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cursos accidentales

English translation: indeterminate flow

14:47 Nov 6, 2009

Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Science - Geology / land formation

Spanish term or phrase: cursos accidentales

[linked with 2 other questions] Wonderful descriptive piece of text, but with no image to clarify what on earth it is trying to describe..!

In Argentina there is a "mountain" range called "Sierras Bayas", formed of 3 hill ranges, the northern, central and southern. Each of the ranges is separated by a dip, or depression, in the land. The paragraph describing the layout of the northern range ends with:

La depresión situada entre este grupo y el central, está surcada por un drenaje de dirección Oeste, cuyos cursos accidentales no han llegado a labrar sus causes, sin que corren por el fondo de los bajos, al salir de las sierras, a la altura del cerro Matilde, estos cursos se han unido en uno solo.

Wendy Leech KudoZ activity Questions: 546 (3 open) (31 closed without grading) Answers: 141 United Kingdom
Local time: 20:39

English translation:indeterminate flow

Explanation:
cuyos cursos accidentales no han llegado a labrar sus causes, sin que corren por el fondo de los bajos
--> (+/-)
(drainage) whose indeterminate flow has been insufficient to define a clear river-bed, instead the water simply flows along/across the bottom of the slopes

Selected response from:

mediamatrix
Chile
Local time: 17:39

Grading comment

I have put "flows" into the plural, as the later reference to "se han unido en uno solo" implies that there are lots of little streams.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer