Bridges

The Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge (Thai: สะพาน มิตรภาพ ไทย - ลาว Mittaphap Saphan Thailand and Laos) connects Nong Khai city of Vientiane in Laos. The 1170 feet (3840 m) long bridge has two 3.5 meter (11 ft) wide channel with a single rail line in the middle. On March 20, 2004, governments agreed Thailand and Laos to extend the railway to Tha Nalaeng Laos, this expansion has been completed.

The second Friendship Bridge connecting Thailand and Laos Savannakhet Mukdahan. The two lanes of 12 meters (39 feet) wide, 1,600 meters (5,200 feet) long bridge was opened in January 9, 2007.

There are only three bridges, located in Champasak province, Laos. Unlike bridges of friendship, the bridge is not a border. It is 1380 meters (4528 feet) long and was completed in 2000 (Pakxe bridge 15 ° 6'19 .95 "N 105 ° 48'49 .51" E).

A new bridge over the Mekong River and was completed in 2011, connecting the border towns of Chiang Khong (Thailand) and Ban Houayxay (Laos) as part of the Asian Highway third Chinese and Thai governments agreed to build bridges and share of the estimated costs 33USD million U.S. dollars project.

Another new bridge was built [Neak Leung], a Phnom Penh to Ho Chi Minh Japanese state support, expected to open in 2014.

Cambodia has one of two lanes of the bridge, the Kizuna bridge in the city of Kompong Cham, on the highway linking Phnom Penh with the remote provinces of Ratanakiri and Mondulkiri provinces, Laos and beyond.

The bridge Prek TAMAK, 40 km north of Phnom Penh will give another bond in 2011.

Phnom Penh itself has no bridge under construction, although two new bridges have been recently opened in the Tonle Sap, and the main road bridge in Ho Chi Minh doubled in 2010.

In Vietnam since 2000, the My Thuan Bridge (MY Thuan) exceeds the first channel first ten kilometers of Vinh Long (Vinh Long), Rach Mieu Bridge, and from 2008 (Rach Mieu) than it is about ten miles before de My Tho ( My Tho), between the provinces of de road Giang (Road Giang) and Ben Tre (Ben Tre).

Bridge Can Tho (Can Tho), through the second channel, which opened in 2010, is the longest cable-stayed bridge with a major in South Asia.

History

The difficulty of navigating the river means that a country divided, rather than States, people living near him. The first regulation known date 2100 BC, with Ban Chiang is an excellent example of this culture of the Iron Age. The first civilization was recorded on 1 Indianized century culture Khmer of Funan in the Mekong Delta. The excavation of Oc Eo, near modern An Giang, have found coins from as far away as the Roman Empire. This has been replaced by the state of Khmer culture Chenla to the fifth century. The Khmer empire of Angkor was the last great Indianized state in the region. At the time of the fall of the Khmer empire, the Mekong has been the front line between the states emerging from Siam and Tonkin (North Vietnam), Laos and Cambodia, then situated on the coast, torn between her influence.

First meeting in Europe was in the Mekong Portugal, Antonio de Faria in 1540, the European map of 1563 describes the river, although little is known of the river upstream of the delta. European interest only occasionally: the Spaniards and Portuguese mounted some missionary and trade expeditions, while the Dutch Gerrit van Wuysthoff led an expedition along the river to Vientiane in 1641-42.

The French have a serious interest in the region, half of 19 century, the capture of Saigon in 1861 and the creation of protected areas in Cambodia in 1863.

The systematic exploration began with the French expedition led by Ernest Mekong Doudard of Lagree and Francis Garnier, which ascended the river from its mouth to Yunnan between 1866 and 1868. Its main conclusion was that the Mekong had too many falls and rapids to be always useful for navigation. The source of the river is by Pyotr Kuzmich Kozlov in 1900.

From 1893, the French extended their control over the river to Laos, the creation of French Indochina by the first decade of the 20th century century. This lasted until the First and Second Indochina Wars ended the French and American participation in the region began.

