New land - 1,790sq km landmass emerges out of Bay of Bengal!

[Equinox]

Country gets new land
Study reveals 1,790sq km landmass emerges out of Bay for incredible rate of sedimentation



Pinaki Roy

Even as many worry Bangladesh will shrink in size because of global warming, a new study shows that the country has actually grown in landmass equal to five times the size of Dhaka city.

The new land has emerged in the Meghna estuary, where sediments flow down from the Himlayas and collect into charlands. The study found that the 8.5-magnitude 1950 Assam Earthquake increased the sediment flow and has added a net increase of 1,790 square kilometers to the country's land mass.

“More charlands have emerged than we have lost due to river erosion over the years,” said Dr. Maminul Haq Sarker, a geo-morphologist who conducted the study at the Center for Environment and Geographical Information System (CEGIS).

The new land, which emerged mostly in Noakhali, was discovered when Sarker and his research team analyzed satellite pictures and other data from 1943 to 2008 tracking sediments coming from the Himalayas and flowing down the Padma (Ganges in India) and Jamuna (Brahmaputra) rivers. The rivers deliver about one billion tons of silt a year from India, Nepal, China , and Bhutan to the Megnha estuary within the Bay of Bengal.

The study found that the 1950 earthquake accelerated the sediment flow by causing huge landslides in the Himalayas, dumping an estimate 45 billion cubic meters of earth into the rivers. Within a few years after the 1950 earthquake, silt and clay began to rapidly accumulate in the estuary. In all, the sediment added 2970 square kilometers in new charland while 1180 square kilometers were erodeda net gain of nearly 1800 square kilometers.

Beside Noakhali, new land has accumulated at the Patuakhali, Shariatpur, Barisal and Chittagong districts.

The findings, formally released yesterday, shines a ray of hope on otherwise dire predictions by groups such as the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that Bangladesh will lose about 17 percent of its land area because melting polar ice daps will increase sea levels.

But Sarker cautioned more research is needed.

“This is an indicative study,” he said. “We need to continue our research to say something concrete.”

“Now we might think to battle the climate change challenge in different way if we can use the sediment in planned way,” he said. “We can recover certain amount of our land mass from the aggression of rising sea level.”

Citing a recent study of two American scientists, Saker said that the research suggests that one-third of this sediment is deposited on the floodplain and tidal plain of Bangladesh, thus continuously raising the land. One-third of the sediment is deposited on the estuary thus building new islands. The final third is lost in the deep ocean, he said.

The research also found the main reason behind the erosion of 230 square kilometers at Bhola Island, which many regard as an victim of rising sea levels due to climate change, was instead caused by the shifting flow of the Meghna channel. The shift also eroded a total of 195 square kilometers of land from Sandwip and Hatiya islands.
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http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesig...php?nid=135529

[bujhee kom]

Congratulations Bangladesh!

This is very good and hopeful news!! Very interesting research by Dr. Maminul Haq Sarker! Thank you and well done Doctor...please keep up the great hard work. Looking forward to seeing more discoveries and progress of work from this geo-morphologist and the Center for Environment and Geographical Information System (CEGIS). I am very excited and pleased and thankful and grateful to Allah the Almighty!

[bujhee kom]

On a serious note, we now need to quickly come up with designs and concepts of coastal harsh living, architecture....something easily buildable, and maybe a bit nomadic - something you can take apart relatively quickly, easily and with the help of a very few people and move it somewhere else. Something on stilts and maybe floatable? And then there could be villages of these habitats/structures/houses, of course by still maintaining the sacrecy of the river's flow, enviroanmental issue, etc. (I mean being respectful toward the geographical situation and knowing what the land wants to do, move, erode and we follow it without hampering it's nature and course (not work against it like an idiot, I mean)!

[ialbd]

ei notun land dokhol korar cheshta hoynai ekhono? ekhono khali ase naki??

[sbsash]

Alhamdulillah

[Hatebreed]

Take that global warming!

[al Furqaan]

Russia, you will be the 2nd largest nation on earth one day!

[ammark]

So.... we can send all the nodi-bhangon inflicted victims from Chandpur down to Noakhali instead of letting them come to Dhaka now, eh?

[deshifan]

I was truly surprised to read this kind of news for the first time in my life. Really grateful to the almighty and hope it will give some hope to the inhabitants of this region.

[cricket_pagol]

If land mass is grown in a coordinate way then we can definitely mitigate the adverse effect of rising sea level...

[PoorFan]

I find it surprising not to see a word on alarming decreasing of water flow of those big rivers coming in through India, and the water diversion plans in upper lands in India. Which definitely might challenge this 'growing landmass' theory in Bay of Bangle. Without natural/proper water flow in those big rivers ... how on earth silt would come from Himalay as it used to be for hundreds of years?! May be it is true as of last 100 or 50 years, but cant/wont be the same coming 30 or 50 years I guess.

[Imteaz]

Good News!!!!!!

[Antora]

yayayay!

[Sohel]

Not surprisingly all of the new land is in greater Noakhali. Time to revive the old Lat'hiyal culture with guns.

[Ashfaq]

No sane man will tangle with this chors. I'm from Noakhali, and Sohel Uncle, who said the Lathial dynasty is old or it hasn't been upgraded to AK-47s already? Truth be told, My family has lost many acres to such Lathial. It has come to the point that he have given up all our land in exchange of a peaceful life.