rivers

colorado

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia For other uses, see Colorado River (disambiguation). Colorado River View of a rocky canyon with a blue river curving around a large bluff The Colorado River at Horseshoe Bend, Arizona, a few miles below Glen Canyon Dam Countries United States, Mexico States Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California, Baja California, Sonora Tributaries - left Fraser River, Blue River, Eagle River, Roaring Fork River, Gunnison River, Dolores River, San Juan River, Little Colorado River, Bill Williams River, Gila River - right Green River, Dirty Devil River, Escalante River, Kanab River, Virgin River, Hardy River Cities Glenwood Springs, CO, Grand Junction, CO, Moab, UT, Page, AZ, Bullhead City, AZ, Lake Havasu City, AZ, Yuma, AZ, San Luis Rio Colorado, SON Source La Poudre Pass - location Rocky Mountains, Colorado, United States - elevation 10,184 ft (3,104 m) - coordinates 40°28′20″N 105°49′34″W [1] Mouth Gulf of California - location Colorado River Delta, Baja California-Sonora, Mexico - elevation 0 ft (0 m) - coordinates 31°54′00″N 114°57′03″WCoordinates: 31°54′00″N 114°57′03″W [1] Length 1,450 mi (2,334 km) [2] Basin 246,000 sq mi (637,137 km2) [2] Discharge for mouth (average virgin flow), max and min at Topock, AZ, 300 mi (480 km) from the mouth - average 22,500 cu ft/s (637 m3/s) [3] - max 384,000 cu ft/s (10,900 m3/s) [4] - min 422 cu ft/s (12 m3/s) [5] Coloradorivermapnew1.jpg Map of the Colorado River basin Wikimedia Commons: Colorado River The Colorado River is one of the principal rivers of the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico (the other being the Rio Grande). The 1,450-mile-long (2,330 km) river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. and two Mexican states. Starting in the central Rocky Mountains in the U.S., the river flows generally southwest across the Colorado Plateau and through the Grand Canyon before reaching Lake Mead on the Arizona-Nevada border, where it turns south toward the international border. After entering Mexico, the Colorado approaches the mostly dry Colorado River Delta at the tip of the Gulf of California between Baja California and Sonora. Known for its dramatic canyons, whitewater rapids, and eleven U.S. National Parks, the Colorado River system is a vital source of water for 40 million people in southwestern North America.[6] The river and its tributaries are controlled by an extensive system of dams, reservoirs, and aqueducts, which in most years divert its entire flow for agricultural irrigation and domestic water supply.[7][8] Its large flow and steep gradient are used for generating hydroelectric power, and its major dams regulate peaking power demands in much of the Intermountain West.

missouri

Missouri is a state in the Midwestern United States.[5] With over six million residents, it is the 18th-most populous state. The largest urban areas are St. Louis, Kansas City, Springfield, and Columbia. The capitol is in Jefferson City on the Missouri River. The state is the 21st-most extensive in area. In the South are the Ozarks, a forested highland, providing timber, minerals, and recreation. The Mississippi River forms the eastern border of the state. Humans have inhabited the land now known as Missouri for at least 12,000 years. The Mississippian culture built cities and mounds, before declining in the 1300s. When European explorers arrived in the 1600s they encountered the Osage and Missouria nations.

columbia

The Columbia River is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America.[9] The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, Canada. It flows northwest and then south into the US state of Washington, then turns west to form most of the border between Washington and the state of Oregon before emptying into the Pacific Ocean. The river is 1,243 miles (2,000 km) long, and its largest tributary is the Snake River. Its drainage basin is roughly the size of France and extends into seven US states and a Canadian province. The fourth-largest river in the United States by volume, the Columbia has the greatest flow of any North American river entering the Pacific. The Columbia and its tributaries have been central to the region's culture and economy for thousands of years.

mississippi

The Mississippi River is one of the world's major river systems in size, habitat diversity and biological productivity. It is the second longest river in North America, flowing 2,350 miles from its source at Lake Itasca through the center of the continental United States to the Gulf of Mexico. The Missouri River, a tributary of the Mississippi River, is about 100 miles longer. Some describe the Mississippi River as being the third longest river system in the world, if the length of Missouri and Ohio Rivers are added to the Mississippi's main stem.

ohio

The Ohio River, which streams westward from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Cairo, Illinois, is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River in the United States. At the confluence, the Ohio is considerably bigger than the Mississippi (Ohio at Cairo: 281,500 cu ft/s (7,960 m3/s);[2] Mississippi at Thebes: 208,200 cu ft/s (5,897 m3/s)[3]) and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system. The 981-mile (1,579 km) river flows through or along the border of six states, and its drainage basin includes parts of 15 states. Through its largest tributary, the Tennessee River, the basin includes many of the states of the southeastern U.S. It is the source of drinking water for three million people.

