All the rivers run west
I'd like to construct a planet where the rivers all run east to west, but I need a plausible reason for them to do so.
Rivers run from high altitude to low, but also I suppose there is the coriolis force to push them clockwise or anticlockwise.
Could a glancing blow from a meteor on a south-north vector create both a single dry continent and a series of ridges which run east-west? Possibly combined with a tectonic plate movement to raise one side of the ridges?
Otherwise I'm facing explaining a single triangular continent with a hugely high mountain which has a cliff on the other side, or the same shape for each of a large number of lopsided islands.
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1 answer
A long escarpment is a perfectly normal geological feature here on Earth without the need for a meteor, and in fact plate tectonics can also raise parallel ridges like this.
All your model would require is a a tectonic plate edge with a sufficiently straight north-south section where the plate moving eastwards floats up on top of the plate moving westwards. This can give you a very steep eastern slope or cliff down to sea, with a longer, more gentle western slope.
Combine this with a wind from the west and if your ridge is high enough you will have all your rainfall on the west side of the ridge, as happens on the west side of the Andes, and consequently rivers running from there westwards.
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