of Australia make it possible to distinguish three structural and morphological provinces on the mainland: the Western Plateau, the Central Lowland and the East Australian Mountains. The western plateau, coinciding in general in its outlines with the anteclise of the Precambrian basement, represents a slightly dissected surface of the Great Australian Peneplain with an average height of 300-500 m. On its eastern margin, the crystalline ridges of the McDonnell and Musgrave ridges prepared by denudation (Mount Widroff, 1594 m, the highest point of the Western Plateau). At western edge there are extensive flat-topped remnant massifs (Hamersley Ridge, etc.). The southwestern edge of the plateau, which drops steeply to a narrow coastal lowland along a fault line, is called the Darling Range. In the northwest, the plateau is framed by the Kimberley horst massif, in the north it ends on the Arnhemland peninsula. Huge areas in the interior are occupied by sandy and rocky deserts. The sandy deserts of the Great Sandy and Great Victoria Desert lie on the northern and southern slopes of the Western Plateau and are separated by the rocky Gibson Desert. In the southwest, lake basins have been preserved, witnessing the wet epochs of the Quaternary period. In the south, the Nullarbor karst plain stands out. Central lowland. The prerequisite for its formation was the trough of the eastern margin of the ancient Australian platform, the subsidence of a part of the Caledonian folded structure, as well as the subsequent marine and lacustrine regimes. The strata of marine and lake sediments have hidden the unevenness of the ancient relief, which appears only in the form of weakly pronounced hills on the outskirts of the lowland. Its middle part, the so-called Central Basin, lies in the area of ​​Lake Eyre, 12 m below sea level. This is the lowest place in Australia. In the western half of the basin there are deserts that continue the desert belt of the Western Plateau.

southeastern part The central lowland is occupied by accumulative plains crossed by Australia's largest rivers, the Murray and Darling. In the lower reaches of the Murray, to the west of the river, the Flinders Lofty horst-block ranges stand out. East Australian mountains. For a long time they were called the Australian Cordillera, however, by the type of relief they differ sharply from the Cordillera of both the North and South America. These are ancient (mainly of Hercynian age) horst-block mountains, already heavily destroyed, with an average height of about 1000 m, mostly flat-topped. Faults and faults of the Paleogene and Neogene shattered them into separate ridges and massifs. Fault along the east coast of Australia has led to the steepness of the eastern slopes; the gentler western slopes descend to the Central Lowland in hilly foothills (downs). The outpourings of basalts that accompanied the splits left their imprint on the forms of the ridges in many places. Stepped plateaus are confined to linear eruptions, volcanic cones to eruptions of the central type. In the highest mountain range, in the Australian Alps (Kostsyushko Peak 2234 m), traces of Quaternary glaciation have been preserved: karts, troughs, glacial lakes. Karst is developed in the limestones that make up the peaks of the Blue Mountains and some others. Minerals. Due to the weak development of sedimentary covers, Australia is characterized by a significant predominance of ore minerals over non-metallic ones. The areas of the most active metallogeny are concentrated along the western margin of the continent and in the southeast, in the zones of contact between the platform Precambrian and geosynclinal Paleozoic structures, as well as in the East Australian mountains, in the folded Caledonian and Hercynian structures. Australia has significant reserves of gold, base metals and iron ores. Gold plays a leading role among ore minerals, the main deposits and mining areas of which are concentrated in the southwest of Western Australia (Kalgoorlie, Coolgardie, etc.), in the state of Victoria (Bendigo, Ballarat) and in the northeast of Queensland (Charters Towers to the south -west of Townsville, etc.). The most significant region in terms of production and reserves is southwestern, covering vast territories in a wide strip between the Murchison River and the city of Dundas. Non-ferrous metal ores are concentrated mainly in the east of Australia. The largest deposit (and the main mining area) of copper ore is located on the island of Tasmania (Mount Lyell); large deposits of copper ores exist and are being developed in Queensland (Mount Morgan, Mount Isa). The reserves of polymetallic ores of zinc, lead and silver are very large in Australia.

New South Wales ranks first in terms of reserves and production of polymetallic ores. The Broken Hill field is one of the largest in the world. A significant amount of silver and zinc is mined in the northeast of Australia in Queensland (Mount Isa), as well as on the island of Tasmania. It is also necessary to mention the very large reserves of tantalum and niobium, the industrial deposits of which are concentrated in Western Australia (Pilbarra). Deposits of uranium radium ores have been explored and exploited in South Australia (Mount Painter and Radium Hill) and in the Northern Territory (Ram Jungle and others). main area iron ore deposits near Iron Knob in South Australia, although there are larger reserves than in Iron Knob on the islands of Coolen and Coatu in Yampi Bay (north of the mouth of the Fitzroy River), as well as in the Murchison River basin. Mining in these areas is now almost non-existent due to the difficulty of getting the ore to the smelters in New South Wales. In terms of coal reserves, Australia ranks first among the countries of the southern hemisphere. The largest coal basin (Permian age) is located in New South Wales and occupies a very favorable geographical position, stretching for 250 km along the coast of the Tasman Sea. The most powerful seams of high-quality coals are concentrated in the area of ​​the cities of Newcastle (mainly) and Sydney. The second largest basin is located in Queensland (in the areas of Brisbane and Claremont). The coals of this basin are of Permo-Carboniferous age. Brown coals (tertiary age) are mined in an open way in the state of Victoria, in the vicinity of Melbourne; there is information about the discovery of new reserves of brown coal near Adelaide. Exploration for oil, which is being intensively carried out at the present time, has not yet yielded practical results. The main reason for the lack of oil on the mainland is the small number of basins with sufficient thickness of marine sedimentary rocks in which oil could accumulate.

