section_path: Topography/The flow of rivers
section_name: The flow of rivers
paragraph_text: The flow of rivers
  
  Rivers flow downhill, with their direction determined by gravity. A common misconception holds that all or most rivers flow from North to South, but this is not true. As rivers flow downstream, they eventually merge to form larger rivers. A river that feeds into another is a tributary, and the place they meet is a confluence. Rivers must flow to lower altitudes due to gravity. The bed of a river is typically within a river valley between hills or mountains. Rivers flowing through an impermeable section of land such as rocks will erode the slopes on the sides of the river. When a river carves a plateau or a similar high-elevation area, a canyon can form, with cliffs on either side of the river. Areas of a river with softer rock weather faster than areas with harder rock, causing a difference in elevation between two points of a river. This can cause the formation of a waterfall as the river's flow falls down a vertical drop.
  
  A river in a permeable area does not exhibit this behavior and may even have raised banks due to sediment. Rivers also change their landscape through their transportation of sediment, often known as alluvium when applied specifically to rivers. This debris comes from erosion performed by the rivers themselves, debris swept into rivers by rainfall, as well as erosion caused by the slow movement of glaciers. The sand in deserts and the sediment that forms bar islands is from rivers. The particle size of the debris is gradually sorted by the river, with heavier particles like rocks sinking to the bottom, and finer particles like sand or silt carried further downriver. This sediment may be deposited in river valleys or carried to the sea.
  
  The sediment yield of a river is the quantity of sand per unit area within a watershed that is removed over a period of time. The monitoring of the sediment yield of a river is important for ecologists to understand the health of its ecosystems, the rate of erosion of the river's environment, and the effects of human activity.
  
  Rivers rarely run in a straight direction, instead preferring to bend or meander. This is because any natural impediment to the flow of the river may cause the current to deflect in a different direction. When this happens, the alluvium carried by the river can build up against this impediment, redirecting the course of the river. The flow is then directed against the opposite bank of the river, which will erode into a more concave shape to accommodate the flow. The bank will still block the flow, causing it to reflect in the other direction. Thus, a bend in the river is created.
  
  Rivers may run through low, flat regions on their way to the sea. These places may have floodplains that are periodically flooded when there is a high level of water running through the river. These events may be referred to as "wet seasons' and "dry seasons" when the flooding is predictable due to the climate. The alluvium carried by rivers, laden with minerals, is deposited into the floodplain when the banks spill over, providing new nutrients to the soil, allowing them to support human activity like farming as well as a host of plant and animal life. Deposited sediment from rivers can form temporary or long-lasting fluvial islands. These islands exist in almost every river.