Lhonak River | |
---|---|
Location | |
Country | India |
Physical characteristics | |
Mouth | |
• location | Teesta River |
Basin features | |
River system | Teesta River |
The Lhonak River is a tributary of the Teesta River in the Indian state of Sikkim. [1]
The Lhonak originates as a small stream from a glacier in the snowy wastes of northern Sikkim. It generally flows south till it joins the Teesta. The main Himalayan wall with its high snow-clad peaks forms the northern boundary of the catchment. Small glaciers or tongues of perpetual ice descend from the depressions between the ridges into the valleys. They give birth to small streams which join the main channel of the Lhonak. The upper course is along an ancient glacial valley. While the middle and lower courses have been carved by both the action of ice and running water, the side valleys are formed by melt-ice opens into the main valley. No vegetation is found in higher reaches. Alpine pastures occur near the snow line. Subalpine and temperate forests are found at lower elevations. Human habitation in the Lhomak valley is very sparse. It is visited by graziers. [1]
Lake Lhonak was considered a dangerous lake, which may outburst. Central Water Commission carried out the study and the Department of Science and Technology carried out the bathymetric survey to assess its volume and possible danger of outburst.
The Lhonak Valley is a grassland in the exposed river valley of Goma Chu in northwest Sikkim, with boggy marshes, glacial lakes, barren scree slopes and glaciers. Goma Chu rises in North and South Lhonak glaciers and runs across the valley to join Zema Chu, a glacier at the southern end of the valley, as is Green Lake. [2]
Kangchenjunga, also spelled Kanchenjunga, Kanchanjanghā and Khangchendzonga, is the third-highest mountain in the world. Its summit lies at 8,586 m (28,169 ft) in a section of the Himalayas, the Kangchenjunga Himal, which is bounded in the west by the Tamur River, in the north by the Lhonak River and Jongsang La, and in the east by the Teesta River. It lies in the border region between Nepal and Mangan district, Sikkim state of India, with three of the five peaks, namely Main, Central and South, directly on the border, and the peaks West and Kangbachen in Nepal's Taplejung District.
The Himalayas, or Himalaya, is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 100 peaks exceeding 7,200 m (23,600 ft) in elevation lie in the Himalayas.
The Kingdom of Bhutan is a sovereign nation, located towards the eastern extreme of the Himalayas mountain range. It is fairly evenly sandwiched between the sovereign territory of two nations: first, the People's Republic of China on the north and northwest. There are approximately 477 kilometres of border with that nation's Tibet Autonomous Region. The second nation is the Republic of India on the south, southwest, and east; there are approximately 659 kilometres with the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, West Bengal, and Sikkim, in clockwise order from the kingdom. Bhutan's total borders amount to 1,139 kilometres. The Republic of Nepal to the west, the India to the south, and the Union of Myanmar to the southeast are other close neighbours; the former two are separated by only very small stretches of Indian territory.
A jökulhlaup is a type of glacial outburst flood. It is an Icelandic term that has been adopted in glaciological terminology in many languages. It originally referred to the well-known subglacial outburst floods from Vatnajökull, Iceland, which are triggered by geothermal heating and occasionally by a volcanic subglacial eruption, but it is now used to describe any large and abrupt release of water from a subglacial or proglacial lake/reservoir.
Teesta River is a 414 km (257 mi) long river that rises in the Pauhunri Mountain of eastern Himalayas, flows through the Indian states of Sikkim and West Bengal and subsequently enters Bangladesh through Rangpur division. In Bangladesh, it falls into Brahmaputra River which after meeting some other major rivers of Bengal delta finally falls into the Bay of Bengal. It drains an area of 12,540 km2 (4,840 sq mi). In India, it flows through Mangan District, Gangtok District, Pakyong District, Kalimpong district, Darjeeling District, Jalpaiguri District, Cooch Behar districts and the cities of Rangpo, Jalpaiguri and Mekhliganj. In Bangladesh, it flows through Lalmonirhat District, Rangpur District, Kurigram District and Gaibandha District. It joins the Brahmaputra River at Phulchhari Upazila in Bangladesh. 305 km (190 mi) of the river lies in India and 109 km (68 mi) in Bangladesh. Teesta is the largest river of Sikkim and second largest river of West Bengal after the Ganges.
The Lachung River is a tributary of the Teesta River located in the East Indian state of Sikkim. It is a chief tributary of the Teesta, which is an important river in Sikkim along with Rangeet River. The village of Lachung is perched on the craggy bank of the river approximately 23 kilometres (14 mi) from Chungthang. It is at Chungthang where the Lachung and Lachen rivers converge and give rise to the Teesta. The river is 2,500 metres (8,200 ft) above sea level.
