Despite the inland waters available , Australia has been given the status of the driest mainland on Earth. The climate and relief of the continent are pretty uniform, which cannot be said about the animal and plant world. Most of Australia receives a small amount of precipitation, and the main watershed is located east of the center of the mainland. This explains the strange shape of the catchment systems.
Climate Australia
The main part of the continent is located on the Australian platform. The relief formed during the Archean folding. For this reason, there are almost no mountain ranges. Climatic conditions resemble those of the African continent. At a time when snow lies on the territory of Eurasia, Australia is in the grip of a hot summer. The average temperature in the center of the continent is about 35 ºC. The winter period begins in June and lasts until September. The average air temperature is about 10 ºC. In the dark, frosts are possible. In most of the territory, no more than 250 mm of precipitation falls during the year.
The Australian continent is located in three natural areas: tropical, subtropical and subequatorial. About 44% of the area is occupied by deserts, of which there are 8. The southern part of the continent is characterized by a sultry and dry summer period, and winter, on the contrary, is rainy. Northern Australia is influenced by the South Passat Current. It rains heavily in summer and clear and dry in winter.
Tectonics
Most of the continent's mountain systems have disappeared as a result of weathering processes over several billion years. Australia's highest peak is Mount Kosciuszko. The main part of the hills is less than 200 m high. About 40 million years ago, the Great Dividing Range was formed. This is a significantly deformed mountain system, besides the only one here.
The mainland is far from the contact areas of tectonic plates. This circumstance explains the fact that there are no volcanoes in Australia. The junction of tectonic plates is in Oceania. This place has high volcanic activity.
Inland waters of Australia: briefly
On the continent, a small indicator of river flow. The majority of the water arteries dry out. Rivers starting on the eastern slopes of the Dividing Range and located in Tasmania are year-round. The inland waters of Australia, located in the west, dry out during the summer heat. Most of the territory has streams and rivers flowing inside the continent. The boundaries of the pools collecting water are weakly expressed.
Rivers
Inland waters of Australia, photos of which are in the article, are represented by the main river - Murray. It has three large tributaries that collect moisture from an area of over 1 thousand km 2 . The sources of the main tributaries are 200 km from the eastern coast of the continent. Along the course, they are combined into large watercourses flowing along winding channels in the direction of the sea. The length of Murray is 2575 km. The lower course is navigable for 970 km from the mouth.
An obstacle to large water transport is sandbanks. Because of their location near the mouth, ships cannot navigate Murray. Marrambigi is a tributary of the continent's largest river. Its length is about 1690 km, the river originates in the Kuma region. Snow Mountains is a hydroelectric power station that regulates the joint flow of these two rivers.
Darling is the second major tributary of Murray, collecting water from the western slopes of the Dividing Range. The length of this river is 2740 km. In its channel and on some tributaries there are dams that regulate the flow all the time, except for severe droughts.
Water mode
The features of Australia's inland waters are not limited to this. The main part of the continent has a disconnected flow or belongs to the internal basins. An example of such a zone is the West Plateau. In numerous channels, water appears rarely and for a short period of time. Drains lead to drying out lakes or wetlands.
The vast territory, whose area is 1143.7 thousand km 2 , belongs to the basin of the lake. Air, one of the ten largest on Earth. The pool includes the watercourses of Cooper Creek, Diamond and Georgina. Their incidence angle is very small, the channels are meandering, intersecting in places.
Studying inland waters of Australia. Grade 7 of a comprehensive school. From the curriculum it is known that the river channels of the Air Lake basin are almost always dry, and water flows appear in them only after heavy rainfall. At this time, the width of water flows reaches several kilometers. However, they almost always disappear before reaching the basin of the lake. Water in it appeared for the first time only in 1950 for the entire time of observation by Europeans who arrived on the mainland.
Australia's climate and inland waters are interconnected. The consequence of the small amount of precipitation was the instability of most of the rivers of the continent. For this reason, they cannot be used for the benefit of man. There are few sites suitable for the construction of dams, especially in the central part of the mainland, where the problem of water supply is very acute. To solve it, many full-flowing reservoirs are needed.
In the driest regions, large amounts of water simply evaporate. In Tasmania alone, Australia's inland waters have stable year-round runoff.
Lakes
The terrain, climate of Australia and inland waters have caused a large number of dry lakes. The bottom of these hollows is covered with clay, rich in salts. In some cases, there are lakes filled with water. However, they are saturated with salts and silt at a shallow depth. Most of them are in the western part of the continent, and the largest are in the southern part (Air, From, Torrens and others).
In the southeast of the mainland there are many lagoons with salt-rich water, which are separated from the sea by sandy barriers. Tasmania is a region where you can find the largest lakes of the continent with fresh water, some have built hydroelectric power stations.
The groundwater
Australia's underground groundwater is a vital resource. Most rural settlements are supplied from this source. The areas occupied by underground pools are huge (over 3240 thousand km 2 ). Most contain dissolved solids that are unsuitable for irrigation. However, this water can be used for livestock farms.
Under the ground of the mainland is the largest Great Artesian basin on the planet. Its area is 1751.5 thousand km 2 . Underground waters contain a large amount of salts. However, without this source of moisture , sheep breeding on the mainland would be in jeopardy. Smaller artesian pools exist in other parts of the continent.