The Thamalakane River is a river located in

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

, at the southern end of the

Okavango Delta The Okavango Delta or Okavango Grassland is a vast inland delta in Botswana formed where the Okavango River reaches a tectonic trough at an elevation of in the central part of the endorheic basin of the Kalahari Desert. It is a UNESCO Wor ...

. It has no well defined beginning (

spring Spring(s) may refer to: Common uses * Spring (season), a season of the year * Spring (device), a mechanical device that stores energy * Spring (hydrology), a natural source of water * Spring (mathematics), a geometric surface in the shape of a he ...

) and no clear end (

delta Delta commonly refers to: * Delta (letter) (Δ or δ), the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet * D (NATO phonetic alphabet: "Delta"), the fourth letter in the Latin alphabet * River delta, at a river mouth * Delta Air Lines, a major US carrier ...

). It is the result of the Thamalakane fault - which began to form about two million years ago by the geological process of

rift In geology, a rift is a linear zone where the lithosphere is being pulled apart and is an example of extensional tectonics. Typical rift features are a central linear downfaulted depression, called a graben, or more commonly a half-graben ...

ing that is currently splitting Africa apart along the

East African Rift The East African Rift (EAR) or East African Rift System (EARS) is an active continental rift zone in East Africa. The EAR began developing around the onset of the Miocene, 22–25 million years ago. It was formerly considered to be part of a l ...

. When the land between two parallel faults (the

Gumare Gumare or Gomare is a rural village located in the North-West District of Botswana, near the Okavango Delta. The population of Gumare was 6,067 in 2001 census, but had risen to 8,532 iby the 2011 census. Gumare is served by Gumare Airport. F ...

fault and the Kunyere fault) started dropping, the

Okavango River The Okavango River (formerly spelt Okovango or Okovanggo), is a river in southwest Africa. It is known by this name in Botswana, and as Cubango in Angola, and Kavango in Namibia. It is the fourth-longest river system in southern Africa, runni ...

's flow was blocked by the Thamalakane fault and it started to fan out and built myriads of water channels - what is now known as the

. One of the main channels draining the

is the

Boro River The Boro River is a river of South Sudan, a headwater of the Magadhik River, which in turn is a headwater of the Lol River. Course The Boro River rises in Western Bahr el Ghazal near the border with Haute-Kotto in the Central African Republic and ...

. Being blocked by the fault, it empties literally at a right angle into the

waterway A waterway is any Navigability, navigable body of water. Broad distinctions are useful to avoid ambiguity, and disambiguation will be of varying importance depending on the nuance of the equivalent word in other ways. A first distinction is ...

created by the fault, the Thamalakane River. Roughly 40 km to the west, the water found a break in the Thamalakane Fault. Again at a right angle it empties the Thamalakane River and forms the

Boteti River The Boteti River (also Botletle RiverHelgren, David M. (1984) "Historical Geomorphology and Geoarchaeology in the Southwestern Makgadikgadi Basin, Botswana" ''Annals of the Association of American Geographers'' 74(2): pp. 298–307, page 298

, which incurs seasonal desiccation in some lower reaches. In the rainy season the Boteti discharges to the

Makgadikgadi Pans The Makgadikgadi Pan (Tswana pronunciation ), a salt pan situated in the middle of the dry savanna of north-eastern Botswana, is one of the largest salt flats in the world. The pan is all that remains of the formerly enormous Lake Makgadik ...

, bringing that area alive with wet season high biological productivity. In older days, the Boro fed not only the Thamalakane River but also smaller channels like the Boronyana and Shashe. Along the Thamalakane River the village of Maun developed. Water supply to Maun is from well fields along the Thamalakane and

Shashe River The Shashe River (or Shashi River) is a major left-bank tributary of the Limpopo River in Zimbabwe. It rises northwest of Francistown, Botswana and flows into the Limpopo River where Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa meet.Boteti River The Boteti River (also Botletle RiverHelgren, David M. (1984) "Historical Geomorphology and Geoarchaeology in the Southwestern Makgadikgadi Basin, Botswana" ''Annals of the Association of American Geographers'' 74(2): pp. 298–307, page 298

* Botswana Wildlife Training Institute

Line notes

References

* C.Michael Hogan. 2008
''Makgadikgadi''
A. Burnham, ed. ''The Megalithic Portal'' * T.Scudder. 1993. ''The IUCN review of the Southern Okavango Integrated Water Development Project'', International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources 543 pages Rivers of Botswana Kalahari Desert Makgadikgadi Pan {{Botswana-river-stub