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Rivers that receive significant amounts of their surface water supply from monsoon precipitation characteristically experience seasonal floods, and display seasonally highly variable discharge, controlled by the monsoon trough passage and its related cyclones. The intense summer rainfall causes high-magnitude floods, whereas rivers only transmit a low base flow during the dry winters. For many rivers in the sub-humid to arid subtropics, bordering the monsoon domain, the monsoon rain is also the main source of surface water recharge. However, such rivers may receive monsoon rain and transmit discharge only during abnormal or strengthened monsoon seasons. This annual discharge variability or range, as compared to the mean annual discharge, distinguishes the monsoonal and subtropical rivers from the rivers in equatorial tropics and temperate perennial precipitation zones, where the annual range is relatively small compared to the annual mean discharge.

This review explores the effects of this seasonal and yearly variable rainfall, and the resultant highly peaked discharge pattern on river morphodynamics, and presents a comparison of modern and ancient monsoonal and subtropical river deposits. The field datasets and literature analyses discussed herein provide recognition criteria for monsoon-controlled river deposits, by documenting the diversity of the sedimentary fades, macroforms (bar forms), and architectural elements common in ancient and modern monsoon-controlled rivers. The review demonstrates that seasonal and inter-annual precipitation range is a key control on river morphodynamics, and resultant sedimentary facies characteristics, rather than the specific climate zone or average annual precipitation. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.