Portal:Rivers
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Introduction
A river is a natural flowing freshwater stream, flowing on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it runs out of water, or only flow during certain seasons. Rivers are regulated by the water cycle, the processes by which water moves around the Earth. Water first enters rivers through precipitation, whether that be from the runoff of water down a slope, the melting of glaciers or snow, or seepage from aquifers beneath the surface of the Earth.
Rivers flow and merge together in confluences to form drainage basins, areas where all water eventually flows to a common outlet. Rivers have a great effect on the landscape around them. They may regularly overflow their banks and flood the surrounding area, spreading nutrients to the surrounding area. Sediment or alluvium carried by rivers shapes the landscape around it, forming deltas and islands where the flow slows down. Rivers rarely run in a straight line, instead they bend or meander; the locations of a river's banks can change frequently. Rivers get their alluvium from erosion, which serves to carve rock into canyons and valleys.
Rivers have sustained human and animal life for millennia, including the first human civilizations. The organisms that live around or in a river such as fish, aquatic plants, and insects have different roles, including processing organic matter and predation. Rivers have produced abundant resources for humans, including food, transportation, drinking water, and recreation. Humans have engineered rivers to prevent flooding, irrigate crops, perform work with water wheels, and produce hydroelectricity from dams. People associate rivers with life and fertility, and have strong religious, political, social, and mythological attachments to them. (Full article...)
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The Missouri River is a river in the Central and Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Mountains of southwestern Montana, then flows east and south for 2,341 miles (3,767 km) before entering the Mississippi River north of St. Louis, Missouri. The river drains semi-arid watershed of more than 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 km2), which includes parts of ten U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. Although a tributary of the Mississippi, the Missouri River is slightly longer and carries a comparable volume of water. When combined with the lower Mississippi River, it forms the world's fourth-longest river system.
For over 12,000 years, people have depended on the Missouri River and its tributaries as a source of sustenance and transportation. More than ten major groups of Native Americans populated the watershed, most leading a nomadic lifestyle and dependent on enormous bison herds that roamed through the Great Plains. The first Europeans encountered the river in the late seventeenth century, and the region passed through Spanish and French hands before becoming part of the United States through the Louisiana Purchase. (Full article...)Selected Quote
Rivers know this: There is no hurry, we shall get there some day. |
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![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/ae/Grand_Canyon_Horse_Shoe_Bend_MC.jpg/640px-Grand_Canyon_Horse_Shoe_Bend_MC.jpg)
Photograph: Christian Mehlführer |
Horseshoe Bend is a horseshoe-shaped meander of the Colorado River in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, located 5 miles (8 km) downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell, near the town of Page, Arizona. It is accessible via hiking trail or an access road.
General images - show new batch
- Image 1A subterranean river in the Cross Cave system of Slovenia. (Scale shown by people in photograph.) (from Subterranean river)
- Image 3Anthropogenic influences on river systems. Examples are mainly from settings with a modest technological influence, especially in the period of about 10,000 to 4000 cal yr BP. (from River ecosystem)
- Image 6Different biofilm components in streams. Principal components are algae and bacteria. (from River ecosystem)
- Image 9Devil's Throat Cave subterranean river from above (from Subterranean river)
- Image 10The cave of source of the Buna can be entered by boat and dived through a cave system serving as an effluence of the Zalomka. (from Subterranean river)
- Image 11Map of the world showing elevation levels (from Upland and lowland)
- Image 12Periphyton (from River ecosystem)
- Image 13Rafting is a watersport where buoyancy aids, helmets and wetsuits are mandatory and often imposed by law, due to the constant risk of falling off the boat and into the rapids (from Whitewater)
- Image 16The brook trout is native to small streams, creeks, lakes, and spring ponds. (from River ecosystem)
- Image 18Example of a river food web. Bacteria can be seen in the red box at the bottom. Bacteria (and other decomposers, like worms) decompose and recycle nutrients back to the habitat, which is shown by the light blue arrows. Without bacteria, the rest of the food web would starve, because there would not be enough nutrients for the animals higher up in the food web. The dark orange arrows show how some animals consume others in the food web. For example, lobsters may be eaten by humans. The dark blue arrows represent one complete food chain, beginning with the consumption of algae by the water flea, Daphnia, which is consumed by a small fish, which is consumed by a larger fish, which is at the end consumed by the great blue heron. (from River ecosystem)
- Image 20Leaf litter is an allochthonous energy source. (from River ecosystem)
- Image 21Flowing rivers can act as dispersal vectors for plant matter and invertebrates. (from River ecosystem)
- Image 22The Effra is one of the subterranean rivers of London. It empties into the Thames by Vauxhall Bridge, from which this photograph was taken. (from Subterranean river)
- Image 23Whitewater at Yosemite (from Whitewater)
- Image 25In Dante's Inferno, Charon ferries souls across the subterranean river Acheron. (from Subterranean river)
- Image 26Common water hyacinth in flower (from River ecosystem)
- Image 27This stream operating together with its environment can be thought of as forming a river ecosystem. (from River ecosystem)
Did you know?
