How to get your rivers in the right place

[the-golem]

Since we're all on the topic of rivers and such ... Relatives of mine recently went on a Carnival cruise, and one of their stops was Newfoundland. Apparently -- and this is somewhat evenidenced from the photos I was shown -- during high tide a quite extensive portion of the river actually flows "upstream." It seems that the tide rises so high, it just flows backwards. From what they said, you could see the river fighting with itself, and there were all these swirlies and eddies and whatzits.

[Gidde]

That would be cool to see!

[waldronate]

Tidal bores are your friend! Just search for that term in any internet video search engine to see what I mean.

[Redrobes]

Heh yeah, I live here next to the River Severn which is the longest river in UK and that wedge shape bit bottom left dividing England from Wales. It also happens to be the second largest tidal region in the world and has regular bores where a lot of people get out for to watch - most in wet suits...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtUmLLlm7S0

Not Hawaii I grant you.

[arakish]

Actually, Niagra Falls was mentioned in that same show.

Apparently Lake Huron and Lake Erie didn't use to be connected. But with the rising of the Lakes caused the water to be forced over the land between the two lakes, which formed the rivers that joined the lakes. The connection between the two occurred 1800 years ago.

Water from the upper lakes flowing into Lake Erie then Lake Ontario caused the water to flow which eventually formed Niagra Falls. So apparently Niagra Falls is relatively "recent" (in geologic time). The show suggested that eventually the water volume flowing over Niagra Falls will increase, though it may be several thousand years before there's any real kind of disasterous change, due to that.

GP

Although not posted to for awhile, I thought I'd add this little tidbit about Niagara Falls.

I also watched a History Channel's show about the Niagara Falls. One thing mentioned in that show is the fact that the four upper lakes water level will drop by up to the height of the falls 52 meters (167 feet). Of course, this won't happen for about another 12,000 years, and the water won't empty all at once but occur over several years to a couple of decades. That increase of water flow will do a heck of a gouging job.

rmfr

[arakish]

Finally found this on an old DVD, here is a paper I wrote to a friend about drainage patterns. Maybe this can help some also?

FluvialProcesses.doc

Although a copyright exists within the document, I am releasing it under Creative Commons No Commercial, Share Alike license.

rmfr

[RobA]

Also like to add the NASA GES geomorphology site. specific to this discussion are the Fluvial Landforms from space (photos plus diagrams):

http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/geomorphol..._4/index.shtml


-Rob A>

[Daunty]

Hi i have a question that confuses me a bit, i was hand drawing a underground dwarven stronghold. on one side of the mountain i have a valley with a river above the ground (between to mountains), i understand that alot of the water will go into that river due to the catchment area. as i have been drawing further and further down into the mountain i thought would i b able to have like a underground lake or would the catchment area of the river stop the lake from filling up. there not right next to eachother but the river is on the side of the mountain and the lake im thinking of will b almost dead center under it. i thought i would ask b4 i actually had a go at drawing it in.

thx for any help and i do apologize if this isnt the right thread/topic to ask.

[Ascension]

I would assume that you could have an underground lake anywhere you want provided that there is rock preventing them from joining together in a vital area.

[MarkusTay]

I was looking for some visual aids for describing some terrain to RPG players, and my search was 'Canadian Shield Region'

And I came across This river system.

I thought you guys might find it interesting. If I saw someone draw that on a map I would think it was very 'unrealistic'.

Its with a bunch of other pics in an article on craters, which you can find HERE.