FACTS ABOUT RIVERS/WATER
FACTS ABOUT RIVERS/WATER
• The longest river in the world is the Nile River, it reaches around 6650 kilometres in length (4132 miles).
• The second longest river in the world is the Amazon River, it reaches around 6400 kilometres in length (4000 miles).
• The longest river in the USA is the Missouri River, stretching around 2,340 miles (3,770 km) in length (slightly longer than the Mississippi River). The two combine to form the longest river system in North America, reaching around 3902 miles in length (6275 km).
• Small rivers often have different names which include creek, stream and brook.
• Rivers normally contain freshwater.
• The word upriver (or upstream) refers to the direction of the river’s water source, while downriver (or downstream) refers to the direction in which the water flows, i.e. towards the end of the river.
• Rivers have many uses which include fishing, bathing, transport, rafting and swimming among others.
• Most of the world’s major cities are located near the banks of rivers.
• The Ganges, Yangtze and Indus rivers are three of the most polluted on Earth.
• The University Boat Race is held every year on the Thames River in London between the Oxford University Boat Club and the Cambridge University Boat Club. The crews feature eight members who battle it out on the 6,779 m (4 miles and 374 yards) course.
• The Colorado River travels through the south western United States and north western Mexico, it is home to the famous Hoover Dam.
• On January 15 2009, a US Airways plane successfully made an emergency landing in the Hudson River that runs through New York. After being hit by birds, the pilot of flight 1549 managed to land the plane in the river with the loss of no lives.
• Water covers ¾ of the earth’s surface
• Most of the water is permanently frozen or salty
• Antarctica holds over 90% of the World’s fresh water
• If all of the world’s water could fit into a gallon sized container, only 1 tablespoon of that water would be drinkable, fresh water
• The amount of water on the earth has remained the same for 2 billion years
The River
A river has a life just the same as any living thing. A river is born at the headwaters and finishes up at its mouth. Come along for the trip as we visit the entire river
Headwaters
Rivers start with a drip. Probably from melting snow high in the
mountains during the warming of spring. The drips collect
together until they form a small puddle. This puddle begins
to run down the slope of a mountain in a very small trickle.
Although very small, this is where it all begins. This is called
the headwaters or the source. It doesn’t start in one specific
place, but in many locations generally around the highest part
of a mountain.
Creek, brook, brooklet, crick, stream, rivulet…
It is known by many names, but it means the same thing. As
the water begins to form the basis of a river, it starts out very
small. Water from several locations begins to collect into
miniature rivers. They may be only an inch across or they
could gather into a larger version that may be several meters
across. The water is controlled by gravity to move down the
mountain. And all along its path it finds more water also on
the same journey. One stream will find more and join
together on the way to the lowest point in the trip.
Tributary
The dripping becomes a trickle, a trickle becomes a stream and streams collect together to make a river. But it doesn’t stop there. Rivers will find each other too and assemble into a wider and bigger river. Along the way, rivers will gather together just the same as the streams gathered into one. When rivers form this type of a family, we call each of the small rivers a tributary. Where they meet is a fork. At the fork, a small river flows into a larger river. One river can take all of the rainwater from a given area and move that water off to drain away. This is known as the drainage basin. The picture shows an overhead view of tributaries flowing into a larger river, much the same way that branches of a tree all connect to the trunk.
Fascinating Facts about American rivers
• There are more than 250,000 rivers in the United States, which is about 3,500,000 miles (5 632 704 km) of river!
• The Mississippi is the largest river in the U.S (in terms of water volume)
• The longest river in the USA is the Missouri River (it is a tributary of the Mississippi River and is 2,540 miles (4087km) long
• There are two Apple rivers in the US – one in Wisconsin and one in Illinois – the Banana River in Florida, the Blueberry River in Minnesota, the Cherry River in West Virginia, and the Cranberry River in Massachusetts
Parts of a River
A river never moves from its headwaters directly to the mouth without changing the land that it travels through. The changes that a river makes upon the land help to define a river’s shape, size and even its beauty. Let’s take a look at some of the parts of a river and how it becomes this way.