Australia, separated from Gondwana in Jurassic period, throughout the entire geological history, has been subjected to slow uplifts, subsidences, and faults. Now the mainland is a plateau with an average height of 350 m, i.e. is after Europe the lowest part of the land. Its climatic conditions are dry and continental.

The features of the runoff in Australia and on the islands close to it are well illustrated by the following figures: the volume of the runoff of the rivers of Australia, Tasmania, New Guinea and New Zealand is 1600 km3, the runoff layer is 184 mm, i.e. little more than in Africa. And the runoff volume of Australia alone is only 440 km3, and the thickness of the runoff layer is only 57 mm, i.e., several times less than on all other continents. This is due to the fact that most of the mainland, unlike the islands, receives little rainfall and there are no high mountains and glaciers within it.

The area of ​​internal runoff includes 60% of the surface of Australia. Approximately 10% of the territory has a drain into the Pacific Ocean, the rest belongs to the Indian Ocean basin. The main watershed of the mainland is the Great Dividing Range, from the slopes of which the largest and most full-flowing rivers flow. These rivers are almost exclusively fed by rain.

Since the eastern slope of the ridge is short and steep, short, fast, winding rivers flow towards the Coral and Tasman Seas. Receiving more or less even nutrition, they are the deepest rivers in Australia with a clearly defined summer maximum. Crossing the ridges, some rivers form rapids and waterfalls. The length of the largest rivers (Fitzroy, Berdekin, Hunter) is several hundred kilometers. In the lower reaches, some of them are navigable for 100 km or more, and at the mouths are accessible to ocean-going vessels.

The rivers of Northern Australia flowing into the Arafura and Timor Seas are also full-flowing. The most significant are those that flow from the northern part of the Great Dividing Range. But the rivers of the north of Australia, due to the sharp difference in the amount of summer and winter precipitation, have a less uniform regime than the rivers of the east. They overflow with water and often overflow their banks during the summer months. monsoon rains. AT winter time- these are weak narrow streams, in the upper reaches they dry up in places. The largest rivers in the north - the Flinders, Victoria and Ord - are navigable in the lower reaches for several tens of kilometers in summer.

There are also permanent streams in the southwest of the mainland. However, during the dry summer season, almost all of them turn into chains of shallow polluted reservoirs.

There are no permanent streams in the desert and semi-desert inland parts of Australia. But there is a network of dry channels, which are the remnants of the former developed water network, formed under the conditions of the pluvial epoch. These dry channels are filled with water after rains for a very short time. Such intermittent streams are known in Australia as "creeks". They are especially numerous in the Central Plain and are directed towards the endorheic, drying up Lake Eyre. The Nullarbor karst plain is devoid of even periodic streams, but has an underground water network with a runoff towards the Great Australian Bight.

The most developed river network is on the island of Tasmania. The rivers there have a mixed rain and snow supply and are full-flowing throughout the year. They flow down from the mountains and therefore are stormy, rapids and have large reserves of hydropower. The latter is widely used for the construction of hydroelectric power plants. The availability of cheap electricity contributes to the development of energy-intensive industries in Tasmania, such as the smelting of pure electrolyte metals, the manufacture of cellulose, etc. The lack of surface water is partially compensated by the large reserves of groundwater that accumulate in artesian basins. The artesian waters of Australia contain a lot of salts.

The rivers flowing from the eastern slopes of the Great Dividing Range are short, in their upper reaches they flow in narrow gorges. Here they may well be used, and partly already used for the construction of hydroelectric power stations. When entering the coastal plain, the rivers slow down their flow, their depth increases. Many of them in the estuarine parts are even accessible to large ocean-going vessels. The Clarence River is navigable for 100 km from its mouth, and Hawkesbury for 300 km. The volume of runoff and the regime of these rivers are different and depend on the amount of precipitation and the time of their occurrence. (Appendix B)

The Fitzroy River is located in the East Australian Mountains. It flows into the King's Bay of the Indian Ocean. Like other rivers in Australia, the Fitzroy is fed by rainwater, to a lesser extent its water level depends on snowmelt and groundwater. Despite the shallow depths, Fitzroy is navigable (about 130 kilometers upstream from the mouth). The Fitzroy has no major tributaries. Fitzroy does not freeze.

The source of the Murchison is in the Robinson Range. It flows into the Indian Ocean. The river flows through Western Australia. Twice a year (summer and winter) the Murchison bed dries up, forming a long string of small lakes. Murchison's way of feeding is rain feeding. A tributary of the Murchison is a small river, the Murchison. Murchison also does not freeze.

On the western slopes of the Great Dividing Range, rivers originate, making their way along the interior plains. In the region of Mount Kosciuszko begins the longest river in Australia - Murray (2375 km). Its largest tributaries, the Murrumbidgee (1485 km), Darling (1472 km), Goulburn and some others, also originate in the mountains. (Appendix B)

The rivers of the northern and western coasts of Australia are shallow and relatively small. The longest of them - Flinders flows into the Gulf of Carpentaria. These rivers are rain-fed, and their flow varies greatly in different time of the year. Rivers whose flow is directed to the interior of the mainland, such as Coopers Creek (Barkoo), Diamantina, and others, are not only deprived of a constant flow, but also of a permanent, distinctly expressed channel. In Australia, such temporary rivers are called " cries" (eng. creek). They fill with water only during short showers. Soon after the rain, the riverbed again turns into a dry sandy hollow, often without even a definite shape.

