Did you know that some rivers can actually change direction? It sounds wild, but it happens when big geological events like earthquakes, landslides, or even massive floods shift the land around them. One major river at risk of this is the Brahmaputra in India—it’s a powerhouse of a river, but also a ticking time bomb. Experts say just one strong earthquake could cause it to completely change course, leading to devastating floods and destruction in the region. This is because the river flows through a seismically active area, where the Earth’s crust is constantly moving. It’s a reminder of how powerful and unpredictable nature can be! Animation is created by Bright Side.
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FunTranscript
00:00Around 2,500 years ago, an earthquake completely changed the course of one of the largest and
00:06most famous rivers on the planet, the Ganges.
00:09Now, it's normal for rivers not to sit in one place, so if you live next to one, it
00:15could also just disappear without a trace or flood the whole city one day.
00:21In the case of the Ganges River, a supermassive earthquake became the reason for this dramatic
00:26change.
00:27Scientists say it might happen again, and it would be a huge problem for millions of
00:31people who depend on this river.
00:36The Ganges River starts as small streams in the Himalayas and travels a long way, over
00:421,500 miles.
00:44Along its journey, it meets other big rivers before all the water flows into the Bay of
00:48Bengal.
00:50The Ganges has the largest delta in the world among all rivers.
00:54Just like many other rivers in the region, it slowly changes its path over time.
00:59These changes, if they happen when a river wears away its banks, usually take a long
01:04time, sometimes decades.
01:06Scientists have discovered that the Ganges Brahmaputra River system has shifted several
01:11times over the last 6,000 years.
01:14When they looked at satellite images of the Ganges Delta, they noticed something interesting.
01:19There was a crescent-shaped dip in the ground about 28 miles away from where the river is
01:24flowing now.
01:25This depression was over 1 mile wide and stretched for many miles.
01:30They thought it might've been an old main channel of the Ganges River a long time ago.
01:35In 2018, the team decided to visit the area to check it out for themselves and take samples
01:41to learn more about it.
01:43While driving back home, they noticed a pit where someone was digging dirt to create a
01:47pond.
01:48The next day, they planned to fill it with water.
01:51But the researchers spotted something strange in the dirt.
01:54There were vertical bands of light-colored sand mixed into the darker mud.
01:59These special layers are clues from the past.
02:02They show that an ancient earthquake made sand and water shoot up from below the ground
02:07and created sand volcanoes that were trapped in time.
02:13The scientists studied the sand and mud and figured out that these earthquakes happened
02:17around 2,500 years ago and were strong, with magnitudes of 7 to 8.
02:23The epicenter was over 110 miles away from the main stem of the river, but it was powerful
02:29enough to displace it.
02:31It could've affected around 140 million people.
02:34The Ganges-Brahmaputra system is close to spots where Earth's tectonic plates meet,
02:40so earthquakes happen here often.
02:44There's no danger right now, but scientists think that another massive earthquake could
02:49happen in the next few hundred or thousand years.
02:52It could threaten up to 170 million people.
02:55That's about half the population of the U.S.
02:58No one can predict exactly when an earthquake will happen or how strong it will be.
03:04Learning how earthquakes in the past moved rivers helps scientists figure out patterns
03:08and make guesses about similar events in the future.
03:11This knowledge could help us prepare better and create safety plans before another big
03:16earthquake strikes.
03:18The Ganges isn't the only river at risk.
03:21The Yellow River, the Irrawaddy River, and rivers in the United States like the Klamath
03:26and San Joaquin all face similar dangers.
03:29The mighty Mississippi River has also switched its path many times over the last 7,000 years.
03:35Right now, there's a huge system of dams and barriers called a control structure in
03:40central Louisiana.
03:41This structure's job is to stop the Mississippi from spilling over its banks and joining a
03:46nearby river.
03:48But scientists think that, in theory, these barriers wouldn't handle mega floods.