red

The Red River, or sometimes the Red River of the South, is a major river in the southern United States of America.[2] The river was named for the red-bed country of its watershed. It is one of several rivers with that name. Although it was once a tributary of the Mississippi River, the Red River is now a tributary of the Atchafalaya River, a distributary of the Mississippi that flows separately into the Gulf of Mexico. It is connected to the Mississippi River by the Old River Control Structure. The south bank of the Red River formed part of the US-Mexico border from the Adams-Onís Treaty (in force 1821) until the Texas Annexation and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The Red River is the second-largest river basin in the southern Great Plains.[3] It rises in two branches (forks) in the Texas Panhandle and flows east, where it acts as the border between the states of Texas and Oklahoma. It forms a short border between Texas and Arkansas before entering Arkansas, turning south near Fulton, Arkansas and flowing into Louisiana, where it flows into the Atchafalaya River. The total length of the river is 1,360 miles (2,190 km), with a mean flow of over 57,000 cubic feet per second (1,600 m3/s) at the mouth.[c

rio grande

The Rio Grande (/ˈriːoʊ ˈɡrænd/ or /ˈriːoʊ ˈɡrɑːndeɪ/;[5][6][7] Spanish: Río Bravo del Norte, pronounced [ˈri.o ˈβɾaβo ðel ˈnorte] or simply Río Bravo) is one of the principal rivers in the southwest United States and northern Mexico (the other being the Colorado River). The Rio Grande begins in south-central Colorado in the United States and flows to the Gulf of Mexico.[8] Along the way, it forms part of the Mexico-United States border. According to the International Boundary and Water Commission, its total length was 1,896 miles (3,051 km) in the late 1980s, though course shifts occasionally result in length changes. Depending on how it is measured, the Rio Grande is either the fourth- or fifth-longest river system in North America.[1] The river serves as part of the natural border between the U.S. state of Texas and the Mexican states of Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, and Tamaulipas. A very short stretch of the river serves as part of the boundary between the U.S. states of Texas and New Mexico. Since the mid-20th century, heavy water consumption of farms and cities along with many large diversion dams on the river has left only 20% of its natural discharge to flow to the Gulf. Near the river's mouth, the heavily irrigated lower Rio Grande Valley is an important agricultural region. The Rio Grande is one of 19 Great Waters recognized by America's Great Waters Coalition.[9]

snake

The Snake River is a major river of the greater Pacific Northwest in the United States. At 1,078 miles (1,735 km) long, it is the largest tributary of the Columbia River, the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean.[9] Rising in western Wyoming, the river flows through the Snake River Plain of southern Idaho, then through the rugged Hells Canyon area via northeastern Oregon and the rolling Palouse Hills, to reach its mouth near the Washington Tri-Cities area, where it enters the Columbia. Its drainage basin encompasses parts of six U.S. states, and its average discharge is over 54,000 cubic feet per second (1,500 m3/s). Rugged mountains divided by rolling plains characterize the physiographically diverse watershed of the Snake River. The Snake River Plain was created by a volcanic hotspot which now lies underneath Yellowstone National Park, where the headwaters of the Snake River arise. Gigantic glacial-retreat flooding episodes that occurred during the previous Ice Age carved out many topographical features, including various canyons and ridges along the middle and lower Snake River. Two of these catastrophic flooding events significantly affected the river and its surrounds.

tennessee

The Tennessee River is a tributary, or a river that flows into, the Ohio River. Its path makes a crescent. It starts in eastern Tennessee before entering Alabama. After entering Alabama it goes north and for a few miles, forms the boundary between Alabama and Mississippi. Then it flows through Tennessee and Kentucky, where it joins with the Ohio River at the city of Paducah. The watershed for the Tennessee River includes parts of the states of Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi.

arkansas

he Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United States in Colorado, specifically the Arkansas River Valley, where the headwaters derive from the snowpack in the Sawatch and Mosquito mountain ranges. It then flows east into the Midwest via Kansas, and finally into the South through Oklahoma and Arkansas. At 1,469 miles (2,364 km), it is the sixth-longest river in the United States,[5] the second-longest tributary in the Mississippi-Missouri system, and the 45th longest river in the world. Its origin is in the Rocky Mountains in Lake County, Colorado, near Leadville. In 1859, placer gold discovered in the Leadville area brought thousands seeking to strike it rich, but the easily recovered placer gold was quickly exhausted.