The marginal regions of Australia have a runoff to the Indian Ocean (33% of the runoff from the total area of ​​the mainland) and to the Pacific. Rivers that empty into the ocean tend to be short, with steep dip profiles, especially those that drain from the East Australian Mountains. The volume of runoff, as well as the regime of river levels, is different and significantly depends on the amount of precipitation and the time of its occurrence. The rivers that start in the East Australian mountains (Burdekin, Fitzroy, Burnett, and others) are the most full-flowing and uniform in flow. The least full-flowing and unstable rivers of the western coast (Fortescue, Gascoigne, etc.), flowing from semi-desert coastal plateaus. Surface runoff is completely absent on the Nullarbor karst plain adjacent to the Great Australian Bight.

Australia has only two major rivers, the Murray and the Darling. Starting in the Australian Alps, the Murray is the most abundant river in Australia (basin area 1072 thousand km2, length 1632 m). Its food is mainly rain and, to a lesser extent, snow. Flowing with a barely noticeable slope through the vast southeastern plains of the Central Lowland, the river loses a lot of water to evaporation and barely reaches the ocean. At the mouth it is blocked by sand bars. The main tributary of the Murray is the Darling River, the longest river in Australia (the basin area is 590 thousand km2, the length is 2450 m), but it is even less full-flowing, and during drought seasons its waters, lost in the sands, do not reach Murray.

The large left tributaries of the Murray, the Murrumbidgee and Goulburn, also maintain a constant flow, during the rainy season, overflowing for tens of kilometers. High waters come very quickly, but do not last long, accompanied by severe floods. The rivers of the Murray Basin serve as important sources of irrigation water.

All rivers in the Murray-Darling system are fed mainly by rainfall and to some extent by snowfall in the Australian Alps. Therefore, the maximum consumption occurs in the summer. Prior to the construction of dams and reservoirs, the floods of the rivers of the Murray system on a flat, low-lying plain sometimes took on the character of catastrophic floods. At the same time, the rivers carried large masses of detrital material and deposited ramparts along the channels, which often prevented the flow of tributaries into the main river. Currently, the flow of the Murray and all its tributaries is regulated, which has both positive and negative sides. A large number of reservoirs makes it possible to accumulate significant reserves of irrigation water in case of prolonged droughts and at the same time prevents a fairly regular flow of fertile silt into floodplain complexes.

During the dry winter period, the level of the main river drops significantly, but, as a rule, a continuous flow is maintained throughout its entire length. Only in the years of the most severe droughts do certain sections of the upper reaches of the Murray dry up completely.

The main features of the natural landscapes of the Murray-Darling Plains are determined by their position in the tropical and subtropical zones, the increase in the dryness of the climate from east to west, and the nature of the relief. The northern part of the plains is occupied by a flat basin, into which the waters of the Darling and its tributaries collect. The basin is bounded from the south by the low Kobar Upland by the uplift of the Paleozoic folded basement, from the east by the foothills of the East Australian Mountains. The raised outskirts of the basin receive up to 400 mm of precipitation per year and are occupied by typical eucalyptus savannahs and thickets of shrubby acacias. The grass cover, withering in the dry winter season, blooms luxuriantly in early summer, when rare but heavy rains fall. In the center of the basin, in drier conditions, thickets of scrub mulga are common. The basin is drained by the Darling River, which originates in the New England Mountains and very quickly turns from mountain river into the flat, with an insignificant fall, due to this, many branches and channels are separated from the main channel, ending in lake depressions at the bottom of a wide valley. The lakes do not have permanent outlines, after floods for several months they support the supply of the main river, then they dry up and in severe droughts the flow of the river almost stops. In the channel there are chains of lakes, saline in the lower reaches. In completely rainless years, water in the channel is only for two to three months. The low water of the Darling in the lower reaches is explained by the fact that in the middle and lower reaches this river is transit. Crossing the inland arid regions, it does not receive a single tributary for 1500 km. Navigation on the river is possible only during high water (during four summer months) for 1000 km for ships of shallow draft. The Darling plains merge in the southwest with the Murray plains, which lie on the site of a sea bay that existed until the end of the Neogene. The bay was filled not only with marine, but also with alluvial-lacustrine deposits brought by the Murray and its tributaries. The northern part of the plains (to the mouth of the Darling) receives little rainfall, is crossed by wide valleys of temporary streams and is covered with scrub mulga. The main geomorphological element of the southern part of the plains is the Murray Valley. Above the mouth of the Darling, it is wide, the riverbed meanders in a wide floodplain, in which there are many oxbow lakes and lakes. Below the confluence of the Darling, its banks are rather steep, which indicates a vigorous deep erosion of the river: the Murray flows here through an area that only emerged from under the sea level in the Quaternary and is now still in the process of uplift. The straightness of the valley below the Morgan suggests that the river here uses a meridional tectonic depression parallel to the horst massif of the Lofty Range.

