The Kulfo River is a river in southern
Ethiopia
Ethiopia, , om, Itiyoophiyaa, so, Itoobiya, ti, ኢትዮጵያ, Ítiyop'iya, aa, Itiyoppiya officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country in the Horn of Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the ...
that rises in the western escarpment of the
Main Ethiopian Rift in the
Guge mountains.
It flows through
Arba Minch
Arba Minch (formerly called Ganta Garo) is a city and separate woreda in the southern part of Ethiopia. "Arba Minch" means "40 Springs", originated from the presence of more than 40 springs. It is located in the Gamo Zone of the Southern Nation ...
and then through the
Nechisar National Park on the
isthmus
An isthmus (; ; ) is a narrow piece of land connecting two larger areas across an expanse of water by which they are otherwise separated. A tombolo is an isthmus that consists of a spit or bar, and a strait is the sea counterpart of an isthmus ...
between
Lake Chamo and
Lake Abaya. It usually drains into Lake Chamo but can also drain into Lake Abaya after heavy rains through a bifurcation located directly southwest of
Arba Minch Airport
Arba Minch Airport is an airport serving Arba Minch, a city in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region (SNNPR) in Ethiopia. The name of the city and airport may also be transliterated as Arba Mintch. The airport is located nort ...
.
The lower reaches of Kulfo River can act as the overflow channel (spillway) for Lake Abaya into Lake Chamo in case of high lake levels. The overflow point is directly below an
alluvial fan
An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to semiarid climates, but a ...
at an elevation of 1,190 m (at ). The riverbed then discharges the excess lake water into
Lake Chamo.
An important bridge over the river was restored in 2006. The river has dried out considerably in recent years.
Characteristics
It is a
braided river, with a catchment area of 300 km³. Near its mouth it is 20 meter wide, with a slope gradient of 10 metre per kilometre. The average diameter of the
bed material is 14 mm (
gravel).
Sediment transport
The river transports carries annually 53,480 tonnes of
bedload
The term bed load or bedload describes particles in a flowing fluid (usually water) that are transported along the stream bed. Bed load is complementary to suspended load and wash load.
Bed load moves by rolling, sliding, and/or saltating (ho ...
and 327,230 tonnes of
suspended sediment to
Lake Chamo.
Tropical insects
Cytotaxonomic analysis of
larval chromosome
A chromosome is a long DNA molecule with part or all of the genetic material of an organism. In most chromosomes the very long thin DNA fibers are coated with packaging proteins; in eukaryotic cells the most important of these proteins are ...
s from the Kulfo River area has revealed the existence of two newly recognized species of
Black flies in the river, ''
Simulium kulfoense'' and ''
S. soderense''; yet unlike other Black flies these species are not carriers of ''
Onchocerca volvulus''.
[Hadisa, Mamuye, Wilson, Michael, Cobblaha, Millicent, Boakyea, Daniel, (2008]
Cytotaxonomy of Simulium soderense and a redescription of the ‘Kulfo’ form
International Journal of Tropical Insect Science, Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press in the world. It is also the King's Printer.
Cambridge University Pre ...
, Retrieved on June 22, 2008
See also
*
List of Ethiopian rivers
This is a list of streams and rivers in Ethiopia, arranged geographically by drainage basin. There is an alphabetic list at the end of this article.
Flowing into the Mediterranean
*''Nile (Egypt, Sudan)''
Atbarah River
*Mareb River (or ...
References
Rivers of Ethiopia
Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region
{{Ethiopia-river-stub