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Last week
you saw pictures of my Cockle 7 aluminium double kayak. It
is nearly 70 years old and still being paddled. Do you know
of other kayaks or canoes that are older than 70 years old
and still being paddled?
Anzac Day 2009 - John
Tomczak and I flying the flag.
A team of us paddled
from Perth to Fremantle
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There seems
to be a few different opinions and claims to which river is
the oldest in the world.
The age of a river is difficult to determine.
Generally, the age is estimated based upon which mountains
are the source of the river, the age of any mountains it dissects,
the sea or ocean to which it eventually outflows, and where
it forms its delta. For instance, if a river dissects a mountain
range, then this often means the river existed before the
mountain range rose.
Each of these factors can make a final
contribution in determining the age of a river.
They Say this
the Oldest River in the World.
The Maas or Meuse is a major European
river, rising in France and flowing through Belgium and the
Netherlands before draining into the North Sea. It has a total
length of 925 km (575 mi). The Meuse is said to be the oldest
river in the world.
The length of the Meuse is nearly 575
mi., of which 360 miles are navigable, and probably its traffic
is only exceeded by that of the Rhine and is one of the more
important waterways of western Europe. In the vicinity of
Maastricht, the Albert Canal extends northwestward from the
Meuse to reach Antwerp, while the Juliana Canal parallels
the Meuse’s course northward into the southern part of
the Netherlands. The Meuse and its canals are heavily traveled
by small cargo ships and barges.
The valley of the Meuse River is a natural
barrier that has historically formed part of the defenses
on the approach to the heart of the Paris Basin from the east.
Its line has given great strategic importance to the fortress
of Verdun and was the scene of heavy fighting in World War
I. During World War II, the crossing of the Meuse River capped
the successful German breakthrough into France in May 1940.
From 1301 the upper Meuse roughly marked
the western border of the Holy Roman Empire with the Kingdom
of France, after Count Henry III of Bar had to receive the
western part of the County of Bar (Barrois mouvant) as a French
fief from the hands of King Philip IV. The border remained
stable until the annexation of the Three Bishoprics Metz,
Toul and Verdun by King Henry II in 1552 and the occupation
of the Duchy of Lorraine by the forces of King Louis XIII
in 1633. Its lower Belgian (Walloon) portion, part of the
sillon industrial, was the first fully industrialized area
in continental Europe.
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Or Is this the
Oldest River in the World?
According to the Northern Territory
Government, the Finke River is the world’s oldest river
following its original course.
It is believed that the Finke has followed
its present course for about 100 million years but parts are
believed to date back 340 million years, well before the time
of dinosaurs.
The Finke River is one of the largest
rivers in central Australia. Its source is in the Northern
Territory's MacDonnell Ranges, and the name Finke River is
first applied at the confluence of the Davenport and Ormiston
Creeks, just north of Glen Helen. From here the river meanders
for approximately 600 km to the western edge of the Simpson
Desert in northern South Australia. Usually the river is a
string of waterholes, but it can become a raging torrent during
rare flood events. In extreme events, water from the Finke
River flows into the Macumba River, and thence into Lake Eyre,
a total distance from headwater streams of around 750 km.
Major tributaries include Ellery Creek, and the Palmer and
Hugh Rivers. The Finke River flows through the West MacDonnell
and Finke Gorge National Parks.
The Finke River was named by John McDouall
Stuart in 1860 after an Adelaide man, William Finke, who was
one of the promoters of his expedition. The indigenous name
for the river in parts of the Northern Territory is Larapinta,
which lends its name to Larapinta Drive, which runs west from
Alice Springs, and the Larapinta walking trail.
The Finke River has long been cited
as "the oldest river in the world", particularly
by tour operators, and in popular books and brochures. In
places such as the James Range, the Finke flows through deeply
incised meanders. Because meanders only form on flat plains,
the river must have formed before the ranges were pushed up;
this happened in a mountain building event referred to as
the Alice Springs Orogeny which peaked between 400 and 300
million years ago (Devonian to Carboniferous Periods). Therefore,
some parts of the river’s course must have been already
in existence around this time. But southern parts of its course
must be much younger because the areas where the Finke now
flows near the southern edge of the Northern Territory, and
further south, were under the sea during the Mesozoic Era,
part of the Great Artesian Basin.
