Portal:Rivers
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Introduction
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually a freshwater stream, flowing on the Earth's land surface or inside caves towards another waterbody at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, sea, bay, lake, wetland, or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground or becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water. Small rivers can be referred to by names such as creek, brook, and rivulet. There are no official definitions for these various generic terms for a watercourse as applied to geographic features, although in some countries or communities, a stream is customarily referred to by one of these names as determined by its size. Many names for small rivers are specific to geographic location; examples are "run" in some parts of the United States, "burn" in Scotland and Northeast England, and "beck" in Northern England. Sometimes a river is defined as being larger than a creek, but not always; in English the language is vague compared to some languages like French, where a fleuve flows into the sea and a rivière is a tributary of another rivière or fleuve.
Rivers are an important part of the water cycle. Water from a drainage basin generally collects into a river through surface runoff from precipitation, meltwater released from natural ice and snowpacks, and other underground sources such as groundwater recharge and springs. Rivers are often considered major features within a landscape; however, they actually only cover around 0.1% of the land on Earth. Rivers are also an important natural terraformer, as the erosive action of running water carves out rills, gullies, and valleys in the surface as well as transferring silt and dissolved minerals downstream, forming river deltas and islands where the flow slows down. As a waterbody, rivers also serve crucial ecological functions by providing and feeding freshwater habitats for aquatic and semiaquatic fauna and flora, especially for migratory fish species, as well as enabling terrestrial ecosystems to thrive in the riparian zones.
Rivers are significant to humankind since many human settlements and civilizations are built around sizeable rivers and streams. Most of the major cities of the world are situated on the banks of rivers, as they are (or were) depended upon as a vital source of drinking water, for food supply via fishing and agricultural irrigation, for shipping, as natural borders and/or defensive terrains, as a source of hydropower to drive machinery or generate electricity, for bathing, and as a means of disposing of waste. In the pre-industrial era, larger rivers were a major obstacle to the movement of people, goods, and armies across regions. Towns often developed at the few locations suitable for fording, building bridges, or supporting ports; many major cities, such as London, are located at the narrowest and most reliable sites at which a river could be crossed via bridges or ferries. (Full article...)
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Messers Run is a tributary of Catawissa Creek in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately 5.2 miles (8.4 km) long and flows through Kline Township and East Union Township. The only named tributary of the stream is Negro Hollow, but it has two unnamed tributaries. The creek has some alkalinity, but is slightly acidic. The main rock formations in the watershed of it are the Mauch Chunk Formation and the Pottsville Formation. The main soils in the watershed are the Leck Kill soil and the Hazleton soil.
The watershed of Messers Run has an area of 5.98 square miles (15.5 km2). There are two reservoirs on the stream. It is difficult to access the stream as most of it is several hundred meters from any road. The creek is a High-Quality Coldwater Fishery and Class A Wild Trout Waters in some places. There are many species of fish inhabiting the creek, including brook, brown trout, and others. The creek has been surveyed by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission. (Full article...)Selected Quote
I do not know much about gods; but I think that the river is a strong brown god—sullen, untamed and intractable.
— T. S. Eliot, "Four Quartets," in The Dry Salvages |
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General images - show new batch
- Image 2The 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 3Different biofilm components in streams. Principal components are algae and bacteria. (from River ecosystem)
- Image 4The brook trout is native to small streams, creeks, lakes, and spring ponds. (from River ecosystem)
- Image 6The 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 8Anthropogenic 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 11A subterranean river in the Cross Cave system of Slovenia. (Scale shown by people in photograph.) (from Subterranean river)
- Image 12In Dante's Inferno, Charon ferries souls across the subterranean river Acheron. (from Subterranean river)
- Image 14Devil's Throat Cave subterranean river from above (from Subterranean river)
- Image 15Whitewater at Yosemite (from Whitewater)
- Image 16This stream operating together with its environment can be thought of as forming a river ecosystem. (from River ecosystem)
- Image 17Periphyton (from River ecosystem)
- Image 18Leaf litter is an allochthonous energy source. (from River ecosystem)
- Image 20Example 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 21Flowing rivers can act as dispersal vectors for plant matter and invertebrates. (from River ecosystem)
- Image 24Map of the world showing elevation levels (from Upland and lowland)
- Image 25Common water hyacinth in flower (from River ecosystem)
- Image 26Rafting 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)
Did you know?
- ... that the Kettle Creek (pictured) watershed contains eight percent of the Class A Wild Trout Streams in Pennsylvania?
- ... that water from the Little Applegate River was used in the mine in Sterlingville, the largest hydraulic mine in Oregon and possibly the entire western United States?
- ... that there are at least 35 sources of acid mine drainage in the Mahanoy Creek watershed?
Related portals
Selected Panorama
![Tagus River](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fc/Tagus_River_Panorama_-_Toledo%2C_Spain_-_Dec_2006.jpg/640px-Tagus_River_Panorama_-_Toledo%2C_Spain_-_Dec_2006.jpg)
Photograph: David Iliff |
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Quality content
![]() | This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs) (typically on Saturdays). There is no need to edit the list yourself. If an article is missing from the list, make sure it is tagged (e.g. {{WikiProject Rivers}}) or categorized correctly and wait for the next update. See WP:RECOG for configuration options. |
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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