Portal:Rivers
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The Rivers Portal Introduction
A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of water. Small rivers can be referred to using names such as stream, creek, brook, rivulet, and rill. There are no official definitions for the generic term river as applied to geographic features, although in some countries or communities a stream is defined 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: the language is vague.
Rivers are part of the hydrological cycle. Water generally collects in a river from precipitation through a drainage basin from surface runoff and other sources such as groundwater recharge, springs, and the release of stored water in natural ice and snowpacks (e.g., from glaciers).
Rivers and streams are often considered major features within a landscape; however, they actually only cover around 0.1% of the land on Earth. They are made more obvious and significant to humans since many human cities and civilizations are built around the freshwater supplied by rivers and streams. Most of the major cities of the world are situated on the banks of rivers, as they are, or were, used as a source of water, for obtaining food, for transport, as borders, as a defensive measure, as a source of hydropower to drive machinery, for bathing, and as a means of disposing of waste. In the preindustrial era larger rivers were a major obstruction to the movement of people, goods, and armies across them. Towns often developed at the few locations they could be crossed. Many major cities such as London are located at the lowest point at which a river could be bridged. (Full article...)
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The Jiloca (Spanish pronunciation: [xiˈloka]) is a river in Aragón, Spain, a tributary of the river Jalón, and part of the watershed of the Ebro basin. The course of the river runs through the provinces of Teruel and Zaragoza. It has a length of 126 kilometres (78 mi) and an average flow rate of 2.1 cubic metres per second (74 cu ft/s), although this varies between the seasons. The river flows in a generally north easterly direction from its source near Monreal del Campo.
The valley was an historic route between the Meseta Central and the Mediterranean coast. Roman bridges remain in many pueblos and remains of watermills can be seen. The water is generally of good quality and supports a range of wildlife. Cleaning works by the regional government have been criticised by environmental organisations who claim that the ecology has been damaged. The watershed covers an area of 2,957 square kilometres (1,142 sq mi). (Full article...)Selected Quote
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Horseshoe Bend is a horseshoe-shaped meander of the Colorado River in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, located 5 miles (8 km) downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell, near the town of Page, Arizona. It is accessible via hiking trail or an access road.
General images -
The Puerto Princesa cave can be entered by boat. (from Subterranean river)
A forest stream in the winter near Erzhausen, Germany (from River ecosystem)
A weir on the River Calder, West Yorkshire (from River ecosystem)
A subterranean river in the Cross Cave system of Slovenia. (Scale shown by people in photograph.) (from Subterranean river)
Different biofilm components in streams(from River ecosystem)
principal components are algae and bacteria
Rapids in Mount Robson Provincial Park (from River ecosystem)
Pondweed is an autochthonous energy source (from River ecosystem)
Periphyton(from River ecosystem)
This stream in the Redwood National and State Parks together with its environment can be thought of as forming a river ecosystem. (from River ecosystem)
A pensive Cooplacurripa River, NSW (from River ecosystem)
New Zealand longfin eels can weigh over 50 kilograms. (from River ecosystem)
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)
The brook trout is native to small streams, creeks, lakes, and spring ponds. (from River ecosystem)
In Dante's Inferno, Charon ferries souls across the subterranean river Acheron. (from Subterranean river)
Flowing rivers can act as dispersal vectors for plant matter and invertebrates (from River ecosystem)
Devil's Throat Cave subterranean river from above (from Subterranean river)
Example of a river food webBacteria 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)
Leaf litter is an allochthonous energy source (from River ecosystem)
Anthropogenic influences on river systems(from River ecosystem)
Examples are mainly from settings with a modest technological influence, especially in the period of about 10,000 to 4000 cal yr BP
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)
Common water hyacinth in flower(from River ecosystem)
Co-occurrence network of a bacterial community(from River ecosystem)
in a stream
Cascade in the Pyrénées (from River ecosystem)
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Did you know?
- ... that the 2010 sockeye salmon run on the Adams River (pictured) in British Columbia, Canada, is expected to be the largest since 1913, with an estimated 9 million fish returning to the river to spawn?
- ... that three swimming holes on Big Wapwallopen Creek are the most dangerous ones in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania?
- ... that the name for the Texas stream Cibolo Creek comes from the Native American and Spanish word for Buffalo, who were hunted along its steep banks?
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Quality content
 | This is a list of recognized content, updated weekly by JL-Bot (talk · contribs). 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. 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)
- Larrys Creek
- 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)
- Buffalo Creek (West Branch Susquehanna River tributary)
- Canajoharie Creek
- Catawissa Creek
- Celilo Falls
- Cem (river)
- 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
- 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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- Join WikiProject Rivers
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- Add items to Did You Know?
- Add the portal link to the top of the See Also section of all relevant pages. This can be done by adding
{{Portal|Rivers}}immediately under the section header.
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