The antiquity of the Finke River is
not unique, but applies equally to other large mountain-sourced
river systems in central Australia, e.g. the Todd and Hale
Rivers and many others, because most of the central Australian
mountain belts formed at around the same time. There are other
eroded mountain ranges of equal or greater age to the MacDonnell
Ranges, both in Australia and on other continents, so present
rivers in those areas may have evolved from ancestral streams
of equal and greater antiquity than the Finke.
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The Oldest Deepest
Lake in the World
In 1975 I visited Lake Baikal on a trip
across Russia. In 1977 I returned to Russia and crossed the
continent on the trans Siberian Railway in mid winter.
Situated in south-east Siberia, the
3.15-million-ha Lake Baikal is the oldest (25 million years)
and deepest (1,700 m) lake in the world. It contains 20% of
the world's total unfrozen freshwater reserve. Known as the
'Galapagos of Russia', its age and isolation have produced
one of the world's richest and most unusual freshwater faunas,
which is of exceptional value to evolutionary science.
Lake Baikal in south-east Siberia, the
deepest lake in the world at 1,700 m, contains 20% of all
fresh running water on the planet, making it the single largest
reservoir. The lake contains an outstanding variety of endemic
flora and fauna, of exceptional value to evolutionary science.
It is also surrounded by a system of protected areas that
have high scenic and other natural values. The basin supports
a variety of plant and animal species, a number being endemic;
the most notable of which is the Baikal seal, a uniquely freshwater
species. The great variety of plants in the basin is determined
by its climatic asymmetry: the western part is occupied by
light coniferous forests and mountain steppes; in the eastern
part pine forests predominate; and the north is covered by
deciduous forests. The formation of the geological structures
in the basin took place during the Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and
Cenozoic eras and there are a number of significant geological
features. Various tectonic forces are still ongoing, as evidenced
in recent thermal vents in the depths of the lake.
The lake itself is the centrepiece of
the site and its largely unseen underwater features are the
core of its value to both science and conservation. Baikal
is one of the most biodiverse lakes on Earth, with 1,340 species
of animal (745 endemic) and 570 species of plant (150 endemic).
In the forests surrounding the lake there are an additional
10 threatened species along with the full complement of typical
boreal species. The evolution of aquatic life that has taken
place over this long period has resulted in an exceptionally
unique and endemic fauna and flora. As the 'Galápagos
of Russia', the lake is of exceptional value to evolutionary
science.
The landscape surrounding the lake basin,
with its mountains, boreal forests, tundra, lakes, islands
and steppes, is exceptionally picturesque. The Baikal region
has some 1,200 historical, archaeological and cultural monuments
of which 1,000 have state protection. A number of these are
considered sacred. There is also a mix of distinctive cultures
in the region and an interesting human history.
•Lake Baikal is located in the
south of Eastern Siberia, in the Buryat Autonomous Republic
and the Region of Irkutsk, Russia.
•It covers 31,500 sq. km and is 636 km. long, an average
of 48 km wide, and 79.4 km at its widest point.
•Its water basin occupies about 557,000 sq. km. and contains
about 23,000 cu. km. of water, that is, about one fifth of
the world's reserves of fresh surface-water and over 80 per
cent of the fresh water in the former Soviet Union.
•The average water level in the lake is never higher
than 456 m.
•The Baikal is the deepest lake in the world.
•Its average depth is 730 m. and its maximum depth in
the middle - 1,620 m.
It would take all the rivers of the
world - Volga, Don, Dneper and Yenisei, Ural and Ob, Ganges
and Orinoko, Amazon and Thames, Seine and Oder - nearly one
year to fill lake Baikal's basin. It would take four hundred
years for all the rivers, streams and brooks now flowing into
the Siberian lake-sea to perform the task.
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