The Murray ends in the vast, shallow lagoon of Alexandrina. It is completely cut off by sandbars, and only artificial channels allow small ships to penetrate into it. Murray's runoff fluctuates sharply with the seasons, but unlike the Darling's, it does not stop throughout the year. Currently, the flow is regulated by a system of dams and reservoirs. Hume's largest reservoir is located near Albury. Up the Murray, ships rise 1,700 km to the city of Albury, but in practice navigation is of little importance due to the lack of free communication with the ocean and the shallow water of the river. Much of the Murray Lowland is characterized by aridity. The amount of precipitation (mainly winter) slightly increases (from 250 to 500 mm) from the northwest to the southeast, and landscapes change in the same direction. Thickets of mulga scrub occupy the driest areas; in wetter ones they are replaced by malli-scrub thickets, characteristic of the landscapes of the Australian steppes. In the southwest, in the foothill areas, the growing role of summer monsoon moisture contributes to the appearance of savannah landscapes with a dense grass cover and eucalyptus along river valleys and in relief depressions. A special area against this background is the Riverina between the Murray and Murrumbidgee rivers, composed of sandy-argillaceous alluvial deposits and having a particularly flat relief. In many places, the sands are hilly into dunes, now fixed by vegetation. The lack of slopes makes it difficult for flood waters to drain, so the Riverina is rich in small, shallow lakes, the oxbow lakes of Murray and Murrumbidgee. South of Murray lie the dry, sandy plains of Mally Wimmer, protected from the ocean by the Victorian Mountains. The sands are hilly into dunes, stretched latitudinally in the direction of the prevailing winds and fixed with malli scrub. From the mountains towards Murray, the plains are crossed by intermittent rivers, ending in salt lakes near Murray. Only on the southern edge of the plains, wetter than the north, more or less permanent streams remain and the dull grayish-green malli scrub is replaced by bright green savannahs. A completely special landscape area, known as the Goiderland, is formed by the horst-block ridges of the Flinders Lofty and the plains adjacent to them from the east and north. This is a territory fragmented by meridional faults, including the Eyre Peninsula contoured by faults, Spencer Bay, the low horst massif of the York Peninsula, St. Vincent Bay, the Flinders Range and its southern continuation of the Lofty Range. The ridges have rounded or flat tops, but their slopes are strongly dissected by erosion, which is active in the winter wet season.

The rivers of the Murray-Darling system are of great economic importance, since their waters are used to irrigate the fertile, but arid lands of the lowlands, the amount of water that Murray does not bring his own in the driest years. For these purposes, such a large amount of water is consumed up to the ocean. In addition, the intensive development of agricultural production (in particular, the use of mineral fertilizers, herbicides, pesticides and other pesticides) within the river basin contributed to the severe pollution of rivers - in the middle reaches, Murray carries up to 130 tons of salt per year. Therefore, if citrus orchards are irrigated with river water, they may die.

Sharp seasonal level fluctuations and strong accumulative activity of the rivers make navigation difficult. For example, the mouth of the Murray is so cluttered with clastic material that it is completely inaccessible to ships. The river itself is navigable as far as the city of Albury, the Darling in the lower reaches is accessible to small boats.

The Murray is a large navigable river. Passenger boats can climb almost two thousand kilometers along it to the city of Albury at the very foot of the Australian Alps. Thanks to snow supply and the Hume Reservoir built in the upper reaches of the river, the water level in Murray is quite sufficient for navigation throughout the year. Quite another matter - Darling. Although this tributary is two hundred kilometers longer than the main river, its full flow depends entirely on rains. Therefore, in the dry period of the year, it turns in the lower reaches into a chain of separate reservoirs a kilometer and a half long and a hundred meters wide. The Darling becomes a full-fledged tributary of the Murray only during the rainy season, when the flood comes. At this time, in some places it spills over tens of kilometers.

The nature of Australia is unique, it is home to animals, birds and fish that cannot be found on other continents. Live in the rivers of Australia rare species fish: butterfly fish, rabbit fish, cat fish, rat fish, frog fish, horntooth, roach, bream, carp, salmon, eel and many other species. 2.2 Features of Australia's lakes

There are many lake basins on the territory of Australia, but all of them are currently deprived of water and have turned into salt marshes. They are located mainly in hollows filled with water only after rains. At the same time, for a significant part of the year, these lakes are covered with a clay-saline crust. Most lakes in Australia, like rivers, are fed by rainwater. They have neither a constant level nor a runoff. In summer, the lakes dry up and are shallow saline depressions. The layer of salt at the bottom sometimes reaches 1.5 m. Most of the lakes in Australia are waterless basins covered with salt-bearing clays. In those rare cases when they are filled with water, they are silty salty and shallow water bodies. There are many such lakes on the Western Plateau in Western Australia, but the largest of them are in South Australia: lakes Eyre, Torrens, Gairdner and Frome. All of them are surrounded by wide strips of salt marshes. Numerous lagoons with brackish or salt water are developed along the southeastern coast of Australia, separated from the sea by sandbars and ridges. The largest freshwater lakes are in Tasmania, where some of them, including Great Lake, are used for hydroelectric purposes.

The largest lakes of the continent are Eyre (9500 km²), Mackay (3494 km²), Amadius (1032 km²), Garnpang (542 km²) and Gordon (270 km²; at the same time it is the largest artificial reservoir in Australia). The largest salt lakes are Eyre (9500 km²), Torrens (5745 km²) and Gairdner (4351 km²). (Appendix A) The largest of them is Lake Eyre, which is the remnant of a vast reservoir. Water in it now appears only after summer showers. In 1840, Edward Eyre discovered a salt lake in South Australia, which was later named after him. Lake Eyre, in rare cases when its basin is completely filled, is the largest lake in Australia and its lowest point - about 15 m below sea level. It is the central point of the vast Lake Eyre basin.

