Editing Ganges Delta (section)

==Geography==
[[Image:SunderbanFarmHouse.JPG|thumb|A typical landscape in the delta with palms, rice, flat, green and ponds]]
[[File:The delta of Ganges by J. Rennel.jpg|thumb|Delta of Ganges from the map of surveyor [[James Rennell]] (1778)]]
The Ganges Delta has the shape of a triangle and is considered to be "arcuate" (arc-shaped). It covers more than {{convert|105000|km2|sqmi|abbr=on}} and lies mostly in Bangladesh and India, with rivers from [[Bhutan]], [[Tibet]], and [[Nepal]] draining into it from the north. 67% of the delta is inside Bangladesh and only 33% belongs to West Bengal. Most of the delta is composed of [[alluvial]] soils made up by small sediment particles that finally settle down as river currents slowdown in the estuary. Rivers carry these fine particles with them, even from their sources at glaciers as [[fluvio-glacial]]. Red and red-yellow [[laterite]] soils are found as one heads farther east. The soil has large amounts of minerals and nutrients, which is good for agriculture.

It is composed of a labyrinth of [[Channel (geography)|channels]], [[swamp]]s, lakes, and flood plain sediments (chars). The [[Gorai-Madhumati River]], one of the distributaries of the Ganges, divides the Ganges Delta into two parts: the geologically young, active, eastern delta, and the older, less active, western delta.<ref name=BengalDelta>{{cite book |last1=Chowdhury |first1=Sifatul Quader |last2=Hassan |first2=M Qumrul |year=2012 |chapter=Bengal Delta |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Bengal_Delta |editor1-last=Islam |editor1-first=Sirajul |editor1-link=Sirajul Islam |editor2-last=Jamal |editor2-first=Ahmed A. |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |edition=Second |publisher=[[Asiatic Society of Bangladesh]]}}</ref>