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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...)
Plunketts Creek is an approximately 6.2-mile-long (10 km) tributary of Loyalsock Creek in Lycoming and Sullivan counties in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. Two unincorporated villages and a hamlet are on the creek, and its watershed drains 23.6 square miles (61 km2) in parts of five townships. The creek is a part of the Chesapeake Bay drainage basin via Loyalsock Creek and the West Branch Susquehanna and Susquehanna Rivers.
Plunketts Creek's name comes from the first owner of the land including the creek's mouth, and the creek has given its name to two townships (although one has since changed its name). The creek flows southwest and then south through the dissected Allegheny Plateau, through rock from the Mississippian sub-period and Devonian period. Much of the Plunketts Creek valley is composed of various glacial deposits, chiefly alluvium. (Full article...)
The Tetons and the Snake River (1942)
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A subterranean river in the Cross Cave system of Slovenia. (Scale shown by people in photograph.) (from Subterranean river)
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This stream operating together with its environment can be thought of as forming a river ecosystem. (from River ecosystem)
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Example 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)
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The brook trout is native to small streams, creeks, lakes, and spring ponds. (from River ecosystem)
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Devil's Throat Cave subterranean river from above (from Subterranean river)
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Common water hyacinth in flower (from River ecosystem)
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A forest stream in the winter near Erzhausen, Germany (from River ecosystem)
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New Zealand longfin eels can weigh over 50 kilograms. (from River ecosystem)
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The 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)
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The Puerto Princesa cave can be entered by boat. (from Subterranean river)
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A pensive Cooplacurripa River, NSW (from River ecosystem)
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Different biofilm components in streams. Principal components are algae and bacteria. (from River ecosystem)
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Map of the world showing elevation levels (from Upland and lowland)
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In Dante's Inferno, Charon ferries souls across the subterranean river Acheron. (from Subterranean river)
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Anthropogenic 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)
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Cascade in the Pyrénées (from River ecosystem)
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Whitewater at Yosemite (from Whitewater)
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Flowing rivers can act as dispersal vectors for plant matter and invertebrates. (from River ecosystem)
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Pondweed is an autochthonous energy source. (from River ecosystem)
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Co-occurrence network of a bacterial community in a stream (from River ecosystem)
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The 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)
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Rapids in Mount Robson Provincial Park (from River ecosystem)
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Periphyton (from River ecosystem)
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Rafting 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)
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Leaf litter is an allochthonous energy source. (from River ecosystem)
- ... 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?
| Large-scale features | |
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| Alluvial rivers | |
| Bedrock river | |
| Bedforms | |
| Regional processes | |
| Mechanics | |
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