There used to be two Yangtze Rivers, and one of them flowed south to the Indian Ocean. Why does it flow to the Pacific Ocean now?
The formation of a river does not happen overnight. It requires strong water flow to continuously scour and extend the river channel between the mountains, hills, plains and basins, and it is also affected by climate and precipitation factors. Of course, there are also geological movements such as earthquakes that can change rivers. In history, our ancestors have witnessed the diversion of the Yellow River many times. It can be said that the diversion of the Yellow River in the lower reaches is almost a common thing. From the north to the Haihe Henan to the Huaihe, almost all the areas where the Yellow River is flooded and diverted. Of course, this also makes The Yellow-Huai-Hai Great Plain was formed under the alluvial sediment carried by the Yellow River in northern China, bringing fertile soil to the land of North China and feeding hundreds of millions of people. The most recent natural diversion of the Yellow River occurred in 1855, when the Yellow River was diverted from the Huaihe back to the north from Shandong to the sea. The Yangtze River, the two major rivers in China, we rarely hear the history of the diversion of the Yangtze River. Has the Yangtze River been diverted?
Yellow River
In fact, the Yangtze River has not only changed its course, but there has been a situation in which two Yangtze Rivers coexisted in history. The Yangtze River we see now has been gradually formed 500,000 years ago. Because the areas that the Yangtze River passes through are mostly mountains and hills, and the sediment content in the areas where the Yangtze River flows is not high, so the Yangtze River formed its current trend after the formation of the current trend. Diversions are rare, and generally only temporary water storage diversions occur in some sections of the river. But 500,000 years ago, the Yangtze River in Yunnan and Sichuan flowed southward through Southeast Asia to the Indian Ocean.
On the satellite map, we can find that the Yangtze River is suddenly turning southeastward and turning northeast by more than 90 degrees in Shigu Town in the border area of Yunnan and Sichuan, which seems very abrupt. This bend is the first bay of the Yangtze River. 500,000 years ago, the Yangtze River did not turn here, but flowed southward to the Erhai Lake in Yunnan, and then into the Lancang River. The previous Lancang River also flowed south into the Indian Ocean, so that the Yangtze River merged into the Lancang River and discharged a steady stream of water into the Indian Ocean. . However, Shigu Town is located near the edge of the Indian Ocean plate and the Eurasian plate. The movement of these two plates is very active. For example, the highest peak in the world is formed by the extrusion and uplift of these two plates.
Therefore, a geological movement 500,000 years ago slowly lifted the southern bank of the ancient Yangtze River. Slowly, while the flow of the Yangtze River remained unchanged, a part of the water flow began to divert to the northeast. In this way, the south and east fork of the Yangtze River were formed in Shigu Town. It flows slowly eastward to the Yangtze River and various rivers in the east to join and then flow to the eastern coast, forming the mouth of the Yangtze River. However, as the south bank continued to rise, the water flowing to the south was completely cut off, and finally only the eastward Yangtze River was left, and the Lancang River also diverted to the Pacific Ocean. Now the Erhai Lake in Yunnan is the relic of the ancient Yangtze River, and archaeologists have also discovered that a large number of pebbles washed by the flowing water have been excavated in the ancient Yangtze River that has dried up in the south. This also proves from archaeological evidence that the Yangtze River once flowed south, and there was a short-term coexistence of the two Yangtze Rivers.
It can be said that nature has created many natural and geographical phenomena. Without that geological movement, there would not be a Yangtze River in southern China. Without the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau formed by the geological movement, the south might be as dry as a desert. the formation of human civilization.