Fluvial landforms

thumb|upright=1.2|A boat floats on the Mekong in Laos thumb|upright=1.2|South America's Amazon River (dark blue) and the rivers which flow into it (medium blue). The darker green marks the Amazon's [[drainage basin or watershed]]

alt=A satellite view of the Hawaiian islands, with the top of the image being North. There are few clouds, and most of the image is the seawater swirling in the wind, surrounding the islands.|thumb|upright=1.3|The Hawaiian Islands, a major archipelago in the [[Pacific Ocean]] An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been part of a continent. Oceanic islands can be formed from volcanic activity, grow in

thumb|Dynjandi, a series of waterfalls located in the [[Westfjords (Vestfirðir), Iceland.]] A waterfall is any point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several ways, but the most common method of formation is that a river courses over a top layer of resistant bedrock before falling onto softer rock, which erodes faster, leading to an increasingly high fall. Waterfalls have been studied for their impact on species living i

thumb|Lechuguilla Cave, [[New Mexico, United States]]

A valley is an elongated low area often running between hills or mountains and typically containing a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over a very long period. Some valleys are formed through erosion by glacial ice. These glaciers may remain present in valleys in high mountains or polar areas.

area of land where precipitation collects and drains off into a common outlet, such as into a river, bay, or other body of water

landform that is formed at the mouth of a river

thumb|300px|Marshlands are often noted within wetlands, as seen here in the [[New Jersey Meadowlands at Lyndhurst, New Jersey, U.S.]] thumb|upright=1.35|right|Marsh in shallow water on a lakeshore

thumb|Components of an artificial levee: thumb|The side of a levee in Sacramento, California|Sacramento, [[California]]

end of a river or stream

upright=1.2|thumb|A stream bed following a tilted valley. The maximum gradient is along the down-valley axis represented by a hypothetical straight coast channel. Meanders develop, which lengthen the course of the stream, decreasing the gradient. thumb|Meanders of the Cauto River|Rio Cauto at [[Guamo Embarcadero, Cuba]] thumb|The Jordan River, near the [[Dead Sea, 1937]]

thumb|A freshwater swamp in Florida, [[United States]]

thumb|350px|Paraná River floodplain, at its confluence with the headstream of the Paranaíba (on the right) and the Verde River, near Panorama, Brazil thumb|right|A floodplain after a one-in-10-year flood on the Isle of Wight thumb|right|Gravel floodplain of a glacial river near the Snow Mountains in Alaska, 1902 thumb|right|The Laramie River [[meanders across its floodplain in Albany County, Wyoming, 1949]] thumb|right| This aggradational floodplain of a small meandering stream in La Plata County, Colorado, is underlain by silt deposited above a dam formed by a terminal [[moraine left by the W

thumb|Wadi Ghuweir Trail to Feynan, Jordan

thumb|Rapids of Kern River, [[California, USA.]] Rapids are sections of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. Flow, gradient, constriction, and obstacles are four factors that are needed for a rapid to be created.

U-shaped body of water

thumb|upright=1.2|Homole Ravine, Pieniny National Park (Poland)|Pieniny, [[Poland]] thumb|Shinturgen pine forest photographed from above. [[Enbekshikazakh District, Almaty Region, Kazakhstan.]]

thumb|Cvrcka in Bosnia

start of a river or stream

right|thumb|Sandbar between St. Agnes, Isles of Scilly|St Agnes and [[Gugh on the Isles of Scilly, off the coast of Cornwall, England, United Kingdom]] thumb|A tidal sandbar connecting the islands of Waya Island|Waya and Wayasewa of the [[Yasawa Islands, Fiji]] thumb|Sandbar between Nosy Iranja Be and Nosy Iranja Kely(Nosy Iranja, [[Madagascar)]]

channel bottom of a stream, river, or creek

fan- or cone-shaped deposit of sediment crossed and built up by streams

REDIRECT Upland and lowland#Lowland

landform, formed at the mouth of a river, where flow is blocked by a bar of sediments

region on which rivers have deposited sediment

thumb|A gully in Avaré, Brazil

thumb|upright=1.3|The thalweg of a river

the forking of a river into its distributaries

in geography, area between high and low tide marks of water bodies (both still and moving), or a raised landform on the side of a water body

landmass or fluvial landform within a river

final large channel of a riverine system

landform

thumb|right|The Atchafalaya Basin, located in [[Louisiana, contains several bayous.]]

