710 articles
Anabranch
Anabranch: a stream channel that leaves a river and rejoins it downstream, from "anastomotic branch" (1834). Anabranching rivers have stable vegetated islands, unlike braided rivers, and cover 51% of global alluvial channel length.
Anacostia River
The Anacostia River is a 9-mile tidal Potomac tributary in Washington, D.C. and Maryland, once heavily polluted by industry and sewage overflows, now improving through DC Water's tunnel project and sediment cleanup.
Anadyr
The Anadyr is a river in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug of northeastern Siberia, Russia, that is the second largest to empty into the Bering Sea after the Yukon.
Anderson (landform)
Anderson River, Northwest Territories (Inuvialuktun Kuuk, Dene Beghula), an Arctic-draining river forming a delta and migratory bird sanctuary near Tuktoyaktuk; distinct from the smaller Anderson River tributary of the Fraser River in British Columbia.
Angara
The Angara (Ангара́) is a river in Irkutsk Oblast and Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia, the only outflow of Lake Baikal and the largest tributary of the Yenisei, dammed for hydropower.
Apalachicola River
Apalachicola River: Florida's largest river, flowing over 100 miles from Jim Woodruff Dam at Lake Seminole (Chattahoochee-Flint confluence) to Apalachicola Bay; ACF basin water wars, dredging history, and oyster fishery collapse distinguish it.
Apure (landform)
Apure (Río Apure) is a whitewater river in western Venezuela, known for having the largest basin of any Orinoco tributary. It drains the Venezuelan Llanos and the Andes.
Arafura - Carpentaria
Arafura - Carpentaria, FEOW freshwater ecoregion 805, northern Australia's tropical coastal rivers draining to the Timor Sea, Arafura Sea, Gulf of Carpentaria, and Coral Sea; 1,077,000 km², over 20 endemic fish species, 98% free flow.
Araguaia
The Araguaia River is a large river in central Brazil and the main tributary of the Tocantins River, notable for being one of the last large free-flowing tropical rivers.
Aral Sea Drainages
Aral Sea Drainages, FEOW freshwater ecoregion 629, covers the former Aral Sea basin remnants in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, fed by the Amu Darya and Syr Darya, now desiccated and salinized.
Aras
Aras (Araxes) River: 1,072-km transboundary river rising near Erzurum, Turkey, flowing past Mount Ararat and forming the Iran-Azerbaijan-Armenia border before joining the Kura and reaching the Caspian Sea.
Argun
The Argun (Chinese: Ergun) is a 1,620-kilometre river in northeast Asia that forms part of the China–Russia border and, with the Shilka River, heads the Amur.
Aripuanã
Aripuanã: a clear-water tributary of the Madeira River in the Brazilian Amazon, site of the 261 MW Dardanelos hydropower plant, and name of municipalities in Mato Grosso and Amazonas.
Arkansas River
The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River, rising in the Rocky Mountains near Leadville, Colorado, and flowing about 1,460 miles through Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.
Arroyo
Arroyo: a dry, usually ephemeral streambed or gulch of the arid American Southwest and northern Mexico, also called a dry wash or wadi, that fills after rain; steep alluvial banks, late-1800s incision episode, and cyclical cutting and filling.
Assiniboine
The Assiniboine River is a large prairie river rising in eastern Saskatchewan and flowing through Brandon and Portage la Prairie to join the Red River at Winnipeg, Manitoba.
Athabasca (river)
Athabasca River, Alberta river over 1,200 km from Jasper National Park to Lake Athabasca; fur trade route, Athabasca Pass 1811, heritage river 1989, main water source for oil sands mining.
Auob
Auob (Auobrivier), an ephemeral "fossil" river of the southern Kalahari rising in Namibia's Anas Mountains, joining the Nossob near Twee Rivieren; name means bitter water; its aquifer supplies the Stampriet system.
Awash
Awash, river and basin in Ethiopia; also Awash River Basin. A roughly 1,200 km endorheic river ending in salt lakes in the Danakil Plain; Ethiopia's most intensively irrigated basin, home to Koka Dam, Wonji and Metehara sugar estates, severe water pollution, and major flood management works.
Bacias hidrograficas
Bacias hidrograficas is the Portuguese term for drainage basins, or watersheds: land areas that drain water, sediment, and dissolved materials to a common stream outlet.
Bafing
Bafing River, main headwater tributary of the Senegal River, rises in the Fouta Djallon, Guinea, and joins the Bakoye at Bafoulabé, Mali; it supplies about half the Senegal's flow and carries the Manantali Dam.
Balak
Balak: a river and sub-basin in Erbil governorate, Iraqi Kurdistan, 10 km east of Bekhal Waterfall, with five tributaries and Ca-HCO3 water; also villages in Haryana and Syunik, Malaysian streams, and the similar Balkhab river of Afghanistan.
Balkash - Alakul
Balkash - Alakul (FEOW ecoregion 624) is the endorheic freshwater ecoregion of lakes Balkhash, Sasykkol, and Alakol in Kazakhstan, China, and Kyrgyzstan, defined by endemic fish such as Balkhash perch and marinka now threatened by introduced species.
Balsas
Balsas (Río Balsas), Mexico's largest Pacific-coast river, called Atoyac upstream and Mezcala mid-course; drains 117,405 km² across eight states, dammed by El Caracol, Infiernillo, and La Villita hydroelectric dams.
Bank erosion
Bank erosion is the retreat of a stream or river bank as the channel widens or migrates laterally, the counterpart to lowering of the stream bed in fluvial erosion.
Baoulé
Baoulé names several West African rivers, chiefly a Niger-basin tributary rising in Côte d'Ivoire that forms the Bani with the Bagoé, a Bakoye tributary in Mali, plus the Baoulé people and V Baoulé region of Côte d'Ivoire.
Barito
Barito (Sungai Barito) is a river in Indonesian Borneo about 900 km long that rises in the Schwaner Muller Mountains and flows to the Java Sea at Muara Banjar.
Bass Strait Drainages
Bass Strait Drainages, FEOW freshwater ecoregion 809 by Peter Unmack: rivers of northern Tasmania and the Victorian coast draining to Bass Strait, 105,000 km², three endemic fish, united by a glacial land bridge.
Bayou Lafourche
Bayou Lafourche is a former Mississippi River distributary running about 106-110 miles from Donaldsonville, Louisiana, to the Gulf, dammed in 1903-1904 and now supplying drinking water to about 300,000 residents.
Bear River (Great Salt Lake)
Bear River, largest tributary of Great Salt Lake, a 500-mile river rising in Utah's Uinta Mountains and crossing Wyoming, Utah, and Idaho five times; supplies about 64% of lake inflow, governed by the 1958/1980 Bear River Compact, site of the 1863 Bear River Massacre.