where do rivers start? Can we trace rivers to a spot where it starts to pour out like a tap?
In: 8
Most rivers start in the mountains, flow towards lower ground because of gravity, and eventually into a lake or the ocean.
The water rarely comes from a single source, especially if it’s a big river (system). Usually they come from a whole area and is the result of rain pour and melting snow/ice in the mountains.
Trickles of water from melting snow flow together. These flow together with other trickles until there is enough water for a stream. Streams flow together until there is enough water to call it a river.
You have probably heard about something called the “water cycle”. Water evaporates into the air, forms into clouds, and rains back down onto the land as fresh water. That water obeys gravity and runs downhill. A “drainage basin” is an area where “downhill” all eventually comes together, so water falling into the drainage basin will eventually collect together into small streams, then large streams, and eventually rivers.
Where exactly the line is drawn between those things is somewhat arbitrary. Enough streams come together and become large enough and it becomes a river, and that is where the rivers “start”. A river might also end when it drains into another, larger or more important river. Eventually that water almost always makes its way to the ocean.
Is pretty crazy to see where the Mississippi starts in Minnesota and then where it ends. It’s quite the growth the river experiences over the 1500 miles or whatever
Yes. You can trace every river to a starting point. Whether it’s coming from a lake, a spring, another river, an underground water table, whatever. Every river has a starting point.