The lake is located in the desert of central Australia, in the northern part of the state of South Australia. The Lake Eyre Basin is a closed system surrounding the lake bed, the lower part of which is filled with a saline dense layer of soil due to the seasonal evaporation of trapped waters. The basin of the lake is the center of flow for a vast area and receives a whole system of temporary watercourses - screams (Coopers, Diamantina, Eyre, etc.). The lake is shallow, highly saline, its area and shape are unstable and change depending on the amount of precipitation. Usually the lake consists of two reservoirs - Lakes Air North and Air South. But in the rainy season the cries bring a large number of water from the mountains, lakes become a single full-flowing reservoir. In the wettest years, the area of ​​Lake Eyre reaches 15 thousand km2. During the dry period, which lasts a significant part of the year, the flow of water stops, the water in the lake evaporates, it breaks up into shallow reservoirs, interspersed with areas covered with salt crusts. Even in the dry season, little water remains in Eyre, which usually collects in small lakes formed on the salty dried lake bed. During the rainy season, rivers from northeast Queensland flow towards the lake. The amount of water brought by the monsoon determines whether the water reaches the lake; and if so, how deep will the lake be. The lake also experiences small to medium-sized flooding due to heavy rainfall in the surrounding areas. There is a yacht club on the lake.

From the northeast and east, the usually dry channels of Diamantina and Cooper Creek approach, which are rather deeply incised in the lower parts of the valleys due to the recent trough of the lake basin. Rare eucalyptus trees grow along the screams. South of Lake Eyre lie the residual salt lakes of Torrens, Gairdner, and other smaller ones. They occupy an elongated zone of tectonic subsidence, framed on the east by the Flinders and Lofty ranges, and on the west by a ledge of the Western Plateau. These lakes are also covered with a crust of salt most of the year.

The lakes of Australia, which are quite significant in number and size, are swamps for most of the year. To the north of Spencer Bay (but without connecting to it) lies Torrens Lake, surrounded by sand dunes, which has a circumference of 225 km. And to the east of it is Lake Gregory, which may be divided into several separate lakes. To the west of Lake Torrensa lies on a plateau. Rising to 115 m, the great Lake Gairdner, which, like countless smaller lakes in the same area, is extremely abundant in salt and, apparently, only recently separated from the sea water. Generally there are clear signs the fact that the southern coast of the mainland still continues to slowly rise from sea waters.

Lake Hillier on one of the islands of the Recherches archipelago. The water in the pond is bright pink. Its color will remain even if you pour water from the lake into a glass and look at the light. Hillier's mystery is explained in an elementary way: the lake was once formed on the site of a lagoon - it is separated from the Indian Ocean by a thin strip of land. Sea water in the lake evaporates under the rays of the sun and becomes more and more salty. In addition to bacteria and microscopic algae, no one lives in the lake. And the strange color is nothing more than a product of the vital activity of its inhabitants.

Amadius is a dry drainless salt lake in the central part of Australia. It is located approximately 350 km southwest of Alice Spring. The area is about 880 km2. Due to the arid climate, Amadius is a completely dry lake for most of the year. The lake was first explored in 1872 by Ernest Giles, who named it after the Duke of Savoy, King Amadeus I of Spain. Although the traveler originally intended to name it after his benefactor, Baron Ferdinand Müller. Amadius is about 180 km long and 10 km wide, making it the largest lake in the Northern Territory. Despite the high salt content, its extraction is not carried out due to the remoteness from established markets.

Billabong is an Australian word for a small stagnant body of water, especially an oxbow lake connected to a flowing body of water. Billabong usually forms when the course of a river or creek changes. The name probably comes from the Wiraturi word bilaban, although some believe given word comes from Gaelic. Billabong is mentioned quite often in works of Australian literature, for example in the poem "Waltzing Matilda" by Australian poet Banjo Paterson, which became the unofficial anthem of Australia.

Disappointment is a salt lake in Western Australia (Australia). It dries up during the dry months. The lake received its modern name in 1897 and was named so by the traveler Frank Hann (Eng. Frank Hann), who made a significant contribution to the study of the Pilbara region. Noticing a large number of streams in the study area, he hoped to find a large freshwater lake. But to his disappointment, the lake turned out to be salty (translated from of English language "disappointment"- disappointment).

Lake St. Clayer has been formed by glaciers over the past 2 million years. This deepest lake in Australia is the source of the Derwent River. The surroundings of the lake offer excellent conditions for walking.

Torrens is the second largest saline endorheic rift lake in Australia, in the state of South Australia, located 345 km north of Adelaide. The indicated area of ​​the lake is very conditional, since over the past 150 years it has been completely filled with water only once. The lake was discovered by Edward Eyre in 1839, for the next 20 years it was believed that Lake Torrens is a huge, shallow salt lake in the shape of a horseshoe, surrounding the northern Flinders ranges and blocking the path along inner part countries. The first European who overcame this mythical barrier is A. Gregory. Now the lake is in national park Lake Torrens, which requires a special permit to enter.

Frome (English) Lake Frome listen)) is a large endorheic lake in the Australian state of South Australia, located east of the Flinders Range. Frome is a large, shallow, drying lake covered with a crust of salt. The lake is about 100 km long and 40 km wide. Most of the lake is below sea level. Area - 2.59 km². It occasionally fills with brackish water from dry creeks originating in the Flinders Range, located west of Fromu, or exclusively with water from the Strzelecki Creek in the north. To the west, Lake Frome is adjacent to Vulkatoon Gammon Ridge National Park. Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges National Park), in the north it is connected by the Salt Creek to Callabonna Lake, in the east it borders the Strzelecki Desert, and in the south it borders the Frome Downs Pasture Farm. The amount of precipitation in the region where the lake is located is minimal, and the nearest locality, the village of Arkarula, is located 40 km to the northwest. There are two large uranium deposits in the immediate vicinity of the lake. The lake was named in 1843 in honor of the British officer and Surveyor General of South Australia, Edward Charles Frome. In 1991, in view of its "regional geological significance", Lake Frome was declared a regional nature reserve.

