River bifurcation (from Latin: furca, fork) occurs when a river flowing in a single stream separates into two or more separate streams (called distributaries) which then continue downstream.
What are parts of a river called?
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.
What are the 2 ends of a river called?
The end of a river is its mouth, or delta. At a river’s delta, the land flattens out and the water loses speed, spreading into a fan shape. Usually this happens when the river meets an ocean, lake, or wetland.
What is it called when a river splits into three?
A delta is a large, silty area at the mouth of a river at which the river splits into many different slow-flowing channels that have muddy banks. New land is created at deltas. Deltas are often triangular-shaped, hence the name (the Greek letter ‘delta’ is shaped like a triangle).
What is the offshoot of a river called?
A distributary, or a distributary channel, is a stream that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel. Distributaries are a common feature of river deltas. The phenomenon is known as river bifurcation.
Do rivers split or combine?
As I’m sure you’re aware, rivers usually combine together to make larger and larger rivers until they reach the sea. However, there are some exceptions: rivers do sometimes split up and flow in separate directions. These splits are called “bifurcations” (bi” meaning “two”, and “furcations” being the forks).
What is confluence of a river?
A confluence occurs when two or more flowing bodies of water join together to form a single channel. Confluences occur where a tributary joins a larger river, where two rivers join to create a third or, where two separated channels of a river, having formed an island, rejoin downstream.
What are the three components of a river?
Rivers transport three main materials downstream – water, sediment, and organic material. The abiotic components – water and sediment – most directly affect the shape of the river channel [Fluvial Geomorphology].
What are some river terms?
Overbank flow – Water flow over the top of the bankfull channel onto the floodplain. Outfall – The mouth or outlet of a river, stream, lake, drain or sewer. Oxbow – An abandoned meander in a river or stream, caused by cutoff. Used to describe the U-shaped bend in the river or the land within such a bend of a river.
What are the 4 parts of a river?
The 10 Parts of a River
- Drainage Basin. The condensed definition of a drainage basin is a large area where precipitation collects and then runs into a common outlet area.
- Headwaters (Source) The Mississippi River’s headwaters are found in Lake Itasca.
- Tributaries (Affluent)
- Confluence.
- Channel.
- Riverbank.
- Floodplain.
- Mouth.
What are the two parts of a river?
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 a lake or ocean.
What are bends in a river called?
A meander is another name for a bend in a river. For this Find-A-Feature challenge, we challenge you to look around you for examples of a meander. A meander is when water flows in a curvy, bendy path, like a snake.
What is a cut in a river?
A cut bank, also known as a river cliff or river-cut cliff, is the outside bank of a curve or meander in a water channel (stream), which is continually undergoing erosion.
What is a twist in a river called?
Formation of a meander. In a straight river channel pools and riffles will develop as water twists and turns around obstructions such as large boulders. This results in areas of slower and faster water movement.
What is another name for a branch of a river?
tributary
A branch of a river is called a tributary.
How are waters divided?
If we review our earth’s geography we can see places of water that are divided from (or separated from) other bodies of water. We have oceans which are separated from the lakes. We have streams, rivers, creeks which are separated from other streams, rivers, creeks, and lakes.
How are rivers divided up?
The divide is created by the highest points between the two river basins. Precipitation that falls within a river basin always flows toward that river. Precipitation that falls on the other side of the divide flows toward a different river. A continental divide separates rivers that flow into different oceans.
What is it called when two rivers meet but don’t mix?
In geography, a confluence (also: conflux) occurs where two or more flowing bodies of water join to form a single channel.
What are two synonyms for confluence?
synonyms for confluence
- assemblage.
- junction.
- assembly.
- concourse.
- concurrence.
- conflux.
- convergence.
- crowd.
What is a fork of a river?
A river fork is where a river is connected to two or more clearly and equally distinct branches, and be used to describe both tributaries and distributaries.
What is a delta in a river?
Encyclopedic Entry Vocabulary. Deltas are wetlands that form as rivers empty their water and sediment into another body of water, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. Although very uncommon, deltas can also empty into land. A river moves more slowly as it nears its mouth, or end.