NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Omo River

The Omo is an important river of southern Ethiopia. Its most important tributary is the Gibe River; smaller tributaries include the Wabi, Mago and Gojeb Rivers. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (639x639, 121 KB)Omo River Delta and Lake Turkana, Ethiopia and Kenya - August 1995 image description here File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (639x639, 121 KB)Omo River Delta and Lake Turkana, Ethiopia and Kenya - August 1995 image description here File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... The Gojeb River is eastward-flowing tributary of the Omo River in Ethiopia. ...

This river rises in the Shoan highlands and is a perennial river with many affluents. According to the Statistical Abstract of Ethiopia for 1967/68, the Omo River is 760 kilometers long. In its course it has a total fall of about 6000 ft (2,000 m), from an elevation of 7600 ft at its source to 1600 ft at lake-level, and is consequently a very rapid stream, being broken by the Kokobi and other falls, and navigable only for a short distance above where it empties into Lake Turkana, one of the lakes of the Great Rift Valley. Shewa (also spelled Shoa) is a historical region of Ethiopia. ... View over Lake Turkana Lake Turkana, formerly known as Lake Rudolf, is a lake in the Great Rift Valley in Kenya (although the far northern end of the lake crosses into Ethiopia), which covers a surface area of 6405 kmÂ² (2473 miÂ²), making it the worlds largest permanent desert... Northern section of the Great Rift Valley. ...

The Omo River formed the eastern boundaries for the former kingdoms of Janjero, and Garo. The Omo also flows past the Mago and Omo National Parks, which are known for their wildlife. Many animals live near and on the river, including hippopotamuses, crocodiles and Bitis arietans. The Kingdom of Janjero (also known as Yamma) was tiny kingdom located in what is now Ethiopia. ... The Kingdom of Garo (also known as Bosha, after the name of its ruling dynasty) was one of the kingdoms in the Gibe region of Ethiopia. ... Mago National Park is one of the National Parks of Ethiopia. ... Omo National Park is one of the National Parks of Ethiopia. ... Binomial name Hippopotamus amphibius Linnaeus, 1758 The Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius), from the Greek â€˜Î¹Ï€Ï€Î¿Ï€ÏŒÏ„Î±Î¼Î¿Ï‚ (hippopotamos, hippos meaning horse and potamos meaning river), is a large, plant-eating African mammal, one of only two extant, and three or four recently extinct, species in the family Hippopotamidae. ... Genera Mecistops Crocodylus Osteolaemus See full taxonomy. ... Binomial name Bitis arietans (Merrem, 1820) Synonyms Cobra lachesis - Laurenti, 1768 Cobra clotho - Laurenti, 1768 [Coluber] Lachesis - Gmelin, 1788 [Coluber] Clotho - Gmelin, 1788 C[oluber]. Bitin - Bonnaterre, 1790 Col[uber]. Intumescens - Donndorff, 1798 Vipera severa - Latreille In Sonnini & Latreille, 1801 [Vipera (Echidna)] arietans - Merrem, 1820 Vipera inflata - Burchell, 1822 Echidna...

Human impact

The lower valley of the Omo is unlike any other place on Earth in that so many different types of people inhabit such a small bit of land. Experts believe that for thousands of years it was a crossroads of a wide assortment of cultures where early humans of many different ethnicities passed as they migrated from and to lands in every direction.^{[citation needed]} To this day, the cultures and people of the Lower Valley of the Omo are studied for their incredible diversity. Earth (IPA: , often referred to as the Earth, Terra, the World or Planet Earth) is the third planet in the solar system in terms of distance from the Sun, and the fifth largest. ... Diversity is the presence of a wide range of variation in the qualities or attributes under discussion. ...

The entire Omo river basin is also important geologically and archaeologically. Several hominid fossils and archaeological locatities, dating to the Pliocene and Pleistocene, have been excavated by French and American teams. Fossils belonging to the genera Australopithecine and Homo have been found at several archaeological sites, as well as tools made from quartzite, the oldest of which date back to about 2.4 million years ago. Because of this, the site was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1980. The Pliocene epoch (spelled Pleiocene in some older texts) is the period in the geologic timescale that extends from 5. ... The Pleistocene epoch (IPA: ) is part of the geologic timescale. ... This term australopithecine refers to two very closely related hominin genera: Australopithecus Paranthropus When used alone, the term refers to both genera together. ... Species Homo sapiens sapiens See text for extinct species. ... Quartzite Quartzite is a hard, metamorphic rock which was originally sandstone. ... UNESCO logo UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established in 1945. ... A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a specific site (such as a forest, mountain, lake, desert, monument, building, complex, or city) that has been nominated and confirmed for inclusion on the list maintained by the international World Heritage Programme administered by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 State... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ...

When they were discovered it was thought that the tools may have been part of a so-called pre-Oldowan industry, even more primitive than what was found in the Oldupai Gorge. Later research has shown that the crude looks of the tools were in fact caused by very poor raw materials, and that the techniques used and the shapes permit their inclusion in the Oldowan. Oldupai Gorge from space Topography of Oldupai Gorge The Oldupai Gorge is a 30 mile long, steep-sided ravine, part of the Great Rift Valley which stretches along eastern Africa. ... Oldowan is an anthropological designation for an industry of stone tools used by prehistoric hominids in the very early Paleolithic. ...

2006 floods

Heavy rains in 2006 caused the Omo to flood its lower course, drowning at least 456 people and stranding over 20,000 people over the space of five days ending 16 August. While seasonal heavy rains are normal for this part of the country, overgrazing and deforestation are blamed for this tragedy. "The rivers in Ethiopia have less capacity to hold as much water as they did years before, because they are being filled up with silt," World Food Programme spokeswoman Paulette Jones said. "It takes less intensity of rainfall ... to make a river in any particular part of the country overflow."^[1] 2006 (MMVI) is a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... August 16 is the 228th day of the year (229th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... // World Food Programme Hunger and undernutrition claim more lives than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combinedâ€”25,000 people a day, one every four seconds. ...

Contents

Human impact

2006 floods

See also

Notes