The Jaldhaka River (Pron:/ˌdʒælˈdɑːkə/), also known as Dichu, a tributary of Brahmaputra is a trans-boundary river flowing through India, Bhutan and Bangladesh with a length of 233 kilometres. It originates from the Bitang Lake at Kupup, Gangtok District, Sikkim, near the Jelep La pass below Dongkya Mountain Range. It flows through Pakyong District of Sikkim, India and then passes through forests of Samtse District of Bhutan where it flows for around 40 Kilometres and than re-enters India at Bindu, Kalimpong district. Further it passes through Neora Valley National Park, Chapramari Wildlife Sanctuary & Gorumara National Park in West Bengal alongwith cities and towns like Jhalong, Dhupguri, Falakata, Mathabhanga and flows through Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar districts in West Bengal, India. Than the river enters Bangladesh at Mogolhat, Lalmonirhat District of Rangpur Division. It is known as Dharla River in Bangladesh and flows through towns like Kolaghat, Phulbari and Kurigram City and Passes southwards until the Dharla debouches into the Brahmaputra River at Bagua Anantpur of Kurigram District. Due to the river's wandering over several international borders, only a small length of the river lies in Bangladesh and Bhutan and most of its path lies in India. In some places, this river is also known as Mansai river and Singhimari river.
Zemu Glacier is the largest glacier in the Eastern Himalaya. It is about 26 kilometres (16 mi) in length and is located at the base of Kangchenjunga in the Himalayan region of Sikkim, India. The Zemu Glacier drains the east side of Kanchenjunga, the world's third highest mountain. The glacier is the source of water for numerous rivers, as it feeds them when it melts. One of them is the Teesta River, which has garnered large attention in the past few years because of a proposed 3500 MW hydropower plant. At the moment the Government of Sikkim has only been able to run a 510 MW plant on the river. Owing to the location of the river in an earthquake prone area, the hydropower plants will be a run of the river project.
A glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) is a type of outburst flood caused by the failure of a dam containing a glacial lake. An event similar to a GLOF, where a body of water contained by a glacier melts or overflows the glacier, is called a jökulhlaup. The dam can consist of glacier ice or a terminal moraine. Failure can happen due to erosion, a buildup of water pressure, an avalanche of rock or heavy snow, an earthquake or cryoseism, volcanic eruptions under the ice, or massive displacement of water in a glacial lake when a large portion of an adjacent glacier collapses into it.
A tunnel valley is a U-shaped valley originally cut under the glacial ice near the margin of continental ice sheets such as that now covering Antarctica and formerly covering portions of all continents during past glacial ages. They can be as long as 100 km (62 mi), 4 km (2.5 mi) wide, and 400 m (1,300 ft) deep.
Bhote Koshi in Nepal and Poiqu in Tibet, both names roughly mean "Tibetan river," is the name given to the upper course of the Sun Kosi river. It is part of the Koshi River system in Nepal.
The Arun River is a trans-boundary river and is part of the Kosi or Sapt Koshi river system in Nepal. It originates in Tibet Autonomous Region of the People's Republic of China where it is called the Phung Chu or Bum-chu.
A supraglacial lake is any pond of liquid water on the top of a glacier. Although these pools are ephemeral, they may reach kilometers in diameter and be several meters deep. They may last for months or even decades at a time, but can empty in the course of hours.
Legship is a small town in west district of the Indian State of Sikkim. Legship is the gateway to West Sikkim. It is located on the main road connecting West Sikkim with the rest of the state, on the banks of river Rangit. The place is in fact a main crossing point of roads from Yuksam, Tashiding, Kewzing, Rabangla, Gangtok, Jorethang, Pelling, Gayzing and other places.
The Sunkoshi, also spelt Sunkosi, is a river of Nepal that is part of the Koshi or Saptkoshi River system in Nepal. Sunkoshi has two source streams, one that arises within Nepal in Choukati, and the other more significant stream that flows in from Nyalam County in the Tibet region of China. The latter is called Bhote Koshi in Nepal and Matsang Tsangpo in Tibet. Due to the significant flows from Bhote Koshi, the Sun Koshi river basin is often regarded as a trans-border river basin.
Rangit Dam, which forms the headworks of the Rangit Hydroelectric Power Project Stage III, is a run-of-the-river hydroelectric power project on the Ranjit River, a major tributary of the Teesta River in the South Sikkim district of the Northeastern Indian state of Sikkim. The project's construction was completed in 1999. The project is fully functional since 2000. The project was built at a cost of Rs 4922.6 million. The average annual power generation from the 60 MW project is 340 GWh with firm power of 39 MW.
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Glaciofluvial deposits or Glacio-fluvial sediments consist of boulders, gravel, sand, silt and clay from ice sheets or glaciers. They are transported, sorted and deposited by streams of water. The deposits are formed beside, below or downstream from the ice. They include kames, kame terraces and eskers formed in ice contact and outwash fans and outwash plains below the ice margin. Typically the outwash sediment is carried by fast and turbulent fluvio-glacial meltwater streams, but occasionally it is carried by catastrophic outburst floods. Larger elements such as boulders and gravel are deposited nearer to the ice margin, while finer elements are carried farther, sometimes into lakes or the ocean. The sediments are sorted by fluvial processes. They differ from glacial till, which is moved and deposited by the ice of the glacier, and is unsorted.
South Lhonak Lake is a glacial-moraine-dammed lake, located in Sikkim's far northwestern region. It is one of the fastest expanding lakes in the Sikkim Himalaya region, and one of the 14 potentially dangerous lakes susceptible to Glacial lake outburst flood (GLOFs).
Coordinates: 27°46′N88°29′E / 27.767°N 88.483°E