Topography
The National Park includes the upper catchment basins of the Petpa, Patolon and Taungdwin rivers. The Petpa River is a tributary of the Patolon. The Patolon and Taungdwin rivers drain the eastern and western parts of the park, respectively. These rivers are north flowing in steep sided valleys separated from each other and from adjoining valleys to the west and east by long north-south ridges that rise to elevations from 2000 to over 4000 feet. These parallel ridges are a series of cuestas, characterized by fairly steep escarpments on the eastern face with a moderate slope on the west.
The prominent ridge known as Mahudaung is the easternmost ridge in the park, and it forms the watershed between the broad settled valley of the Chindwin and the Patolon and the Petpa drainages to the west. Further west beyond the Taungdwin River, another high ridge, the Ponnyadaung, reaches a height of 4263 feet at Hlaingma Taung, and forms the western boundary of the park.
In the rainy season, numerous small waterfalls appear above the valleys, especially along the upper reaches of the Patolon and Petpa rivers. In the dry season, March through May, many of the smaller streams dry up. There are a number of perennial springs that keep the major rivers flowing.
Read more about this topic: Alaungdaw Kathapa National Park
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