Body of water

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Types of bodies of water

• Arm of the sea
  Arm of the sea
  
  An arm of the sea may refer to a sea loch or:*Arms of the Sea, a 2006 album by Celtic musician Heather Alexander*Nullah, in Hindi*Gulf of Lune, a fictitious sea arm in Middle-earth...
   - also sea arm, used to describe a sea loch.
• Arroyo (creek)
  Arroyo (creek)
  
  An arroyo , also called a wash or draw, is a usually dry stream bed or gulch that temporarily fills with water after a heavy rain, or seasonally....
   - a usually dry creek bed or gulch that temporarily fills with water after a heavy rain, or seasonally.
• Barachois
  Barachois
  
  A barachois is a term used in Atlantic Canada and Saint Pierre and Miquelon to describe a coastal lagoon separated from the ocean by a sand bar....
   - a lagoon separated from the ocean by a sand bar
• Basin
  Drainage basin
  
  A drainage basin is an extent of land where water from rain or snow melt drains downhill into a body of water, such as a river, lake, reservoir, estuary, wetland, sea or ocean....
   - a region of land where water from rain
  Rain
  
  Rain is liquid precipitation . On Earth, it is the condensation of atmospheric water vapor into droplet heavy enough to fall, often making it to the surface....
   or snowmelt
  Snowmelt
  
  In hydrology, snowmelt is surface runoff produced from melting snow. It can also be used to describe the period or season during which such runoff is produced....
   drains downhill into another body of water, such as a river, lake, or dam.
• Bay
  Headlands and bays
  
  Headlands and bays are two related features of the coastal environment....
   - an area of water bordered by land on three sides.
• Bayou
  Bayou
  
  A bayou is a small, slow-moving stream or creek, or a lake or pool that lies in an abandoned channel of a stream. Bayous are usually located in relatively flat, low-lying areas, for example, in the Mississippi River River delta region of the southern United States....
   - a small, slow-moving stream or creek.
• Beck
  Stream
  
  A stream is a body of water less than 60 feet wide with a current , confined within a stream bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as brook, beck, Burn , creek, crick, kill, lick , rill, river syke, bayou, rivu...
   - a small stream.
• Bight
  Bight (geography)
  
  In geography, bight has two meanings.A bight can be simply a bend or curve in any geographical feature—usually a bend or curve in the line between land and water....
   - a large and often only slightly receding bay, or a bend in any geographical feature.
• Billabong
  Billabong
  
  Billabong is an Australian English word meaning a small lake, specifically an oxbow lake, a Water stagnation pool of water attached to a waterway....
   - a pond or still body of water created when a river changes course and some water becomes trapped. Australian.
• Boil - a body of water formed by a spring.
• Brook
  Stream
  
  A stream is a body of water less than 60 feet wide with a current , confined within a stream bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as brook, beck, Burn , creek, crick, kill, lick , rill, river syke, bayou, rivu...
   - a small stream.
• Burn
  Burn (stream)
  
  In Scotland, North East England and some parts of Ireland and New Zealand, burn is a name for watercourses from large streams to small rivers. The term is also used in lands settled by the Scots and Northern English in other countries, notably in Otago, New Zealand, where much of the naming was done by Northumberland-born surveyor John Turnbu...
   - a small stream.
• Canal
  Canal
  
  Canals are artificial channels for water. There are two types of canals: Aqueduct canals, which are used for the conveyance and delivery of water, and waterways, which are navigable transportation canals used for passage of goods and people, often connected to existing lakes, rivers, or oceans....
   - a man-made waterway, usually connected to (and sometimes connecting) existing lakes, rivers, or oceans.
• Channel
  Channel (geography)
  
  In physical geography, a channel is the physical confine of a river, slough or ocean strait consisting of a bed and banks.A channel is also the natural or man-made deeper course through a reef, bar , bay, or any shallow body of water....
   - the physical confine of a river, slough or ocean strait consisting of a bed and banks. See also stream bed
  Stream bed
  
  A stream bed is the channel bottom of a stream, river or creek; the physical confine of the normal water flow. The lateral confines or channel margins, during all but flood stage, are known as the stream banks or river banks....
   and strait.
• Cove
  Cove
  