Glacier
Way up in the mountains of some parts of the world you will find glaciers. Years of snow and ice have accumulated over time and have built up a thick, heavy mass of frozen material. Some of this never really melts or it might partially melt and then refreeze. A glacier is actually a river of snow and ice which moves very, very slowly down its coarse. As it moves, it can drag soil and rock along with it. A glacier is great at carving a valley as it travels along. Sometimes a glacier can create a basin or bowl shaped formation. A glacier can move rocks and deposit them miles from their original source or location. Rocks, gravel, and sand from glaciers have been found sitting lonely and far away from the place of a prehistoric glacier. This discarded material is called amoraine and is used to identify glaciers of the past.
Erosion
Moving water is a powerful force and can wear away soil and rocks. Soil washes down steep slopes especially when there are no plants or trees to hold the soil in place. The moving of soil and rock is called erosion. Erosion is responsible for filling rivers with mud after heavy rain or after a forest fire. This can choke out fish and make the water undrinkable for other wildlife. The moving soil in the river will also act to erode additional rocks and soil. The soil and water can bounce sharp edged rocks and pound them with sand and gravel. This continues the erosion process. When the rocks have worn down to smooth edges, they are easily identified as a characteristic known as river rock.
Valleys
Erosion is also responsible for creating valleys in mountains. The V shaped grooves are created by water eroding soil from a hill or mountain in a short period of time. This swift means of taking soil away from the mountain often defines the shape of a peak and creates the highs and lows of a mountainside. The U shape of an older valley is evidence of erosion that has taken place over a great period of time where additional erosion from rocks, sand and gravel has moved much more material from the valley floor.
Waterfall
Waterfalls are often some of our favourite scenery in nature, but nature’s waterfalls are just another sign of the power of moving water. Waterfalls, because of their speed, can move huge amounts of rock and soil. A waterfall can dig a hole at the bottom of its flow known as a plunge pool. The soil and rocks that once sat at the bottom of the waterfall have been moved on down stream. If you could stop the flow of the water you could see that there is an indentation right below where the water drops. The moving water usually prevents us from viewing this pool. The moving water can also wear away the rocks at the top of the waterfall and the shape of the waterfall can change as the years go by.
Canyon
As a river travels and carries away rocks and soil, it can create a deep groove in the earth’s surface. All along the sides of the river, the groove can get deeper and deeper. In time, this can create a canyon. Depending upon the type of rock along the sides of the river, a canyon can have sharp cliff-like sides. Some canyons are very famous, such as the Grand Canyon or the Snake River Canyon.
Fascinating Facts about European rivers
• The longest river of Europe is the River Volga 2,294 miles (3692 km) which flows through Russia into the Caspian Sea. The second longest is the Danube, flows west to east before entering the Black Sea.
• There are 1,352 rivers in Europe
• The Vasco da Gama Bridge spans the Rivers Tagus and is the longest bridge in Europe 17.2km
• The Rhine runs for over 766 miles (1,232 km) and flows through six countries -Switzerland, Principality of Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, France and the Netherlands before flowing into the North Sea at Rotterdam.
The Water Cycle
Rivers are just a part of a bigger system of the earth known as the water cycle. All of the water
that has ever existed or ever will exist is here on the earth today. The same water that your favourite dinosaur drank might be the water you drink later today. Some of the earth’s water is frozen, some of it is in a gaseous form and then some is liquid. Water can be in any of these forms here upon the earth. Some water is even part of living things. It is in your body, it is in the trees, it is in your food and even in the air. This water goes through a constant cycle of movement which cleans, redistributes and stores it for later use.
It works like this…the water cycle moves in three basic parts: evaporation, condensation and precipitation.
Let’s start with evaporation…water in lakes or in the oceans is heated by the sun. This heated water evaporates into the atmosphere in the form of water vapour. When the water vapour reaches a certain height in the atmosphere it begins to cool down. This causes it to change back into water droplets. This is called condensation forming clouds. We think that they look like white, fluffy marshmallows, but they are really just a collection of tiny water drops. If the conditions are just right and enough water droplets have collected, then they get too heavy for the atmosphere to hold and they begin to fall to the ground. If the air is cold enough, they might fall as snow; warm enough and they will fall as rain. Sleet and hail are other ways that water can fall to the earth. All of these are called precipitation. Much of the precipitation falls over mountainous areas and collects as snowcaps or glaciers. When these begin to melt in the spring and run off, we have rivers!! The rivers flow to a lake or an ocean and the process starts all over again.
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