Lake Cynthia or Lake St lies at the southern end of Cradle Mountain Lake St in the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage area. It is Australia's deepest natural freshwater lake at a depth of 200 meters. The source of the Derwent River, which eventually heads towards Hobart, Lake St. is also known for its Aboriginal name, which means “to sleep the water.” It is at Lake C that the Land Trail ends in the south. At the southern end of Lake is Cynthia Bay, which is connected by a 5 km driveway from the Highway.

Salt Lake Gairdner (Lake Gairdner) with a length of 160 and a width of up to 48 kilometers is the fourth largest after lakes Eyre, Torrens and Frome. The layer of salt in some places can exceed 1 meter. The lake is located in the north of the state of South Australia, 450 kilometers from Adelaide. Access to the lake is limited due to private pastures surrounding the lake on all sides. The most popular approaches to the lake are the Mount Ive farm to the south and the campsite to the southwest on the road between Moonaree and Yardea. Girdner is part of a system of four large endorheic lakes, the remains of an ancient inland sea that stretched north of Australia to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The lakes are located on a stone plateau, not a single river flows out of them, and they are filled only with rainwater. In summer, when not a drop of water remains, races are held on the lake. The absolutely flat surface of the lake and the long track allow you to develop tremendous speeds. The current record (as of 2008) is 301 mph. Dried salt forms crystals of various shapes. The taste is salty and bitter. Near the shore, under a layer of salt, there is wet clay. The lake looks most beautiful at sunset and dawn - the low sun illuminates the salt crystals and emphasizes the bottom topography. In addition, at this time it is not so bright and not hot. During the day, the lake becomes dazzlingly white and you can do without sunglasses for no more than 2-3 minutes. It also seems that the sun is frying from all sides.

A distinctive feature of Australia is its wealth of groundwater. They accumulate in artesian basins that occupy the troughs of the ancient basement along the edges of the Western Plateau and in the Central Lowland. The water-bearing horizons are mainly Mesozoic deposits, and dense Paleozoic rocks are water-resistant. Groundwater is supplied mainly by precipitation. Groundwater in the central parts of the basins occurs at great depths (up to 20 m, in places up to 1.5 km). When drilling wells, they often come to the surface under natural pressure. The area of ​​artesian basins here exceeds 3 million km2, which is about 40% of the country's territory. In most basins, the water is brackish, warm, aquifers lie at a considerable depth (up to 2000 m), which makes their use difficult. The total area of ​​basins with groundwater reserves exceeds 3240 thousand square meters. km. Water supply from underground runoff is of great importance for many rural areas of Australia. These waters mostly contain dissolved solids that are harmful to plants, but in many cases the water is suitable for watering livestock. Although the groundwater is often very warm and highly mineralized, the area's sheep breeding depends on it. However, groundwater is also widely used in the mining industry. Smaller artesian pools are found in Western Australia and southeast Victoria. In the semi-desert and desert regions of Australia, artesian basins are of great importance. But due to the mineralization of water, they are used not so much for irrigation as for the needs of industry and transport and, mainly, to create reservoirs in pasture areas (in the south of Queensland, in New South Wales and Victoria).

The Great Artesian Basin, the largest in the world, in Queensland, South Australia, New South Wales and the Northern Territory covers an area of ​​1,751.5 thousand square meters. km. It covers almost the entire Central Lowland from the Gulf of Carpentaria to the middle reaches of the Darling River and accounts for more than half of the groundwater area. On the territory of the basin there is the largest number of artesian wells that provide mineralized water, sometimes warm and even hot. But due to the mineralization of water, they are used not so much for irrigation as for the needs of industry and transport and, mainly, to create reservoirs in pasture areas (in the south of Queensland, in New South Wales and Victoria).

Almost one third of the mainland area, mostly inland, is a desert or semi-desert, not occupied by agricultural land. 60% of the territory is drainless, only one large Murray-Darling system in the southeast of the country is used for navigation and irrigation.

Conclusion

The position of most of the mainland in the belt of a desert and semi-desert tropical climate determines the weak development of surface runoff, both external and internal. In terms of total annual runoff, Australia ranks last among other continents. Almost over its entire area, the runoff layer is about 50 mm per year. The runoff layer reaches its greatest values ​​(400 mm and more) on the windward moist slopes of the East Australian mountains. 60% of the mainland area is deprived of runoff to the ocean and has only a rare network of temporary streams (creeks). The densest network of screams is in the Central Basin, they are much smaller in the Western Plateau. Water appears in them only after episodic downpours; they often end in drainless basins, which in the pluvial epochs of the Quaternary period were large freshwater lakes fed by the waters of large permanent rivers. Now these lakes have almost dried up, their baths are occupied by salt marshes. Even the largest endorheic lake in Australia, Air, in the dry season is covered with a crust of salt up to 1 m thick, and in the rainy season (summer) it spills over an area of ​​up to 1500 km2. Near the shores of the lake, the channels of the longest creeks in Australia, Cooper Creek and Diamantina, end.

