Britannica
Sources used in this answer
Why might the Irrawaddy River’s westward course below Mandalay be geologically recent?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Irrawaddy River
The Irrawaddy and Mekong river basins and their drainage networks.
It is believed that the Irrawaddy River’s westward course below Mandalay is geologically recent because the upper portion of the river likely flowed southward in the past. Geologists hypothesize that the river originally discharged its waters through the present-day Sittang River valley toward the Gulf of Martaban before shifting to its current path.1