  A cove is a circular or oval coastal inlet with a narrow entrance. Colloquially, the term can be used to describe a sheltered headlands and bays....
   - a coastal landform
  Landform
  
  In the earth sciences and geology sub-fields a landform or physical feature comprises a geomorphology unit, and is largely defined by its surface form and location in the landscape, as part of the terrain, and as such, is typically an element of topography....
  . Earth scientists generally use the term to describe a circular or round inlet with a narrow entrance, though colloquially the term is sometimes used to describe any sheltered bay.
• Creek
  Stream
  
  A stream is a body of water less than 60 feet wide with a current , confined within a stream bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as brook, beck, Burn , creek, crick, kill, lick , rill, river syke, bayou, rivu...
   - a small stream.
• Creek (tidal)
  Creek (tidal)
  
  A tidal creek is the portion of a stream that is affected by ebb and flow of ocean tides, in the case that the subject stream discharges to an ocean, sea or strait....
   - an inlet of the sea, narrower than a cove.
• Dam
  Dam
  
  A dam is a barrier that Reservoirs surface water or underground streams. Dams generally serve the primary purpose of retaining water, while other structures such as floodgates, levees, and Dike are used to manage or prevent water flow into specific land regions....
   - a barrier across flowing water that obstructs, directs or slows down the flow, often creating a reservoir, lake or impoundment. The word "dam" can also refer to the reservoir rather than the structure.
• Draw
  Arroyo (creek)
  
  An arroyo , also called a wash or draw, is a usually dry stream bed or gulch that temporarily fills with water after a heavy rain, or seasonally....
   - a usually dry creek bed or gulch that temporarily fills with water after a heavy rain, or seasonally.
• Estuary
  Estuary
  
  An estuary is a semi-enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....
   - a semi-enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea
• Firth
  Firth
  
  Firth is the Scots language word used to denote various coastal waters in Scotland. It is usually a large sea bay, which may be part of an estuary, or just an inlet, or even a strait....
   - the Scots word used to denote various coastal waters in Scotland. It is usually a large sea bay, estuary, inlet, or strait.
• Fjord
  Fjord
  
  Geologically, a fjord or fiord is a long, narrow inlet with steep sides, created in a valley carved by Glacier....
   (fiord) - a submergent landform which has occurred due to glacial activity.
• Glacier
  Glacier
  
  A glacier is a large, slow-moving mass of ice, formed from compacted layers of snow, that slowly deforms and flows in response to gravity and high pressure....
   - A large collection of ice or a frozen river that moves slowly down a mountain.
• Gulf
  Headlands and bays
  
  Headlands and bays are two related features of the coastal environment....
   - a part of a lake or ocean that extends so that it is surrounded by land on three sides, similar to, but larger than a bay.

• Harbor
  Harbor
  
  A harbor or harbour , or haven, is a place where ships may shelter from the weather or are stored. Harbors can be man-made or natural....
   - a man-made or naturally occurring body of water where ship
  Ship
  
  A ship is a large watercraft that floats on water. Ships are generally distinguished from boats based on size. Ships may be found on lakes, seas, and rivers and they allow for a variety of activities, such as the ferry or cargo ships, fishing, cruise ship, Coast guard, and warship....
  s are stored or may shelter from the ocean's weather and currents.
• Inlet
  Inlet
  
  An inlet is a narrow body of water between islands or leading inland from a larger body of water, often leading to an enclosed body of water, such as a Sound , bay , lagoon or marsh....
   - a body of water, usually seawater
  Seawater
  
  Seawater is water from a sea or ocean. On average, seawater in the world's oceans has a salinity of about 3.5%, or 35 parts per thousand . This means that every 1 kg of seawater has approximately 35 grams of sea salt ....
  , which has characteristics of one or more of the following: bay, cove, estuary, firth fjord, geo, sea loch, or sound.
• Kettle - a shallow, sediment-filled body of water formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters.
• Kill
  Kill (body of water)
  
  As a body of water, a kill is a stream. The word comes from the Middle Dutch language kille, meaning "riverbed" or "water channel." The modern Dutch term is kil....
   - used in areas of Dutch
  Netherlands
  
  The Netherlands is a country that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands is located in North-West Europe, and bordered by the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east....
   influence in New York
  New York
  