After the Vietnam War, tensions between the pro-American government of Thailand and the new communist governments in other countries prevented cooperation on use of river.

Geology Of The Mekong River Basin

Patterns of internal drainage of the Mekong is unusual compared to other major rivers, the most important river systems that drain the interior of continents, such as the Amazon, Congo and Mississippi, have relatively simple dendritic tributary system that looks to a tree branch. Typically, such patterns develop in basins with gentle slopes where the underlying geological structure is rather homogeneous and stable, to little or no control over the river morphology. In contrast, the network tributary of the Salween, Yangtze, Mekong and especially the complex with various sub-basins are often different, and different types of drainage. These drainage systems have evolved in a complex environment where the underlying geology is heterogeneous and active, and is the main factor controlling the rivers and the landscapes they cut.

Height of the Tibetan plateau during the Tertiary period was an important factor in the legislative history of the southwest monsoon, which is the dominant climate influence the control of the hydrology of the Mekong Basin. Understanding the nature and timing of the share of Tibet (and in the Central Highlands of Vietnam) in order to help explain the origin of sediments to the delta and Lake Tonle Sap Great today. He studied the origin of sediments in the Mekong Delta to disclose the source of sediments in large clutch of about eight million years ago (Ma). Mon 36-8 mass (76%) of sediments deposited in the delta became the erosion of the bedrock Three Rivers area. 8 mA at stake, however, Three Rivers Area decreased by 40%, while the Central Highlands increased by 11-51%.

One of the surprising findings of the research farms of origin is a small portion of sediment from other parts of the Mekong basin, particularly the Khorat Plateau, northern highlands of Laos and northern Thailand, and the mountains south of the area Three Rivers.

The last ice age ended abruptly around 19,000 years ago (KA) when water levels rose rapidly, reaching a maximum of about 4.5 m above the present level of the Early Holocene at about 8 ka. At this point the coast of the South China Sea has almost reached Phnom Penh and the cores recovered near Angkor Borei contained sediments deposited under the influence of tides and marsh deposits of salt marshes and mangroves. Sediments deposited in Lake Tonle Sap Great around this time (7.9 to 7.3 ka) also shows signs of marine influence, suggesting a link to the South China Sea. Although the hydraulic relationship between the Mekong and Tonle Sap lake systems during the Holocene is not well understood, it is clear that between 9000 and 7500 years, at the confluence of the Tonle Sap and Mekong was in the immediate vicinity the South China Sea.

The current morphology of the river in the Mekong Delta evolved over the last 6000 years. During this period, the Delta advanced 200 km on the continental shelf in the South China Sea, covering an area of ​​over 62 500 km2. From 5.3 to 3.5 ka Delta advanced wide embayment formed between the higher ground near the border with Cambodia and the northern highlands of Ho Chi Minh City. During the development phase of the Delta away from the waves and currents along the shore has been built largely on river and tidal processes. Currently, Delta proceeded at a speed of 17-18 meters per year. After 3.5 ka, however, the delta was built in the embayment, and they came to wave action and sea currents. They bend to the deposition of the south-east of the Ca Mau peninsula, which is one of the newest features of the delta.

For most of the duration of the flow in the canals of the Mekong rock, or channels, which are limited or restricted by rock or old bed of the river flood and beaches. Geomorphological characteristics normally associated with the flooding of sections of mature rivers, such as bends, oxbow lakes, cut-offs, as well as extensive flooding is limited to a short stretch of the mainstream around Vientiane and Kratie, where the river valley to develop flood control channels are available free of charge created by the underlying rock.

Mekong Basin are generally not considered an active seismic zone, as the basin is covered by the relatively stable block of the continent. However, some parts of the basin in northern Laos, northern Thailand, Myanmar and China are experiencing frequent earthquakes and tremors. The magnitude of these earthquakes rarely exceed 6.5 on the Richter scale and is unlikely to cause damage.