03:53So the Mississippi could break free and change its course again.
03:57This would cause massive problems, especially in southern Louisiana.
04:02One of the recent examples when a river changing its course caused disaster was the Kosi River
04:07in India.
04:09In August 2008, over just a few days, the river's path shifted by almost 60 miles,
04:15which is a huge change.
04:18Floods happen in some parts of the state rather often, but they hadn't seen such strong
04:22ones in over 50 years.
04:24They affected around 1,000 villages and 3 million people, and about 1 million people
04:29had to be evacuated to safety.
04:32Since many of these people hadn't faced floods in so long, they weren't ready to
04:36handle it quickly.
04:37It caused even more damage to their homes and lives.
04:42Scientists have been trying for decades to figure out what exactly makes rivers suddenly
04:46change their course.
04:48A new study explains that two things work together to make a river to do it.
04:53This process is called avulsion.
04:56First there's the setup, which is like building up tension before something big happens.
05:00Over time, sediment, sand, dirt, and other stuff carried by the river gets deposited
05:06in certain places.
05:07It either raises the river above the land around it, or makes a nearby slope steeper
05:12than the river's current path.
05:15Then there's the trigger, which is like the final straw that makes everything happen.
05:19This trigger could be a big flood, an earthquake, or even something like a pile of logs blocking
05:25the water.
05:27Researchers looked at satellite images of about 170 cases of avulsion from the past
05:3350 years.
05:35They noticed these events happen most often near river mouths and near mountains.
05:40Rivers were about 3 times more likely to change course in these places than in the areas between
05:46them.
05:47They also studied 58 river channels in detail, using super-clear maps to measure super-elevation
05:53– that's how high the river is compared to the land around it.
05:57They also measured slope advantage – that's how steep a new path might be compared to
06:01the river's current one.
06:03They found that near mountains, rivers often pile up so much sediment that they become
06:08super-elevated and spill over.
06:11But near river mouths, like in deltas, rivers need a steep slope advantage to break through
06:16the mud and form a new path.
06:19These two factors work together like a seesaw – if one is stronger, the other doesn't
06:24need to be as strong for an avulsion to happen.
06:27To figure out where a river might go if it changes course, the researchers created a
06:32smart computer algorithm.
06:35This tool uses maps to measure the terrain's steepness and the river's flow to predict
06:40where the river might move.
06:42They tested it on 10 past avulsions, and it correctly guessed the path every single time.
06:48Scientists hope they could use these findings to protect people living near rivers from
06:52sudden floods.
06:55Rivers changing course played a big role in creating one of the first organized administration
07:00systems in the world.
07:02Scientists found clues for this in the territory of ancient Mesopotamia.
07:07This name means the land between two rivers, and it was between the rivers Tigris and Euphrates.
07:14People living there relied on these rivers for water, food, and transportation.
07:18Scientists wanted to figure out how these sudden changes in these rivers affected ancient
07:23people.
07:24To do this, they used two kinds of maps.
07:27The archaeological maps show how ancient cities grew over time, including what types
07:32of buildings people built.
07:34Certain buildings, like big palaces or city walls, could show when each city first had
07:39an organized administration.
07:41The second kind of map showed where the Tigris and Euphrates rivers flowed long ago.
07:46They often shifted, sometimes slowly, and sometimes very quickly and dramatically.
07:52Around the year 5000 BCE, Mesopotamia started to become drier, and farming became harder.
08:00Farmers had to grow their crops near rivers, where they could use the natural floods to
08:04water their fields or dig little channels to bring river water to their plants.
08:09Because farming was so important, towns and cities grew near the rivers too, so people
08:14could stay close to their food.
08:17But when a river suddenly changed its course, people didn't give up.
08:21They worked together to dig long canals to bring water from the new river path back to
08:25their fields.
08:27The canals helped them get water again, and the administration buildings showed they were
08:31organizing as a community to solve big problems together.
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