The Missouri River is a river in the Central and Mountain West regions of the United States. The nation's longest, it rises in the eastern Centennial Mountains of the Bitterroot Range of the Rocky Mountains of southwestern Montana, then flows east and south for 2,341 miles (3,767 km) before entering the Mississippi River north of St. Louis, Missouri. The river drains semi-arid watershed of more than 500,000 square miles (1,300,000 km2), which includes parts of ten U.S. states and two Canadian provinces. Although a tributary of the Mississippi, the Missouri River is slightly longer and carries a comparable volume of water. When combined with the lower Mississippi River, it forms the world's fourth-longest river system.
A tributary, or an affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream, river, or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries, and the main stem river into which they flow, drain the surrounding drainage basin of its surface water and groundwater, leading the water out into an ocean.
The Tanana River is a 584-mile (940 km) tributary of the Yukon River in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to linguist and anthropologist William Bright, the name is from the Koyukon (Athabaskan) tene no, tenene, literally "trail river".
The headwater of a river or stream is the farthest point on each of its tributaries upstream from its mouth/estuary into a lake/sea or its confluence with another river. Each headwater is considered one of the river's sources, as it is the place where surface runoffs from rainwater, meltwater and/or spring water begin accumulating into a more substantial and consistent flow that becomes a first-order tributary of that river. The tributary with the longest course downstream of the headwaters is regarded as the main stem.
The Yampa River flows 250 miles (400 km) through northwestern Colorado, United States. Rising in the Rocky Mountains, it is a tributary of the Green River and a major part of the Colorado River system. The Yampa is one of the few free-flowing rivers in the western United States, with only a few small dams and diversions.
The White River is a Missouri River tributary that flows 580 miles (930 km) through the U.S. states of Nebraska and South Dakota. The name stems from the water's white-gray color, a function of eroded sand, clay, and volcanic ash carried by the river from its source near the Badlands. Draining a basin of about 10,200 square miles (26,000 km2), about 8,500 square miles (22,000 km2) of which is in South Dakota, the stream flows through a region of sparsely populated hills, plateaus, and badlands.
The Kuskokwim River or Kusko River is a river, 702 miles (1,130 km) long, in Southwest Alaska in the United States. It is the ninth largest river in the United States by average discharge volume at its mouth and seventeenth largest by basin drainage area. The Kuskokwim River is the longest river system contained entirely within a single U.S. state.
The Koyukuk River is a 425-mile (684 km) tributary of the Yukon River, in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the last major tributary entering the Yukon before the larger river empties into the Bering Sea.
The Thompson River is the largest tributary of the Fraser River, flowing through the south-central portion of British Columbia, Canada. The Thompson River has two main branches, the South Thompson River and the North Thompson River. The river is home to several varieties of Pacific salmon and trout. The area's geological history was heavily influenced by glaciation, and the several large glacial lakes have filled the river valley over the last 12,000 years. Archaeological evidence shows human habitation in the watershed dating back at least 8,300 years. The Thompson was named by Fraser River explorer, Simon Fraser, in honour of his friend, Columbia Basin explorer David Thompson. Recreational use of the river includes whitewater rafting and angling.
In mathematics, the Strahler number or Horton–Strahler number of a mathematical tree is a numerical measure of its branching complexity.
The Pine River flows along the Minnesota-Ontario border a short distance, primarily within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and La Verendrye Provincial Park. The river is part of the Winnipeg River drainage basin and is a tributary of the Granite River.
The Bill Williams River is a 46.3-mile-long (74.5 km) river in west-central Arizona where it, along with one of its tributaries, the Santa Maria River, form the boundary between Mohave County to the north and La Paz County to the south. It is a major drainage westwards into the Colorado River of the Lower Colorado River Valley south of Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, and the drainage basin covers portions of northwest, and west-central Arizona. The equivalent drainage system paralleling the east–west lower reaches of the Bill Williams is the Gila River, which flows east-to-west across central Arizona, joining the Colorado River in the southwest at Yuma. The confluence of the Bill Williams River with the Colorado is north of Parker, and south of Lake Havasu City.
A hydrological code or hydrologic unit code is a sequence of numbers or letters that identify a hydrological unit or feature, such as a river, river reach, lake, or area like a drainage basin or catchment.
The stream order or waterbody order is a positive whole number used in geomorphology and hydrology to indicate the level of branching in a river system.
The Black River is a 114-mile-long (183 km) river in the White Mountains of the U.S. state of Arizona. It forms south of the town of Greer and west of the towns of Nutrioso and Alpine. The river flows southwest then northwest to meet the White River west of Fort Apache. The merged streams form the Salt River, a major tributary of the Gila River. Both the Salt and Gila rivers supply water to the Phoenix metro area as well as provides water for farmland and crops around the valley.
The River Continuum Concept (RCC) is a model for classifying and describing flowing water, in addition to the classification of individual sections of waters after the occurrence of indicator organisms. The theory is based on the concept of dynamic equilibrium in which streamforms balance between physical parameters, such as width, depth, velocity, and sediment load, also taking into account biological factors. It offers an introduction to map out biological communities and also an explanation for their sequence in individual sections of water. This allows the structure of the river to be more predictable as to the biological properties of the water. The concept was first developed in 1980 by Robin L. Vannote, with fellow researchers at Stroud Water Research Center.
The North Fork Clearwater River is a major tributary of the Clearwater River in the U.S. state of Idaho. From its headwaters in the Bitterroot Mountains of eastern Idaho, it flows 135 miles (217 km) westward and is dammed by the Dworshak Dam just above its mouth in north-central Idaho. Draining a rugged watershed of 2,462 square miles (6,380 km2), the river has an average flow of over 5,600 cubic feet per second (160 m3/s), accounting for a third of the discharge from the Clearwater basin. The river drains parts of Clearwater, Shoshone, Latah, and Idaho counties. Most of the watershed is managed by the U.S. Forest Service. Some of the fish of the river include westslope cutthroat trout, rainbow trout, mountain whitefish, and the threatened bull trout. It also has smallmouth bass and a kokanee salmon run, both from Dworshak Reservoir. The North Fork drainage is home to grizzly bears, cougars, deer, moose, black bear, elk, grey wolves, and osprey. The river used to have a large steelhead run before the implementation of Dworshak Dam. The North Fork of the Clearwater is located within the Clearwater National Forest
Powderly Creek is a tributary of the Lackawanna River in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is approximately 2.3 miles (3.7 km) long and flows through Carbondale Township and Mayfield. The watershed of the creek has an area of 1.77 square miles (4.6 km2). The creek is an impaired stream. It is impacted by flow loss and is also affected by acid mine drainage. Its waters tend to be acidic. The watershed of the creek is in the Appalachian Mountain Section of the Ridge and Valley physiographic province. The main rock formations in the watershed include interbedded sedimentary rock and sandstone. Culm and silt are deposited in the creek's vicinity and it flows through a large silt basin known as the Bushwick silt basin. A major underground coal fire is burning on a hill near the creek.
