page_title: Godavari River
section_title: Geology and sediment transfer in the Godavari Drainage Basin
hierarchical_section_title: Godavari River / Geology and sediment transfer in the Godavari Drainage Basin
caption_attribution_description: English: Map Prepared after Geological map of India, by Geological Survey of India with scale 1:2,50,000
context_page_description: The Godavari is India's second longest river after the Ganga. Its source is in Triambakeshwar, Maharashtra. It flows east for 1,465 kilometres, draining the states of Maharashtra, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. The river ultimately empties into the Bay of Bengal through an extensive network of tributaries. Measuring up to 312,812 km², it forms one of the largest river basins in the Indian subcontinent, with only the Ganga and Indus rivers having a larger drainage basin. In terms of length, catchment area and discharge, the Godavari is the largest in peninsular India, and had been dubbed as the Vridha Ganga.
  The river has been revered in Hindu scriptures for many millennia and continues to harbour and nourish a rich cultural heritage. In the past few decades, the river has been barricaded by a number of barrages and dams, keeping a head of water which lowers evaporation. Its broad river delta houses 729 persons/km² – nearly twice the Indian average population density and has substantial risk of flooding, which in lower parts would be exacerbated if the global sea level were to rise.
context_section_description: The primary/initial catchment of the Godavari drainage basin is largely represented by the basalt of the Deccan Volcanic Province (~50% of the total basin area). This is followed by the Precambrian granites and gneisses of the eastern Dharwar Craton, sandstones, shales and limestones of the Gondwana Supergroup, various sedimentary units of Cuddapah and Vindhyan basins, charnockites and khondalites of the Proterozoic Eastern Ghats Mobile Belt and the sandstones of the Rajahmundry Formation.  The Godavari River carries the largest sediment load among the peninsular rivers and the majority of the mass transfer in Godavari occurs during the monsoon. Mineral magnetic studies of the Godavari River sediments suggest that the floodplains in the entire stretch of the river are characterized by a Deccan basalt source. The bed loads on the other hand are of sourced from local bedrock. Influx of Deccan source in the Godavari River up to the delta regions and possibly in the Bay of Bengal off the Godavari, therefore, can be related to the intensive chemical weathering in the Deccan basalts. Abrupt increase in δ¹³C values and decrease in TOC content accompanied with a significant increase in ferrimagnetic mineral concentration in Bay of Bengal sediments from ~3.2 to 3.1 cal. ka BP reflected a shift of organic carbon and sediment source and a severe decline in vegetation coverage. Such phenomena indicate intensified deforestation and soil/rock erosion in the Deccan Plateau producing higher ferrimagnetic mineral inputs, which is in agreement with significant expansion of agricultural activities in the Deccan Chalcolithic cultural period.
caption: Generalized Geological Map of Godavari Drainage Basin
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