Im living next to the rhine river in Germany and while sitting next to it I started to wonder: why does it never stop, even though the water is always flowing in the same direction? Where does it come from? Where does it go? Where does it come from, river flow joe?
In: 4
It comes from rain and snow, particularly snow in the Alps. Rain and snow are the ultimate sources of water for all rivers.
Sun turns ocean into gas
Gas reach ozone, turns into cloud
Cloud condens and tuen into rain
Rain poor and form lake
Lake run down the land and into ocean
Repeat
Rivers keep flowing because of the continuous movement of water caused
by gravity. They are usually supplied with a constant source of water from melting snow and rainfall.
Rivers keep flowing because water is always moving, driven by gravity’s force pulling it towards lower ground. Raindrops falling into the river supply fresh water, while streams and creeks joining the main course add to the volume. Even when rain ceases temporarily, snowmelt from higher elevations will continue feeding the stream. Due to all this continuous renewal and addition, water doesn’t run out, and the river keeps flowing relentlessly. As long as rainfall persists somewhere upstream, the river will carry sediments along, ensuring erosion can occur and keeping its bed at a level sufficient for water to flow smoothly. So, thanks to Earth’s topography and climate patterns, rivers remain perpetually active channels conveying vital water supplies from highlands to lowland areas.
The short answer to this is…
Rivers never stop flowing because they never run out of water.
Ridiculous, but that’s what it is. The long answer is that they do actually run out of water.. or those that do are called intermittent.
In the case of those rivers that run perpetually, there is enough land at a higher elevation in the watershed.. that at any one moment there’s still water on its way out. There’s also flow rates of ground in a watershed, and usually this slows the rate of water on its path from landing at a particular place as precipitation to entering a stream or river. These sponge like characteristics of ground have the effect of averaging out the water flow out of the watershed between those moments when precipitation is falling and when it is not.
And there are watersheds which *shed* their water quickly. All at once. These are more likely to sometimes go dry as they tend to not absorb water, and hence evacuate water in bursts downstream, closer to the time that the water came down as precipitation.
There are plenty of rivers and streams that occasionally or regularly run dry.
Not so much in Germany, but if you go a bit further south-west to Spain you may find some there.
The water for the rivers mostly comes from the sky in the form of rain and snow. The Rhine gets all the rain and snow that falls over a huge chunk of Europe.
Water rains down on the ground and then flows downhill and downriver to the sea.
Water generally doesn’t flow upriver due to gravity, but where the river meets the sea you may sometimes see it seemingly change direction in tidal areas.
You are lucky enough to live in a country that the climate hasn’t changed enough for rivers to stop flowing. Many rivers do turn dry. Mostly because of not enough rain.
https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/20/world/rivers-lakes-drying-up-drought-climate-cmd-intl/index.html
Rain or snow falls on high ground. The water (possibly from melting snow) travels down the hill (due to gravity) and makes streams and rivers. The rivers dump into lakes / seas / oceans. The sun warms up water and it goes into the air (evaporation). It makes humidity and forms clouds in the sky that carry water until the air can’t hold more moisture and it rains or snows again. The process repeats.
Mountains in particular see a lot of snow and water on the side that faces the wind because the wind is forced up the mountain and cools the air. Colder air can’t hold as much moisture as warm air can, so it falls out of the air as rain or snow.
It’s called the water cycle, and it’s powered by the sun.
I’m going to share something with you that is so obvious, it blew my mind and I felt so stupid after realizing it.
Rivers flow because of gravity. That is right… rivers flow downhill. Land is ‘above sea level’, so inland rivers just flow downhill to empty into the sea.
So rain, snow… falls on land and fills up lakes and other water bodies. Water from these drain into rivers and eventually out to the ocean due to simple gravity.
Maybe you already knew that, but it explains so much.
Is this how Germans make jokes?
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