Together, a river and its tributaries make up a river system. A river system is also called a drainage basin or watershed. A river’s watershed includes the river, all its tributaries, and any groundwater resources in the area. The end of a river is its mouth.
The place where a river enters a lake, larger river, or the ocean is called its mouth
This source is called a headwater. The headwater can come from rainfall or snowmelt in mountains, but it can also bubble up from groundwater or form at the edge of a lake or large pond. The other end of a river is called its mouth, where water empties into a larger body of water, such as …
The place where a river begins is called its source. River sources are also called headwaters. Rivers often get their water from many tributaries, or smaller streams, that join together. The tributary that started the farthest distance from the river’s end would be considered the source, or headwaters.
Streams erode and transport sediment. As the loose sediments are moved along the bottom of the river channel, small bedforms (formations of sediment on the bottom of the stream bed) can develop, such as ripples and sand dunes.
A river is a large stream of freshwater. The beginning of a river is called the head. … The current describes how fast and powerful the river is. … Rivers change over time. … Rivers can carve out canyons in the landscape. … The longest river in the world is the Nile in Africa.
The speed of a river varies from close to 0 m/s to 3.1 m/s (7 mph). Factors that affect the speed of a river include the slope gradient, the roughness of the channel, and tides. Rivers tend to flow from a higher elevation to a lower elevation. The gradient is the drop of the elevation of …
Direct valued uses include water supply, transportation, recreation, and fishing. Indirect valued uses include flood protection, nutrient recycling, genetic material, and wetlands. Existence services are river services that provide the needed habitat to allow current biological ecosystems and their species to thrive.
river A river is a large, flowing body of water that usually empties into a sea or ocean. riverbed A riverbed is the bottom of the river (or other body of water). source The source is the beginning of a stream or river. tributary A tributary is a river or stream that flows into another stream, …
characteristics, discharge, sediment transport, and the bed materia
