Sutlej - Geology

Geology

The Sutlej, along with all of the Punjab rivers, is thought to have drained east into the Ganges prior to 5 mya.

There is substantial geologic evidence to indicate that prior to 1700 BC at the latest, Sutlej was an important tributary of the Ghaggar-Hakra River (possibly through the Saraswati river) rather than the Indus with various authors putting the redirection from 2500-2000 BC. or 5000-3000 BC Geologists believe that tectonic activity created elevation changes which redirected the flow of Sutlej from the southeast to the southwest. The mighty Saraswati then began to dry up, causing desertification of Cholistan and the eastern part of the modern state of Sindh. The desertification resulted in abandonment of numerous ancient human settlements along the banks of Saraswati.

There is some evidence that the high rate of erosion caused by the modern Sutlej River has influenced the local faulting and rapidly exhumed rocks above Rampur. This would be similar to, but on a much smaller scale then, the exhumation of rocks by the Indus River in Nanga Parbat, Pakistan. The Sutlej river also exposes a doubled inverted metamorphic gradient.

The source of the Sutlej is just west of Mt. Kailash in western Tibet. This is a roadless area, and was first explored by kayak and raft by Russian and German teams in 2004.

The largest modern industrial city along the Sutlej banks is Ludhiana.