Of all the atmospheric moisture falling on the territory of Australia, only 10-13% enters water bodies, the rest either evaporates or seeps into the soil and is consumed by plants. This is the main reason for the exceptional poverty of the continent in surface waters. During the year, only 350 km3 of water flows into the ocean from the entire area of ​​​​Australia (less than 1% of the total flow of the Earth's rivers). The distribution of surface water across the mainland is very uneven. More than half of the volume of river runoff falls on the share of poorly developed areas north of the tropic. At the same time, the most important agricultural region, the Murray-Darling Basin, has only 7% of the mainland river flow. The most full-flowing, albeit short, rivers flow into the Pacific Ocean from the well-moistened eastern slopes of the Great Dividing Range. On the contrary, almost all the rivers belonging to the Indian Ocean basin dry up for a long time. Most of the Western Australian Plateau and Central Lowlands are crossed only by a rare network of dry channels (creeks) filled with water after episodic downpours. The longest and most branched cries in especially high water years flow into Lake Eyre, in most cases their mouths are lost in the sands. The most full-flowing river of the continent is the Murray, with a length of 2570 km. Originating on the western slopes of the Australian Alps, it receives additional nourishment from the spring snowmelt. However, outside the mountainous part, flowing with a barely noticeable slope across the vast dry plains, the river loses a lot of water due to evaporation, for irrigation and water supply, becomes very shallow and barely brings its waters to the mouth, blocked by sandy spits. The Darling, the main tributary of the Murray, is even less full-flowing. , considered the longest river on the continent (2740 km). In the middle and lower reaches, the Darling dries up for a long time (up to 18 months in a row). The large left tributaries of the Murray - the Murrumbidgee and the Goulburn - also maintain a constant flow, during the rainy season, spilling over tens of kilometers. High waters come very quickly, but do not last long, accompanied by severe floods. The rivers of the Murray Basin serve as important sources of irrigation water. There are many lake basins in Australia, but all of them are currently deprived of water and have turned into salt marshes. The largest of them is Lake Eyre, which is the remnant of a vast body of water. Water in it now appears only after summer showers. A distinctive feature of Australia is its wealth of groundwater. The area of ​​artesian basins here exceeds 3 million sq. km2, which is about 40% of the country's territory. More than half of this area falls on the world's largest Great Artesian Basin, which occupies almost the entire Central Lowland. In most basins, the water is brackish, warm, aquifers lie at a considerable depth (up to 2000 m), which makes their use difficult. However, groundwater is widely used in livestock and mining industries. One of the most important problems in Australia is the lack of fresh water, especially in the southeast of the country. Water quality is deteriorating from year to year. Although Australia's river and groundwater has always been characterized by increased salinity, its natural level has not prevented agricultural development of the territory. But over time, deforestation and the replacement of natural vegetation with cultivated ones, as well as an increase in water consumption for irrigating agricultural land, led to an increase in water salinity. The quality of river water is also declining as a result of its pollution with solid particles during land erosion, due to the inflow of waste from industrial enterprises and runoff from agricultural land into the rivers. Despite the growing role of underground sources, in the near future, mainly river waters will still be used to meet the needs of irrigation and urban economy, and by the beginning of 2000. their shortage will cause the need for additional water sources. Moreover, the lack of water still serves as an obstacle to the development of the interior of the continent.

List of used literature

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Annex A

The largest lakes australia

Annex B

Major rivers

Similar information.

More than seventy rivers flow through Australia, but it is unlikely that it will be possible to call the hydrological map of the mainland saturated.

This continent is different from the rest in many ways, including rivers. The fundamental difference lies in the low water content of the rivers and the absence of seasonal floods. But, despite this, the rivers of Australia, as well as throughout the world, are a place of concentration of the inhabitants of the mainland, and hence the birth of their original culture.

General characteristics of the rivers of Australia

It is possible to divide the hydrological basin of the continent into three parts: eastern, western and central. Most of the rivers have their source in the east of the mainland, in the Great Dividing Range. This mountain formation, sometimes called the Australian Alps, is also the birthplace of the largest river - Murray. The main feature of the entire Australian hydrology is the lack of seasonality of spills, caused by a small amount of rainfall in most of the country.

This leads to a non-standard model of human settlement on the banks and the need for irrigation - artificial irrigation. Most of the rivers have their source in the mountains, but tributary support is present mainly only at Murray. A small volume of water leads to the formation of internal runoff into small lakes. This is how more than half of the country's rivers end. During the drought period, many channels dry up partially, and during the dry season they themselves turn into separate hydraulic systems.

Only about a tenth forms an estuary on the ocean coast.

Rain feeding, being the main source of full flow, also influenced the formation of a special attitude of the natives to the rivers. If, for example, in Ancient Egypt the annual flood of the Nile was expected and guaranteed life, then in Australia there is no regularity of filling the riverbeds. All this was reflected in the creation of a special tradition of the indigenous people, traces of which are today available on popular ethnographic tours of Australia.

Also, in our pragmatic time, no one will dare to invest in the creation of river passenger and freight transport in unstable channels. Therefore, land and air transport is developed in Australia, and rivers are used to organize tourist trips on motor ships.

Great Dividing Range and its rivers

The mountain range that cuts the country from north to south stretches for four thousand kilometers. From here the main channels of the city-forming rivers begin. The steeper eastern slopes form a fast flow of mountain streams. These include the largest river - the Murray. It starts on the slope of the highest mountain on the continent Kosciuszko and, having traveled more than two thousand kilometers, ends his journey in the lake alegzandrina.

In addition to the Murray, smaller rivers also flow into it, such as Bremer, finnis and Angas. The lake is a kind of buffer between freshwater rivers and the Great Gulf of Alexandria of the Indian Ocean, from which it is separated by the Murray Roth Canal.

There are many things in Australia that are unusual for Europeans, including the Murray tributary. darling. The peculiarity of the river flowing into the Murray is that its length, together with its own tributaries, is three hundred kilometers longer than the length of the Murray. In the tributary-river tandem, the tributary is longer, but due to full flow, it is the Murray that is recognized as the main water artery.

In addition to the Darling, the second largest river of the continent flows into the Murray - murrumbidgee. Its full flow is currently significantly reduced due to the construction of a dam and a number of reservoirs. However, the watercourse still remains sufficient to form, together with other tributaries of the Murray - Lachlan, Loddon, Campasle and Golborn - the only stable full-flowing hydraulic system of the Murray-Darling country all year round.

