Interestingly enough, during this same warm period, the Amu Dar'ya, which is located at almost the other end of Asia, also attained its maximum poleward deviation (in this case the shift was to the right), the course of the river then being the most north-meridional. At this time the Amu Dar'ya waters flowed along the Akcha Dar'ya branch and discharged into the southeastern part of the Aral Sea. This similarity in the behavior of the two rivers is apparently not fortuitous, since it is in complete agreement with several other facts verifying that in the Bronze Age the climate was very warm, and thus that the Earth's angular velocity at that time was the lowest during the last 4500 years.
The Hwang Ho deviated to the right (equatorward) during both of the last two cold periods, and it flowed to the south of the Shantung heights until it emptied into the Yellow Sea. Thus, this river periodically shifted its mouth from south to north and vice versa, over a region more than 600 km in length.
Previously, during the third cold period, the Halhain Gol deviated toward the left (equatorward), and flowed entirely into the Buyr Nur, while its excess water flowed along the Orchun Gol to Dalai Nor. With the onset of the present warm period, the river began to deviate to the right (poleward); as a consequence, the Sharogolchin branch was formed, connecting the Halhain Gol directly to the Orchun Gol. A considerable part of the Halhain Gol then began to flow into Dalai Nor, bypassing Buyr Nur, and the level of the latter was sharply reduced.
"If as time goes by the new Sharogolchin channel becomes scoured out, so that its bed is deeper and its section is greater, the Halhain Gol may flow directly into the Orshun', bypassing Buyr Nur completely. The latter will then dry up and disappear, and its flat basin will become covered with vegetation (it will become a steppe)... The Orshun' will become the lower reaches of the Halhain Gol, and the two rivers will combine into one. Thus, in front of our very eyes, lakes and rivers are changing, and neither millions nor thousands of years are necessary for it" (Murzaev, 1954, p. 288).
Lake Baikal. Data are available which confirm that the banks of the entire northeastern shore of Lake Baikal are sinking. According to the theory developed in this article, however, a raising of the water level is taking place in the northeastern part of the lake, rather than a sinking of the banks. The level is rising as a result of the poleward shifting of the lake accompanying the decrease in the Earth's centrifugal forces occasioned by the present warming up of the climate. Consequently, it follows that the level of the lake in this region was lower during the previous cold period, and that the lake shifted southward under the effect of the increased centrifugal forces which existed at that time. The dis charge from Baikal now takes place in the southern part of the lake. Thus we can assume that the volume of water in the lake during cold periods was less than during warm periods (and that the discharge via the Angara was correspondingly greater or less during these periods).
The Rivers of the Tien Shan. During the present climatic period the channel and delta processes of rivers in the northern and southern Tien Shan Mountains differ greatly from one another. The rivers flowing down the northern slope appear to be in a stage of rejuvenation; they are cutting into their beds and forming deltas which are relatively far away from the foothills. Rivers on the southern slope, on the other hand, appear to be in a senile stage; their channels are filling up with debris and their deltas are forming close to the foothills. The indicated differences determine the fundamental, and practically very real, contrast between the structure and regime of the debris cones of the northern and southern slopes of the Tien Shan. The rivers of the northern slope have a more regulated natural regime of discharge ... " (Kunin, 1960, pp. 142 143). This phenomenon can be explained as a consequence of the decrease in the diurnal-rotation velocity of the Earth during the present warm period.
The Edsin Gol. In its lower reaches this river follows a general northerly course. At its delta it divides into several channels, scattered over a territory as much as 80 km in width. Lakes Gashun Nur and Sogo Nur are the bodies of standing water into which the present-day distributaries of this river flow (Figure 3).