The Auranga: description of a tropical monsoon river

Abstract

Describes the physiography and behaviour of a river in a tropical monsoon environment. The river basin consists of Archean escarpment-bounded plateaus, and lower plains and hills of Gondwana sedimentaries. There is a large amount of sediment load available, mostly in sand. The most striking feature of the Auranga channel is the complex bar formation. In the dry season, the lower part of the channel is braided, point bars exist at meander bends, and a higher flood bar also appears at some of these bends. It is proposed that the Auranga behaves as a braided stream during the dry season and as a meandering river during part of the wet monsoon. The channel morphology and sedimentation also reflect the response to episodic large floods. -from Authors