The numerous changing “braids” of the Yarlung Zangbo River comprise a portion of the globe’s tallest waterway, which meanders across the Tibetan Plateau.(Image credit: NASA/Landsat 9)QUICK FACTS
Where is it situated? Yarlung Zangbo River, Tibet Autonomous Region of China [29.2814054, 91.3256581]
What’s displayed in the photo? The interwoven arms of a river snaking through the Tibetan Plateau
Which satellite captured the photo? Landsat 9
When was it shot? Feb. 8, 2025
This remarkable satellite image showcases a particularly intricate part of a record-setting “braided river” in China, which dramatically alters its layout yearly and might turn out to be more volatile in future decades because of a shifting climate.
The section of the river captured in the image is situated in Zhanang County, right before it travels through the world’s deepest land-based canyon and its namesake, the Yarlung Tsangpo Grand Canyon, which stretches more than 6,000 meters (20,000 feet) in depth — or triple the depth of Arizona’s Grand Canyon.
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Yarlung Zangbo constitutes a typical instance of a braided river — a waterway showcasing “multi-threaded courses that diverge and converge to create the attribute braided pattern,” with mid-channel sandbars that are “shaped, depleted, and reshaped ceaselessly,” as per the National Park Service.
This specific area is where the greatest braiding takes place anywhere down the river’s length, with up to 20 courses sprawling across at particular spots inside the image.
Yarlung Zangbo is considered among the finest instances of a braided river anywhere across the planet. Its channels change so often that vegetation isn’t able to propagate on its transient sandbars.
Yarlang Zangbo’s profound braiding stems from extensive sediment depositions arising from the sharp inclines of the adjacent Himalayas, which ultimately find their way inside the river and aid in chiseling out new courses into the terrain, Zoltán Sylvester, a geologist with the University of Texas at Austin, mentioned to the Earth Observatory. The river reconfigures so regularly that plants cannot fully take root upon the sandbars which randomly crop up amidst the river’s braids, he elaborated.
You have the ability to observe firsthand how fast the river reconfigures within a 37-year time-lapse animation, exhibiting yearly satellite images of this precise locale captured spanning 1988 and 2025 via Landsat 5, Landsat 8 and Landsat 9 (refer below).
Keen-eyed viewers may even manage to identify a slender bridge, which was erected across the shapeshifting waterway during 2014. (It emerges as a fine line close to the extreme right-hand perimeter within the animation).
Satellite visuals taken between 1988 and 2025 showcase how the river’s several courses shift structure on a yearly time frame.
The river initiates at the Angsi Glacier, emerging by means of a stream composed of meltwater springing from the ice mass. Nonetheless, this was only formally verified back in 2011, according to Chinese state outlets. Prior to that point, scientists were confused concerning whether or not the river truly initiated from a meltwater brook originating out of the neighboring Chemayungdung Glacier.
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Like lots of other Himalayan ice expanses, the Angsi Glacier has shed a considerable degree of water throughout current decades stemming from human-induced global warming. The resulting meltwater has led to more sediment accumulating within the river, which is able to heighten corrosion and raise the odds of its banks caving in. Based on a 2024 study analyzing satellite images representing 13 prominent rivers found within the Tibetan Plateau, this poses threats to regional ecosystems, infrastructure coupled with landscape stability.
When the river inevitably gets to India, it transitions into a segment of the Brahmaputra River and presses onward by approximately 1,800 miles (2,900 km) until it meets the Ganges River Delta, by which it exhausts into the Indian Ocean, according to the Earth Observatory.
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Harry BakerSocial Links NavigationSenior Staff Writer
Harry is a senior staff writer located in the U.K. with Live Science. He took up marine biology at the University of Exeter prior to training to turn into a journalist. His coverage includes a wide array of subjects such as space expeditions, planetary science, space meteorology, climatic shifts, animal tendencies coupled with paleontology. His current effort about the solar maximum earned “best space submission” in the 2024 Aerospace Media Awards and was shortlisted under the “top scoop” section for the NCTJ Awards for Excellence throughout 2023. He similarly composes Live Science’s Earth from space series weekly.
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