Look upanabranch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
Ananabranch is a section of ariver orstream that diverts from the mainchannel orstem of thewatercourse and rejoins the main stem downstream. Local anabranches can be the result of smallislands in the watercourse. In larger anabranches, the flow can diverge for a distance of several, or even hundreds, of kilometers before rejoining the main channel.
The termanabranch, in itshydrological meaning, is used more frequently inAustralia than in the rest of the English-speaking world.
The termanabranching river describes ariver with many anabranches, whilst ananastomosing river is an organic-rich subset of thisriver type.[1]
The termbraided river describeswatercourses which are divided by smallislands into multiple channel threads within a single main channel, but the term does not describe the multiple channels of an anabranching river.
Adistributary is a branch of ariver that does not rejoin the main channel; these are common on and nearriver deltas.
TheMagdalena River, in Colombia, bifurcates inEl Banco in two branches: Brazo de Loba (Shewolf Branch in Spanish) and Brazo de Mompox. The first one, Brazo de Loba is the main navigable channel and is 177 km long. Brazo de Mompox is thus the anabranch. There are several other branches that join those two main branches, interconnected by swamps ("ciénagas"), the main ones being Quitasol, Chicagua and La Victoria. Between Brazo de Loba and Brazo de Mompox is the island of Mompox or Margarita Island, a sunken geological block of 2.200 square km between thefaults of Chicagua and El Romeral.[2]
In theLower Simpson Desert, inSouth Australia,Kallakoopah Creek is an anabranch of theWarburton River that flows during major Warburton floods of over 5 m in depth. The Kallakoopah is approximately 400 km long and members of the Lake Eyre Yacht Club and others have used it to sail a circular route toLake Eyre by traveling down the Kallakoopah and returning via the Warburton.
TheBahr el Zeraf in southernSudan splits from the Bahr al Jabal section of theWhite Nile and flows for 240 km (150 mi), before rejoining the White Nile proper upriver fromMalakal.
Approximately 15 km out[4] ofCharters Towers (Queensland/Australia) is a section of theBurdekin River known as 'the anabranch'. This strip of water is separate from the main flood way, and is typically dry during the sunnier months. Once there is consistent rain, it will meet up with the river again and flood with fresh water. It is well known for barramundi fishing.
Probably because waterways played an important role in infrastructure, anabranches and the resulting river islands are often found in old cities as with theÎle de la Cité in Paris.
