"What Was That?" -- River and Stream Features

River and Stream Features

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How to Use This Tool: Say you just flew over some interesting river feature, and now you want to know what it is. Scroll down through some of the possibilities below. If you find what you're looking for, you can open it in Google Earth by clicking the Google Earth icon:

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Single-Channel River - Also known as a "Sinuous" or "Meandering" river, the Single Channel River is only one of many different types of rivers. A sinuous river bends and meanders but usually flows in just one channel. {read more}

Scale: Images are taken from an altitude of ~35,000 feet, and so are each ~1 mile across.Open these examples in Google Earth, or download all of the landforms here.

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Braided River - One of many types of rivers. A braided river consists of many small channels that repeatedly split apart and join back together. Large braided rivers are rare in the U.S., restricted to places like Alaska, Montana, and to some extent the Great Plains. Examples below: The Platte River of Nebraska and the Bitterroot River of Montana. {read more}

Scale: Images are taken from an altitude of ~35,000 feet, and so are each ~1 mile across.Open these examples in Google Earth, or download all of the landforms here.

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Entrenched River- A river that is constrained by a canyon, usually formed as the land is tectonically uplifted, for example, in the case of the Colorado River in the Grand Canyon. {read more}

Scale: Images are taken from an altitude of ~35,000 feet, and so are each ~1 mile across.Open these examples in Google Earth, or download all of the landforms here.

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Delta - Where the mouth of the river flows into an ocean. {read more}

Scale: Images are taken from an altitude of ~35,000 feet, and so are each ~1 mile across. (Except right-hand image, which is 15 miles across)Open these examples in Google Earth, or download all of the landforms here.

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Confluence- The merging of two rivers. {read more}

Scale: Images are taken from an altitude of ~35,000 feet, and so are each ~1 mile across.Open these examples in Google Earth, or download all of the landforms here.

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Meander - A bend in a river, created as the river erodes the outer banks and deposits sediment on the inner banks. {read more}

Scale: Images are taken from an altitude of ~35,000 feet, and so are each ~1 mile across.Open these examples in Google Earth, or download all of the landforms here.

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Abandoned Meander - A meander that has been cut off from the main flow of the river, similar to an oxbow. {read more}

Scale: Images are taken from an altitude of ~35,000 feet, and so are each ~1 mile across. (Except for right-hand image, which is 5 miles across)Open these examples in Google Earth, or download all of the landforms here.

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Oxbow - A U-shaped lake or dry lake, cut off from a meandering river. {read more}

Scale: Images are taken from an altitude of ~35,000 feet, and so are each ~1 mile across.Open these examples in Google Earth, or download all of the landforms here.

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Scrollbars / Ridge and Swale - Arcs of small ridges and valleys ("swales") that parallel a river. They're usually deposited as the river meanders across its floodplain. {read more}

Scale: Images are taken from an altitude of ~35,000 feet, and so are each ~1 mile across.Open these examples in Google Earth, or download all of the landforms here.

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Bayou - A marshy, water-logged area with extremely slow-moving water, typically found in the Gulf region of the U.S. {read more}

Scale: Images are taken from an altitude of ~35,000 feet, and so are each ~1 mile across.Open these examples in Google Earth, or download all of the landforms here.

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Manmade Levee - A wall or slope built next to a river to regulate water levels. {read more}

Scale: Images are taken from an altitude of ~35,000 feet, and so are each ~1 mile across.Open these examples in Google Earth, or download all of the landforms here.

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Flood Plain - Flat land on either side of a river, often submerged during times when the river runs high and overflows its banks. In some places, floodplains are farmed. {read more}

Scale: Images are taken from an altitude of ~35,000 feet, and so are each ~1 mile across.Open these examples in Google Earth, or download all of the landforms here.

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Point-Bar and Cutbank- Pointbars are piles of sand and sediment that accumulate on the sides of river meanders, where the water slows down as it rounds the curve. Cutbanks are the outer banks of meanders, where the water speeds up and erodes down the side. {read more}

Scale: Images are taken from an altitude of ~35,000 feet, and so are each ~1 mile across.Open these examples in Google Earth, or download all of the landforms here.

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Channel Bar - A deposit of sediment in a channel. Similar to a point bar, but not restricted to the shoreline. Usually an indication that the river carries large amounts of sediment during flood times. {read more}

Scale: Images are taken from an altitude of ~35,000 feet, and so are each ~1 mile across.Open these examples in Google Earth, or download all of the landforms here.

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Slot Canyon - A deep, very narrow canyon, typically formed in limestone or sandstone and so frequently found in the Southwest {read more}

Scale: Images are taken from an altitude of ~35,000 feet, and so are each ~1 mile across.Open these examples in Google Earth, or download all of the landforms here.

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Anabranch - A part of a river that leaves the main channel, then rejoins it further downstream. They can be small, short branches, or long, significant branches that cover many miles {read more}

Scale: Images are taken from an altitude of ~35,000 feet, and so are each ~1 mile across.Open these examples in Google Earth, or download all of the landforms here.

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Stream Offset - Stream offsets occur when faults dramatically change the course of a stream or river. This is especially well illustrated along the San Andreas Fault in California {read more}

Scale: Images are taken from an altitude of ~35,000 feet, and so are each ~1 mile across.Open these examples in Google Earth, or download all of the landforms here.

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River Ice! - Check out the difference between winter, spring, and summer over the Missouri River in Nebraska. (Note: that's not the same section of river).

Scale: Images are taken from an altitude of ~26 miles, and so are each ~8 miles across.

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Delta Distributaries - Small streams that break off a main river at a delta and flow independently into the ocean, lake, or larger river that the river feeds into. {read more}

Scale: Images are taken from an altitude of ~35,000 feet, and so are each ~1 mile across.Open these examples in Google Earth, or download all of the landforms here.

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