The Tasman River is an

alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National P ...

braided river A braided river (also called braided channel or braided stream) consists of a network of river channel (geography), channels separated by small, often temporary, islands called ''braid bars'' or, in British English usage, ''aits'' or ''eyots''. ...

flowing through

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, in the county of Kent, England; it was a county borough until 1974. It lies on the River Stour, Kent, River Stour. The city has a mild oceanic climat ...

, in New Zealand's

South Island The South Island ( , 'the waters of Pounamu, Greenstone') is the largest of the three major islands of New Zealand by surface area, the others being the smaller but more populous North Island and Stewart Island. It is bordered to the north by ...

. The river's

headwaters The headwater of a river or stream is the geographical point of its beginning, specifically where surface runoff water begins to accumulate into a flowing channel of water. A river or stream into which one or many tributary rivers or streams flo ...

are in

Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park is a national park located in the Canterbury Region in the central-west of the South Island of New Zealand. It was established in October 1953 and takes its name from the highest mountain in New Zealand, Aora ...

, where it is the outflow of the proglacial

Tasman Lake Tasman Lake is a proglacial lake formed by the recent retreat of the Tasman Glacier in New Zealand's South Island. In the early 1970s, there were several small meltwater ponds on the Tasman Glacier. By 1990, these ponds had merged into Tasman La ...

. It is also fed by the glacial waters of the

tributary A tributary, or an ''affluent'', is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream (''main stem'' or ''"parent"''), river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they ...

Murchison River, from

Murchison Glacier The Murchison Glacier is an long glacier flowing through Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park in the South Island of New Zealand. Lying to the east of the Malte Brun range and west of the Liebig Range, high in the Southern Alps, it flows from the ...

, and the short Hooker River, an outflow of the proglacial lakes of the Hooker and

Mueller Mueller may refer to: People * Mueller (surname), a surname German in origin * Robert Mueller, former American FBI director Places Antarctica * Mount Mueller (Antarctica) Australia * Mueller College, in Queensland * Mount Mueller (Victoria) * ...

glaciers. The Tasman River flows south for through the wide flat-bottomed Tasman Valley in the

Southern Alps The Southern Alps (; officially Southern Alps / Kā Tiritiri o te Moana) are a mountain range extending along much of the length of New Zealand, New Zealand's South Island, reaching its greatest elevations near the range's western side. The n ...

and into the northern end of the glacial

Lake Pukaki Lake Pukaki () is the largest of three roughly parallel alpine lakes running north–south along the northern edge of the Mackenzie Basin on New Zealand's South Island. The others are Lakes Tekapo and Ōhau. All three lakes were formed when the ...

, this forming part of the ultimate headwaters of the Waitaki hydroelectric scheme. In 2019, a report by the

Department of Conservation Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

was released giving the results of a pilot study on the

invertebrate Invertebrates are animals that neither develop nor retain a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''spine'' or ''backbone''), which evolved from the notochord. It is a paraphyletic grouping including all animals excluding the chordata, chordate s ...

biodiversity present in the Tasman River flood plain.

References

Rivers of the Canterbury Region Rivers of New Zealand Braided rivers in New Zealand Aoraki / Mount Cook National Park {{CanterburyNZ-river-stub

See also

References