Global peculiarities and tendencies in river discharge and wash-down of the suspended sediments — The earth as a whole

Abstract

The river discharge and supply (accumulation) in river waters and suspended sediments are characterized by some global latitudinal peculiarities. The maximum discharge and supply (38.5%) of river waters falls within equatorial belts (0 ± 10°). The maximum quantity of wash-down of river waters and especially their supply (accumulation) per unit land area of the 20°-latitude belts falls within the equatorial belts (0 ± 10°) as well as high-latitude boreal (50 70°N and especially 70–85°N) and antiboreal (30–35°S) belts of the Earth, which are the latitudinal foci (centres) of maximum absorption of land waters. The maximum discharge of suspended sediments (41.2%) and their supply (42.3%) to the basins of sediment accumulation is shifted to the north (10–30° N) as compared to the maximum river discharge; the statistical median of this shift for the Earth as a whole is about 800 km along the meridian. Between the western and eastern hemispheres of the Earth exists a certain asymmetry in the river discharge and wash-down of suspended sediments. According to the median of statistic research these discharge and supply are shifted 2100–2400 km to the north in the eastern hemisphere as compared to the western. Also there have been established some other peculiarities of global distribution of river discharge and sediments on the Earth. At the end of the paper the latitudinal data on the wash-down of river waters and suspended sediments are integrated for the main regions of the Earth (continents and Oceania).