How Do Rivers Form

Last Updated on August 1, 2021 by

Rain and other water on the earth’s surface are constantly being carried off. Rivers are the larger streams that accomplish this task. Streams smaller than rivers are brooks. And still smaller streams are rivulets. These flow together and join until the growing stream may become a large river.

How Do Rivers Form

Many rivers flow into the sea. But some rivers flow into inland lakes, and rivers that enter dry plains may even grow smaller and smaller until they disappear by evaporation or by sinking into the dry soil.

River water comes in part from rainwater that flows along the ground into the stream channel. Or the river water may come from melting snow and ice, from springs, and from lakes.

Large rivers have many tributaries, or smaller streams, that flow into the mainstream. The Ohio and Missouri—which are giant rivers themselves—are really tributaries of the still greater Mississippi. Each tributary has its own smaller tributaries so that a great river system like the Mississippi is composed of thousands of rivers, creeks, brooks, and rivulets.

The land drained by a river system is called its “drainage basic”, or “watershed”. The Missouri-Mississippi, which is about 3,890 miles long, drains about 1,243,700 square miles. The Amazon River, some 3,900 miles long, has a watershed of over 2,722,000 square miles.

Rivers wear away the land and carry it, bit by bit, into the sea. For thousands of years, this can cause great erosion of the land. The Grand Canyon is the world’s best example of how rivers can cut great valleys into the land.

What is origin of a river?

Rivers are formed when meltwater from glaciers or snowfields flows into valleys. They can also be formed by underground water, which is groundwater that flows into a valley after the surrounding land is excavated to create a depression. In the case of groundwater, the water is the result of rain falling over a period of time, and not suddenly in one place.

How are rivers formed short answer?

Rivers are formed when there is a large amount of water in the area. The water leaves behind a large deposit of sediment. This results in the formation of a river.

What are parts of a river?

Okay, it’s a question that’s been asked before, but the answer is worth mentioning anyway. Namely, what are the parts of the river? There are two parts to a river: the water and the land. The water is obviously the most obvious and is the part that we see whenever there’s a river. If you live in a place that’s close to a river, you might see the water every day. If you live in a place that’s far away from a river, you might see the river once a year. The water “flows” down, and it’s a big part of the story, but that’s not the whole story. The land is the other part of the story, and you’ll never see.

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