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Introduction
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...)
Selected article -
Larrys Creek is a 22.9-mile-long (36.9 km) tributary of the West Branch Susquehanna River in Lycoming County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. A part of the Chesapeake Bay drainage basin, its watershed drains 89.1 square miles (231 km2) in six townships and a borough. The creek flows south from the dissected Allegheny Plateau to the Ridge-and-valley Appalachians through sandstone, limestone, and shale from the Devonian, Mississippian, and Pennsylvanian periods.
The valley's first recorded inhabitants were the Susquehannocks, followed by the Lenape and other tribes. The Great Shamokin Path crossed the creek near its mouth, where Larry Burt, the first Euro-American settler and the man who gave the creek its present name, also lived by 1769. In the 19th century, the creek and its watershed were a center for logging and related industries, including 53 sawmills, grist mills, leather tanneries, coal and iron mines. A 1903 newspaper article claimed "No other stream in the country had so many mills in so small a territory". For transportation, a plank road ran along much of the creek for decades, and two "paper railroads" were planned, but never built. (Full article...)Selected Quote
Selected picture
![](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/9c/Dordogne_2.jpg/300px-Dordogne_2.jpg)
Dordogne in Perigord, south-western France, near Castelnaud-la-Chapelle
General images -
Did you know?
- ... that 25 million tourists—more than twice the population of the entire state—visited the Mandakini River in Uttarakhand in 2011?
- ... that for three years, an illegal gold-mining settlement on the Amur river went on to host high-class hotels, have public healthcare, and even have a casino?
- ... that Boom Hall was named after a defensive structure on the River Foyle that was breached during the 1689 Siege of Derry?
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Selected Panorama
![Tagus River](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fc/Tagus_River_Panorama_-_Toledo%2C_Spain_-_Dec_2006.jpg/700px-Tagus_River_Panorama_-_Toledo%2C_Spain_-_Dec_2006.jpg)
Topics
Subcategories
Quality content
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)
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)
Brunswick Falls
Buffalo Creek (West Branch Susquehanna River tributary)
Canajoharie Creek
Catawissa Creek
Celilo Falls
Cem (river)
Chollas Creek
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
Stikine 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
Things to do
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- Join WikiProject Rivers
- Help select future pictures and articles.
- 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}}
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