Gilgel Abay
The Gilgel Abay (Amharic: ግልገል አባይ, Gǝlgäl Abbay), or Lesser Abay, is a river of central Ethiopia. Rising in the mountains of Gojjam, it flows northward to empty into south-western Lake Tana at 11°48′N 37°7′E / 11.800°N 37.117°E. Tributaries of the Gilgel Abbay include the Ashar, Jamma, Kelti and the Koger. It was regarded as the true source of the Nile for a long time and the Jesuit priest Pedro Paez visited it in 1618. The name Gilgel Abbay means Lesser Nile, as Abbay is the name for the Blue Nile.
Characteristics[edit]
It is a meandering river, with a catchment area of 3887 km3. It is 71 meters wide near its mouth, with a slope gradient of 0.7 m/km. The average diameter of the bed material is 0.37 mm (sand).[1]
Sediment transport[edit]
The river carries annually 22,185 tonnes of bedload and 7.6 million tonnes of suspended sediment to Lake Tana.[1]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^ a b Hanibal Lemma, and colleagues (2019). "Bedload transport measurements in the Gilgel Abay River, Lake Tana Basin, Ethiopia". Journal of Hydrology. 577: 123968. doi:10.1016/j.jhydrol.2019.123968.
Further reading[edit]
- S. Uhlenbrook, Y. Mohamed, and A. S. Gragne, "Analyzing catchment behavior through catchment modeling in the Gilgel Abay, Upper Blue Nile River Basin, Ethiopia." Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 14, 2153–2165, 2010
- Hydrologic Impact of Land-Use Change in The Upper Gilgel Abay River Basin, Ethiopia; TOPMODEL http://www.itc.nl/library/papers_2010/msc/wrem/gumindoga.pdf