- ... that 25 million tourists—more than twice the population of the entire state—visited the Mandakini River in Uttarakhand in 2011?
- ... that for three years, an illegal gold-mining settlement on the Amur river went on to host high-class hotels, have public healthcare, and even have a casino?
- ... that Boom Hall was named after a defensive structure on the River Foyle that was breached during the 1689 Siege of Derry?
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Featured articles
Aliso Creek (Orange County)
Balch Creek
Big Butte Creek
Bull Run River (Oregon)
Chetco River
Colorado River
Columbia River
Columbia Slough
Fanno Creek
Johnson Creek (Willamette River tributary)
Jordan River (Utah)
Little Butte Creek
Plunketts Creek (Loyalsock Creek tributary)
River Parrett
Rogue River (Oregon)
St. Johns River
Tryon Creek
Waterfalls in Ricketts Glen State Park
White Deer Hole Creek
Willamette River
Featured lists
List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem)
List of longest streams of Idaho
List of longest streams of Oregon
List of tributaries of Bowman Creek
List of tributaries of Catawissa Creek
List of tributaries of Larrys Creek
List of tributaries of Mahanoy Creek
List of tributaries of Shamokin Creek
Good articles
1886 St. Croix River log jam
Abrahams Creek
Adams River (British Columbia)
River Avon, Bristol
Big Wapwallopen Creek
Black Creek (Susquehanna River tributary)
Briar Creek (Susquehanna River tributary)
Brunswick Falls
Buffalo Creek (West Branch Susquehanna River tributary)
Canajoharie Creek
Catawissa Creek
Celilo Falls
Cem (river)
Chollas Creek
Cibolo Creek
Covering of the Senne
Darby Creek (Pennsylvania)
Eddy Creek (Lackawanna River tributary)
Esopus Creek
Estuaries of Texas
Everglades
Fishing Creek (North Branch Susquehanna River tributary)
Flushing River
Fonteyn Kill
Fossil Creek
River Frome, Bristol
Gowanus Canal
Great Zab
Hammersley Fork
Harveys Creek
Hudson River
Hull Creek (Lackawanna River tributary)
River Hull
Hunlock Creek
River Irwell
Islais Creek
Ithan Creek
Jiloca (river)
Kaweah River
Kettle Creek (Pennsylvania)
Keyser Creek
Kings River (California)
Kissena Creek
Klamath River
Kootenay River
Laguna Canyon
Leggetts Creek
Little Applegate River
Little Catawissa Creek
Little Fishing Creek
Little Wapwallopen Creek
Mahanoy Creek
Mahoning Creek (Susquehanna River tributary)
Meadow Brook (Lackawanna River tributary)
Merced River
Messers Run
Minetta Creek
Minnehaha Park (Minneapolis)
Missouri River
Moston Brook
Mud Creek (Chillisquaque Creek tributary)
Muncy Creek
Nanticoke Creek
Neepaulakating Creek
Nescopeck Creek
Ombla
Petitcodiac River
Potlatch River
River Arun
River Brue
River Tone
River Torrens
River Weaver
Roaring Brook (Lackawanna River tributary)
Roaring Creek (Pennsylvania)
River Rother, East Sussex
River Rother, West Sussex
San Juan Creek
Santa Ana River
Sava
Saw Mill River
Scotch Run (Catawissa Creek tributary)
Severn bore
Shickshinny Creek
Shimna River
Shinano River
Snake River
Solomon Creek
Spring Brook (Lackawanna River tributary)
Stafford Meadow Brook
Stanislaus River
Stikine River
Stony Brook (Charles River tributary, Boston)
Sulphur Creek (California)
Tangascootack Creek
Toby Creek
Trinity River (California)
River Trym
Twomile Run
Wainui Falls
River Welland
West Branch Fishing Creek
West Creek (Pennsylvania)
West Kill
River Witham
Yellala Falls
Zarqa River
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