  The State of New York is a U.S. state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States and is the nation's List of U.S....
  , New Jersey
  New Jersey
  
  New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic States and Northeastern United States regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north by New York, on the east by the Hudson River and the Atlantic Ocean, on the southwest by Delaware, and on the west by Pennsylvania....
   and other areas of the former New Netherland colony of Dutch America to describe a strait, river, or arm of the sea.
• Lagoon
  Lagoon
  
  A lagoon is a body of comparatively shallow sea water or brackish water separated from the deeper sea by a shallow or exposed Bar , reef, or similar feature....
   - a body of comparatively shallow salt or brackish water separated from the deeper sea by a shallow or exposed sandbank, coral reef
  Coral reef
  
  Coral reefs are aragonite structures produced by living organisms. In most reefs the predominant organisms are colonial cnidarian that secrete an exoskeleton of calcium carbonate....
  , or similar feature.
• Lake
  Lake
  
  A lake is a terrain feature , a body of liquid on the surface of a world that is localized to the bottom of basin and moves slowly if it moves at all....
   - a body of water or other liquid, but usually freshwater, of considerable size contained on a body of land.
• Loch
  Loch
  
  A loch is a body of water which is either:* a lake or;* a sea inlet, which may be also a firth, fjord, estuary or bay.Sea-inlet lochs are often called sea lochs....
   - a body of water such as a lake, sea inlet, firth, fjord, estuary or bay.
• Mangrove swamp
  Mangrove
  
  Mangroves are trees and shrubs that grow in saline water coastal habitats in the tropics and subtropics. The word is used in at least three senses: most broadly to refer to the habitat and entire plant assemblage or mangal, for which the terms mangrove swamp and mangrove forest are also used, to refer to all trees and...
   - Saline costal habitat of mangrove trees and shrubs.
• Marsh
  Marsh
  
  In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland which is subject to frequent or continuous flood . Typically the water is shallow and features Poaceaees, Juncaceaees, Phragmites, typhas, Cyperaless, and other herbaceous plants....
   - a wetland featuring grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, and other herbaceous plants (possibly with low-growing woody plants) in a context of shallow water. See also Salt marsh.
• Millpond - a reservoir built to provide flowing water to a watermill
  Watermill
  
  A watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour, lumber or textile production, or metal shaping ....
  
• Moat
  Moat
  
  A moat is deep, broad trench, usually filled with water, that surrounds a structure, installation, or town, normally to provide it with a preliminary line of Defense ....
   - a deep, broad trench, filled with water, surrounding a structure, installation, or town.
• Ocean
  Ocean
  
  An ocean is a major body of Seawater, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 71% of the Earth's surface is covered by ocean, a World Ocean that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas....
   - a major body of saline water that, in totality, covers about 71% of the Earth's surface.
• Oxbow Lake
  Oxbow lake
  
  An oxbow lake is a U-shaped body of water formed when a wide meander from the mainstem of a river is cut off to create a lake. This landform is called an oxbow lake for the distinctive curved shape that results from this process....
   - a U-shaped lake formed when a wide meander from the mainstem of a river is cut off to create a lake.
• Phytotelma - a small, discrete body of water held by some plants.
• Pool
  Pool
  
  Pool may refer to:*Plunge pool, small, deep body of water*The River Pool, river in England, tributary to the River Ravensbourne*Reflecting pool, shallow pool of water designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings:...
   - a small body of water such as a swimming pool
  Swimming pool
  
  A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, or simply a pool, is an artificially enclosed body of water intended for swimming or water-based recreation....
  , reflecting pool
  Reflecting Pool
  
  The Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is the largest of Washington, D.C.'s reflecting pools. Located directly east of the Lincoln Memorial, it is a long, rectangular pool visible in many photographs of the Washington Monument....
  , pond, or puddle.
• Pond
  Pond
  
  A pond is a body of water smaller than a lake, both being examples of terrain feature. Although the term pond is universally used to describe waterbodies that are smaller than lakes, an internationally recognised size cutoff has not yet been agreed, with values ranging from 2 hectares to 8 hectares used to distinguish the smaller from...
   - a body of water smaller than a lake, especially those of man-made origin.
• Puddle
  Puddle
  
