When does a stream start being a river?

Answer 1

When it gets a bit more growed up!!!

Answer 2

There appears to be no strict definition that distinguishes streams and rivers, other than subjective views of the size. Here's what I found on the web:

1. Chesterfield County Public Schools: "The only difference between a river and a stream is size."

2. thefreedictionary.com definitions: (a) "stream - a flow of water in a channel or bed, as a brook, rivulet, or small river"; (b) "river - a large natural stream of water emptying into an ocean, lake, or other body of water and usually fed along its course by converging tributaries."

3. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources: "Stream is a generic word that is used to refer to either a creek or a river, although there are no universally accepted definitions that clearly differentiate between the two. It is generally accepted that a river is larger than a creek, however, it is possible to find a few named rivers that are tributary to named creeks across the Untied States. These few cases are a function of local name use or preference, and have nothing to do with the size of the respective streams."

4. funtrivia.com - 2 responses to a similar question: (a) "In Wisconsin, there is no legal distinction between a river or a stream." (b) "In general, brooks, streams, and creeks are similar terms. A river is a stream of water of considerable volume, which travels downhill (from higher altitudes to lower altitudes due to gravity). Rainfall will seep into the ground or become runoff, which flows downhill into rivers. Typically, creeks and brooks are smaller than streams while rivers are much larger than streams and other flowing water sources. Little creeks or streams merge to form small rivers then become medium-sized rivers. These rivers may be tributaries of a large river which can eventually flow into the ocean. This interconnection between streams and rivers form watersheds."

I expect you're none the wiser. Maybe it's time for a proper definition.

Answer 3

If you have ever studied a map in detail, you will notice how rivers and streams form a network of waterways across the countryside.
Little streams come together to form small rivers. Small rivers join together and become medium-sized rivers. All these rivers may be tributaries of a large river. such as the Mississippi. Collectively, the network of rivers and streams form a watershed which drains the land of excess water.

For more detailed info click the link below and good luck!!

http://www.mbgnet.net/fresh/rivers/how.htm

Answer 4

When the volume of flow becomes great enough to measure. The mighty Mississippi River starts out as a stream.

Answer 5

A stream runs into a river and a river runs into a lake, so it stops being a stream when it reaches the river.

Answer 6

Watershed to stream bed

Is the boundary of the stream the edge of the water, where you start to get your feet wet in soggy soil, the area that floods in heavy rains, or all the land that contributes surface runoff or groundwater to that stream?

It is all of the above.

The land area from which water drains into a body of water, either above or below ground, is called its watershed. The watershed may cover many square miles, extending far beyond the sounds of a brook or the smell of damp earth at the water's edge. Anything that affects the watershed will eventually impact the stream. A stream that winds through a wooded watershed, for example, will be a much different stream than one that flows through parking lots or golf courses.

The borders of a stream are much broader than they appear to be at first sight.

Clouds, rain and runoff

Have you ever been in the woods during a storm and watched where the rain goes? Some falls directly onto a stream, but most of it falls on the land. There it collects in depressions and sinks slowly into the soil or evaporates into the air. In a hard rain the water overflows into rivulets that race downhill to streams or pond. The water that percolates into the soil then becomes groundwater. It trickles through pore spaces in sand or gravel or between fractures in rocks to discharge into a spring or a stream.

Plant roots absorb some of the groundwater, pull it up their stems and trunks to their leaves, and release it into the atmosphere. There it joins other water vapor evaporated from streams, lakes, or the ocean. Water droplets condense around microscopic particles of dust and salt to form clouds. When the clouds become saturated, the water falls back to earth as rain or snow and rejoins the stream's journey to the sea. In Maine, over 33,000 mapped miles of flowing water are part of this process that has been recycling water for billions of years. This process is called the hydrologic cycle.


From its source to the sea

Streams are like the capillaries and blood vessels that connect to the major arteries, the rivers. But unlike our body's circulation system, the smaller channels deliver most of the water and food to the bigger ones. Without feeder streams, our rivers would not exist.

You could say a stream begins at its headwaters, often in the mountains, fed by an underground spring or the runoff from rain and snow melt. Rivulets of water flow downhill, merging together to become a stream which continues, mixing with other tributaries, until they all become a river flowing to the sea. Here in Maine the mouth of a river usually opens into the ocean in a broad bay where fresh water and salt water mix, called an estuary. The length of a stream may be only a few feet from where it emerges until it joins another stream, or it may traverse hundreds of miles, from the mountains to the sea. Some streams flow year-round, others only after a storm or when snow melts in the spring.

What could be more dynamic than a stream? It is constantly changing its flow, its depth, even its bed, as anyone knows who has observed a stream in different seasons or at different places along its course. It scours, shifts channels, meanders, floods, erodes, carries and deposits silt. Squeeze a stream in one place, and like a water balloon, it bulges in another. Where it is restricted, the stream speeds up to compensate, eroding downstream banks or spreading out to flood adjacent property.

Many factors shape the character of a stream as it progresses from its headwaters to its mouth: the slope and current, the amount of water being transported, its temperature and water chemistry. These, in turn, influence the vegetation, the animals, the bottom sediments, and the shape of the channel at any point along the stream's journey.


So just what is a stream?

Its boundaries are as wide as its watershed, as long as the entire river system from source to sea, and as fluid as the water cycle itself.

Answer 7

A river runs from a lake into a sea/ocean. A stream doesn't.

Answer 8

When it starts hanging around with other streams and taking the long journey to the sea.

Answer 9

when it is mre that 3 meters wide.

Answer 10

when you flush