The Umba River is located in northeastern

Tanzania Tanzania (; ), officially the United Republic of Tanzania ( sw, Jamhuri ya Muungano wa Tanzania), is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It borders Uganda to the north; Kenya to the northeast; Comoro Islands and ...

Tanga Region Tanga Region (''Mkoa wa Tanga'' in Swahili) is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The region covers an area of . The region is comparable in size to the combined land area of the nation state of Burundi. The regional capital is the mu ...

. It rises in Schageiuforest (Shagayu) in the West

Usambara Mountains The Usambara Mountains of northeastern Tanzania in tropical East Africa, comprise the easternmost ranges of the Eastern Arc Mountains. The ranges of approximately long and about half that wide, are situated in the Lushoto District of the Tan ...

at 2,000 m altitude and flows on the north side of the mountain range to the east. At Lelwa it empties the Mbalamu River, which comes from the extreme north of the Usambara Mountains, and the Mglumi River into the Umba. Just before the Umba flows into the

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or ~19.8% of the water on Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia to the east. To the south it is bounded by th ...

, it crosses the border to

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

. The mouth itself marks the most eastern point on the border between Tanzania and Kenya, which was largely made in a straight line to the northwest towards Lake Victoria in the 19th Century. On the upper reaches of the river in the mid-1960s rich deposits of precious stones, including

sapphires Sapphire is a precious gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of aluminium oxide () with trace amounts of elements such as iron, titanium, chromium, vanadium, or magnesium. The name sapphire is derived via the Latin "sapphir ...

and

spessartine Spessartine is a nesosilicate, manganese aluminium garnet species, Mn2+3Al2(SiO4)3.Gemological Institute of America, ''GIA Gem Reference Guide'' 1995, This mineral is sometimes mistakenly referred to as ''spessartite''. Spessartine's name is a ...

, were discovered. Also on the river is the

Umba River Game Reserve Umba may refer to *Umba, Russia, an urban-type settlement in Murmansk Oblast, Russia *Umba (White Sea), a river on the Kola Peninsula, Russia *Umba River (Tanzania), a river in Tanzania *Umba sapphire, a sapphire from Tanzania *Umba Valley, a valley ...

, a wildlife reserve that includes along with the

Mkomazi Game Reserve Mkomazi National Park is located in northeastern Tanzania on the Kenyan border, in Kilimanjaro Region and Tanga Region. It was established as a game reserve in 1951 and upgraded to a national park in 2006. The park covers over , and is dominate ...

, about 2,600 km².

Hydrometry

The flow of the river has been observed over 40 years (1963-2003) in Mbuta, a town about 40 km above the mouth. The average monthly flow of the river Umba hydrological station of Mbuta (in m³ / s ) (calculated using the data for a period of 30 years, 1954–84)http://www.worldwatercongress2008.org/resource/authors/abs624_article.pdf Colors= id:lightgrey value:gray(0.8) id:darkgrey value:gray(0.3) id:sfondo value:rgb(1,1,1) id:barra value:rgb(0.6,0.8,0.9) ImageSize = width:600 height:220 PlotArea = left:40 bottom:40 top:20 right:20 DateFormat = x.y Period = from:0 till:60 TimeAxis = orientation:vertical AlignBars = justify ScaleMajor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:20 start:0 ScaleMinor = gridcolor:lightgrey increment:10 start:0 BackgroundColors = canvas:sfondo BarData= bar:Jan text:January bar:Fév text:February bar:Mar text:Marz bar:Avr text:April bar:Mai text:May bar:Jun text:June bar:Jul text:July bar:Aoû text:August bar:Sep text:Sept. bar:Oct text:Oct. bar:Nov text:Nov. bar:Déc text:Dec. PlotData= color:barra width:30 align:left bar:Jan from:0 till: 45 bar:Fév from:0 till: 10 bar:Mar from:0 till: 5 bar:Avr from:0 till: 8 bar:Mai from:0 till: 7 bar:Jun from:0 till: 4 bar:Jul from:0 till: 2 bar:Aoû from:0 till: 1 bar:Sep from:0 till: 1 bar:Oct from:0 till: 2 bar:Nov from:0 till: 3 bar:Déc from:0 till: 18 PlotData= bar:Jan at: 45 fontsize:S text: 45 shift:(-10,5) bar:Fév at: 10 fontsize:S text: 10 shift:(-10,5) bar:Mar at: 5 fontsize:S text: 5 shift:(-10,5) bar:Avr at: 8 fontsize:S text: 8 shift:(-10,5) bar:Mai at: 7 fontsize:S text: 7 shift:(-10,5) bar:Jun at: 4 fontsize:S text: 4 shift:(-10,5) bar:Jul at: 2 fontsize:S text: 2 shift:(-10,5) bar:Aoû at: 1 fontsize:S text: 1 shift:(-10,5) bar:Sep at: 1 fontsize:S text: 1 shift:(-10,5) bar:Oct at: 2 fontsize:S text: 2 shift:(-10,5) bar:Nov at: 3 fontsize:S text: 3 shift:(-10,5) bar:Déc at: 18 fontsize:S text: 18 shift:(-10,5)

Hydrometry

References

See also