river that runs wholly or partly beneath the ground surface

type of landform; confined river; strait

cavity or hole which appears to have been drilled in the surrounding rocks by eddying currents of water bearing stones, gravel and other detrital matter

thumb|A variety of mire types in Carbajal Valley, Argentina thumb|right|Avaste Nature Reserve|Avaste Fen, one of the largest fens in Estonia thumb|right|A valley mire creates a level ground surface in otherwise dramatic topography. Upper Bigo Bog, Rwenzori Mountains, [[Uganda.]] A peatland is a type of wetland whose soils consist of organic matter from decaying plants, forming layers of peat. Peatlands arise because of incomplete decomposition of organic matter, usually litter from vegetation, due to water-logging and subsequent anoxia. Peatlands are unusual landforms that derive mostly from b

dry creek or stream bed which temporarily or seasonally fills and flows after sufficient rain

network of river channels separated by small, and often temporary, islands called braid bars

amazonian landscape

thumb|right|Anabranches at the junction of the Yukon River and the [[Koyukuk River in Alaska, August 24, 1941.]]

thumb|A billabong along Scrubby Creek at Berrinba, Queensland|Berrinba Wetlands, [[Queensland, 2014]] thumb|A billabong in the Northern Territory thumb|A billabong on the Goulburn River in Victoria In Australian English, a billabong ( ) is a small body of water, usually a permanent one created by a change in course or the flooding of a river. It is variously used to refer to oxbow lakes, dry creek beds that fill after heavy rainfall and channels of rivers that lead to dead-ends or backwaters. The term is likely borrowed from Wiradjuri, an Aboriginal Australian language of New South Wales.

geomorphological process associated with rivers and streams

type of wetland

thumb|right|A downslope view of part of the erosion|eroding rill network from [[County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. See below for a close-up view of a single rill]] In hillslope geomorphology, a rill is a shallow channel (no more than a few inches/centimeters deep) cut into soil by the erosive action of flowing surface water. Similar but smaller incised channels are known as microrills; larger incised channels are known as gullies.

depression at the base of a waterfall created by the erosional force of falling water and rocks where it lands

change in shape and direction of river channels over time

depositional feature of alluvium that accumulates on the inside bend of streams and rivers below the slip-off slope

thumb|Chine forming on soft cliffs at Compton, Isle of Wight thumb|Shanklin Chine, circa 1910. A chine () is a steep-sided coastal gorge where a river flows to the sea through, typically, soft eroding cliffs of sandstone or clays. The word is used in central Southern England—notably in East Devon, Dorset, Hampshire and the Isle of Wight—to describe such topographical features. The term 'bunny' is sometimes used to describe a chine in Hampshire. The term chine is also used in some Vancouver suburbs in Canada to describe similar features.

plain along a river

thumb|right|Ravens feed Elijah by the brook Cherith, from commons:Die Bibel in Bildern|Die Bibel in Bildern

outside bank of a water channel, which is continually undergoing erosion

geological feature formed by the remnants of a meandering water channel

thumb|upright=1.3|Aits on the River Thames

disconnected meander loop of a river

thumb|upright=1.2|A dry gulch in the desert near Tamchy, [[Kyrgyzstan. The creek that may have run along the bottom of the gulch in the past has been diverted to a parallel aryk.]] A gulch is a deep V-shaped valley formed by erosion. It may contain a small stream or dry creek bed and is usually larger in size than a gully. Sudden intense rainfall upstream may produce flash floods in the bed of the gulch. thumb|Witches Gulch found in the Dells of the Wisconsin River

comparatively straight part of a river or channel between two bends

landform in a river

thumb|Aerial view of a riverscape of the Kugruk River ([[Alaska)]] A riverscape (also called river landscape) comprises the features of the landscape which can be found on and along a river. Most features of riverscapes include natural landforms (such as meanders and oxbow lakes) but they can also include artificial landforms (such as man-made levees and river groynes). Riverscapes can be divided into upper course riverscapes, middle course riverscapes, and lower course riverscapes. thumb|Riverine landscape along the lower course of the Rhine ([[Netherlands)]]

compound alluvial fan