This is a list of rivers of the US state of Alabama. Alabama has over 132,000 [1] miles of rivers and streams with more freshwater biodiversity than any other US state. Alabama's rivers are among the most biologically diverse waterways in the world. 38% of North America's fish species, 43% of its freshwater gill-breathing snails, 51% of its freshwater turtle species, and 60% of its freshwater mussel species are native to Alabama's rivers.
All rivers in Alabama eventually flow into the Gulf of Mexico. This list arranges rivers into drainage basin, which are ordered by the location of the mouth of the main stem from east to west. Tributaries are ordered from mouth to source (subject to being within the borders of Alabama).
The geography of Alabama describes a state in the Southeastern United States in North America. It extends from high mountains to low valleys and sandy beaches. Alabama is 30th in size and borders four U.S. states: Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. It also borders the Gulf of Mexico.
The Tennessee River is the largest tributary of the Ohio River. It is approximately 652 miles (1,049 km) long and is located in the southeastern United States in the Tennessee Valley. The river was once popularly known as the Cherokee River, among other names, as the Cherokee people had their homelands along its banks, especially in what are now East Tennessee and northern Alabama. Additionally, its tributary, the Little Tennessee River, flows into it from Western North Carolina and northeastern Georgia, where the river also was bordered by numerous Cherokee towns. Its current name is derived from the Cherokee town, Tanasi, which was located on the Tennessee side of the Appalachian Mountains.
The Tombigbee River is a tributary of the Mobile River, approximately 200 mi (325 km) long, in the U.S. states of Mississippi and Alabama. Together with the Alabama, it merges to form the short Mobile River before the latter empties into Mobile Bay on the Gulf of Mexico. The Tombigbee watershed encompasses much of the rural coastal plain of western Alabama and northeastern Mississippi, flowing generally southward. The river provides one of the principal routes of commercial navigation in the southern United States, as it is navigable along much of its length through locks and connected in its upper reaches to the Tennessee River via the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway.
The Coosa River is a tributary of the Alabama River in the U.S. states of Alabama and Georgia. The river is about 280 miles (450 km) long.
The Tallapoosa River runs 265 miles (426 km) from the southern end of the Appalachian Mountains in Georgia, United States, southward and westward into the Appalachian foothills in Alabama. It is formed by the confluence of McClendon Creek and Mud Creek in Paulding County, Georgia. Lake Martin at Dadeville, Alabama is a large and popular water recreation area formed by a dam on the river. The Tallapoosa joins the Coosa River about 10 miles (16 km) northeast of Montgomery near Wetumpka to form the Alabama River.
Lioplax cyclostomatiformis, the cylindrical lioplax, is a species of freshwater snail with gills and an operculum, an aquatic gastropod mollusk in the family Viviparidae.
Pleurobema taitianum, the heavy pigtoe or Judge Tait's mussel, is a species of freshwater mussel, an aquatic bivalve mollusk in the family Unionidae, the river mussels.
The Alabama-Coosa-Tallapoosa River Basin is a drainage basin (watershed) in the Southeastern United States. The basin is located mainly in eastern Alabama, but also goes includes a small part of Georgia. This area is classified as a sub-region by the USGS hydrological code system.