Despite the stability of filling with water, the main river of Australia changed its course quite often. When traveling to the capital of the state of South Australia, Adelaide, it is possible to inspect the former channel, located near the city. A key site today, Murray Darling was also likely to have been a major Aboriginal habitat, as evidenced by traces of rock art. In addition to ethnography, there is also leisure on the banks - fishing, golf.

Rivers in Western Australia and Tasmania

In the direction of flow, Australian rivers can be divided into those flowing towards the ocean and inland. In the central part of the country, which for the most part is a desert territory, there are so-called screams from the rivers. These are predominantly seasonal, drying up streams, the channels of which are partially filled with rainwater. They are not an exclusively Australian phenomenon, but it is on this continent that their concentration is quite high due to the peculiarities of the climate.

In the central part of the mainland, closer to its southern tip, is located Lake Eyre. It is the largest in Australia, and it also suffered the fate of a drying up reservoir. At the peak of the drought, the bottom of this particular lake becomes the lowest point in the country. The lake is an estuary, a tributary of many inland rivers such as Georgina, Cooper Creek (1420 km) and Diamantina (941 km).

The west of the continent is known primarily for the river Ashburton. It is shallow and, like most rivers in Australia, it dries up. But the length, which is 825 km, makes Ashburton the unofficial leader in this part of the mainland. Also, it is not internal, but flows into the Indian Ocean.

Most other rivers in the west end in small lakes or wetlands.

The name Australia belongs not only to the mainland, but also to the state. It also includes the state of Tasmania, located on the island of the same name. Here the situation with the rivers is completely different than on the continent. The mountainous terrain has given rise to an abundance of rivers, many of which are even navigable in their lower reaches. The most famous among them are South Esk(252 km) and Derwent(215 km).

A dry tropical climate, a large area of ​​the mainland and a limited amount of groundwater have created a special hydrological situation in Australia. More than half of the rivers have internal flow, and seasonal rains are the main source of water.

Salvation for the inhabitants of the continent is considered the second largest in the world Great Artesian Basin. Occupying a quarter of the mainland, this giant underground water reservoir is located at a depth of three hundred meters to two kilometers. Today it serves as the main source of drinking water and irrigation installations.

• Read: Nature of Australia; Freshwater bodies of the Earth

Rivers and lakes of Australia

Rivers of Australia

Most of the Australian mainland receives little rainfall, so most of Australia's rivers dry up. And only those that start in the mountains of Eastern Australia, as well as the rivers of Tasmania, have a constant flow all year round.

The Murray River, along with its large tributaries the Darling, Murrumbidgee and Goulburn, is Australia's main river artery. It covers the territory in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia with a total area of ​​about 1073 thousand square meters. km. The Murray River originates in the Snowy Mountains and flows into South Australia into Encounter Bay. The total length of the Murray River is 2575 km, with the lower 970 km navigable but only for small boats. Sandbanks blocking the mouth of the river serve as an obstacle to the entry of sea vessels. The Murrumbidgee tributary, whose length is 1690 km, begins in the Cooma region and flows into the Murray. The main Darling River, which is 2740 km long, flows into the Murray at Wentworth.

Slightly more than half of the mainland has a disconnected flow or belongs to the internal drainage basins. On the Western Plateau, the runoff is disjointed, and the streams existing there function rarely and for a short time, and end in temporary lakes or swamps confined to drainless basins. The Eyre Lake Basin, one of the world's largest inland flow basins, occupies an area of ​​1,143.7 thousand square meters. km and occupies most of the territory of Queensland, the Northern Territory and South Australia. Such large rivers of this basin as Georgina, Diamantina and Cooper Creek are also interesting. And since they are characterized by very small runoff slopes, most of the time they are real labyrinths of dry intertwining channels, but after heavy rains they fill up and quickly spill over many kilometers wide. Despite this, the waters of these rivers rarely reach Lake Eyre. It is noted that only in 1950 its basin was filled for the first time since the colonization of the mainland by Europeans.

The use of Australian rivers is extremely difficult, since their flow is extremely variable. In addition, sites suitable for dam construction are scarce, especially in the interior, and large reservoirs are needed to ensure a permanent water supply. In addition, in the Australian arid regions, the loss of water to evaporation is very significant, and only in Tasmania is the runoff sufficiently constant in all seasons.

Most of the time, the lakes of Australia are anhydrous basins, which are covered with salt-bearing clays. Therefore, in rare times, when they are filled with water, they are silty salty and shallow reservoirs. The largest of them: Lake Eyre, Torrens, Gairdner and Frome are located in South Australia. And there are many such small lakes on the Western Plateau in Western Australia. Numerous brackish or salt water lagoons are located along the southeastern coast of Australia, and they are separated from the sea by sandbars and ridges.

Tasmania is richer in fresh water territory, so it is here that the largest freshwater lakes are located, and some of them, in particular Great Lake Lake, are used for hydroelectric purposes.

Groundwater supply is vital to many rural areas of Australia. Experts have calculated that the total area of ​​basins with fresh groundwater reserves exceeds 3240 thousand square meters. km. However, most of these waters contain various dissolved solids, which often have a harmful effect on plants when watered, but this water is in many cases suitable for watering livestock.

On the territory of Queensland, South Australia, New South Wales and the Northern Territory, there is the world's largest, the so-called Great Artesian Basin, which covers an area of ​​1751.5 thousand square meters. km. Although the groundwater is often very warm and highly mineralized, sheep breeding in this region depends on it. Artesian pools have also been found in Western Australia and southeast Victoria, but on a much smaller scale.