Where does the sea end and the river begin?

Answer 1

Where the water is not salty anymore

Answer 2

The river begins at the head. The sea begins at the mouth of the river. The sea does not have an end.

Answer 3

One cannot put a line on the map as to where a sea ends and a river begins, because it would depend on the height of the tide, the local topography and what you decide as the arbitrary limit of seaishness! someone has suggested that it should be the upper limit of the incoming tide but one could equally describe it as being the point in the sea where the fresh water is no longer evident.
Personally I would say that boundaries like this are just man made and arbitrary so if you must define them why not just draw a line across the river mouth and say there? even that would be difficult though as many rivers break into distributaries and which one to pick for your line??

Answer 4

The river begins at a source usually a mountain glazier or it could begin at a distributary where a river branches off to form a smaller river or the sea could be it's source like the Mediterranean and the Nile.

The sea has no end unless you count evaporation as an end. It has a beginning though, where a river or rivers empty their water into it at an estuary or a delta.

Answer 5

Hmmmm. This is a harder question to answer than I thought, and not at all daft!

I'd guess the sea ends at the HIGH TIDE LIMIT. This would, however, take the definition of "sea" quite far inland for many British rivers! For example, if you applied it to the River Thames, the sea would extend as far inland as Teddington Lock some 15 miles southwest of the centre of London!

Perhaps the river begins where the "open" sea ends, which would rule out estuaries and the like, but I don't know how you would scientifically define this.

Answers based on saltwater and freshwater differences are equally vague, as the saltwater runs up-river with the incoming tide (it's heavier, so runs underneath), before eventually mixing to form brackish water.

Answer 6

This is a good question,


what you can do is when you use a spoon and scoop up the liquid and put it into 2 jars, and you put 5 gold fishes in one, and 2 tiny sharks in the other. if the goldfishes die, you will know that it is sea water.

If the sharks all die, you will know its river water.

However, if some of the goldfish die, with no sharks dead, you know its nearer to sea water and vice versa for more sharks dying.

For the ambiguity of the EXACT spot, what you can do is that you cause 2 countries to go to a dispute (maybe by war or conflict) and then get them to the International Court of Justice or the Court of Sea Tribute and just sit at the side to deteremine what the court says where is sea division, it may take you years to reach a verdict, but hey, at least you will know where the sea ends.


Because it doesnt matter what science says, all in all, people power rule the mind dont you think so. Because if the court, decided by people, who decides to rule that 'sea' will now be known as 'river', or that the seas is 5cm longer than its original, we have to accept it dont we?

Answer 7

To go into detail would mean going through the water cycle and how rivers are formed, but when the river meets the sea and the place where it does- it is called the river mouth. Here you can see the river water joining the sea water. The river water mixes with the sea water, and the hydrological cycle is complete.

Answer 8

Rivers begin at the different sources, high up in the mountains. Many times there are collections of water, which overflow into initial streams. Those run downwards, meet other streams--those strengthen and form our rivers. All seas are connected.
If you are asking where rivers end, the answer is the same for every river: they end where they meet the sea. You did not ask that. I believe your question is ambiguous.

Boaz.

Answer 9

By geography, the river ends at the mouth at the sea. It could be said that the sea effects as far as it is salty. But the tidal affect is farther. If we ask our marine insurance company regarding insurance for our boat they change from river (Hudson) at the George Washington Bridge and start charging us for being at sea 15 miles up the river. It is not salty that far, and the tidal effect goes to Albany,200 miles.

Answer 10

i think your answer should be where does the river end and the sea begin as it is a river that flows into a sea. i river begins at a source which is almost always in a really high place. it flows downwards into thesea. where it meets the sea is called a mouth, there are alot of different types of mouth, delta, stuary etc...

Answer 11

Good question!
The answer depends on what you're trying to find out. The river actually begins at the neck of the estuary, however, there is then the tidal region of the river (self explanatory). This can end befor or after the saline limit depending on the individual river.