  A puddle is a small accumulation of liquid, usually water, on a surface. It can form either by pooling in a depression on the surface, or by surface tension upon a flat surface....
   - a small accumulation of water on a surface, usually the ground.
• Rapid
  Rapid
  
  File:Rapids.jpgFile:!downstream river1.jpgA rapid is a section of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep stream gradient causing an increase in water [velocity and turbulence....
   - a fast moving part of a river
• Reservoir - an artificial lake, used to store water for various uses.
• River
  River
  
  A river is a natural stream of water, usually freshwater, flowing toward an ocean, a lake, or another stream. In some cases a river flows into the ground or dries up completely before reaching another body of water....
   - a natural waterway usually formed by water derived from either precipitation or glacial meltwater, and flows from higher ground to lower ground.
• Run
  Run
  
  Run or runs may refer to:* Running, moving swiftly on foot for necessity, exercise, sport, fun, both in humans and animalsComputers...
   - a small stream or part thereof, especially a smoothly flowing part of a stream.
• Salt marsh - a type of marsh
  Marsh
  
  In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland which is subject to frequent or continuous flood . Typically the water is shallow and features Poaceaees, Juncaceaees, Phragmites, typhas, Cyperaless, and other herbaceous plants....
   that is a transitional zone between land and an area, such as a slough, bay, or estuary, with salty or brackish water.
• Sea
  SEA
  
  See also: Sea and seasThe three-letter acronym SEA may refer to:People/organizations/businesses*Scientists and Engineers for America, a pro-science political advocacy group....
   - a large expanse of saline water connected with an ocean, or a large, usually saline, lake that lacks a natural outlet such as the Caspian Sea
  Caspian Sea
  
  The Caspian Sea is the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area, variously classed as the List of lakes by area or a full-fledged sea. It has a surface area of 371,000 square kilometers and a volume of 78,200 cubic kilometers ....
   and the Dead Sea
  Dead Sea
  
  For the Brian Keene book of the same name, see Dead Sea The Dead Sea is a salt lake between Israel and the West Bank to the west, and Jordan to the east....
  . In common usage, often synonymous to ocean.
• Sea loch - a sea inlet loch.
• Sea lough - a fjord, estuary, bay or sea inlet.
• Slough (wetland)
  Slough (wetland)
  
  The word slough has several meanings related to wetland or aquatic features.The etymology is related to the Dutch word 'slechten' = to lower, to cut, to destroy....
   - the word slough has several meanings related to wetland or aquatic features.
• Source (river or stream)
  Source (river or stream)
  
  The source of a river or stream is the place from which the water in the river or stream originates....
   - the original point from which the river or stream flows. A river's source is sometimes a spring
  Spring (hydrosphere)
  
  A spring is a point where groundwater flows out from the ground, and is thus where the aquifer surface meets the ground surface.Dependent upon the constancy of the water source , a spring may be ephemeral or Perennial stream ....
  .
• Sound
  Sound (geography)
  
  In geography a sound or seaway is a large sea or ocean inlet larger than a Headlands and bays, deeper than a bight , wider than a fjord, or it may identify a narrow sea or ocean channel between two bodies of land ....
   - a large sea or ocean inlet larger than a bay, deeper than a bight, wider than a fjord, or it may identify a narrow sea or ocean channel between two bodies of land.
• Spring
  Spring (hydrosphere)
  
  A spring is a point where groundwater flows out from the ground, and is thus where the aquifer surface meets the ground surface.Dependent upon the constancy of the water source , a spring may be ephemeral or Perennial stream ....
   - a point where groundwater
  Groundwater
  
  Groundwater is water located beneath the ground surface in soil porosity spaces and in the fractures of lithologic formations. A unit of rock or an unconsolidated deposit is called an aquifer when it can yield a usable quantity of water....
   flows out of the ground, and is thus where the aquifer
  Aquifer
  
  An aquifer is an underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock or unconsolidated materials from which groundwater can be usefully extracted using a water well....
   surface meets the ground surface
• Strait
  Strait
  
  A strait or straits is a narrow, navigable channel of water that connects two larger navigable bodies of water. It most commonly refers to a channel of water that lies between two land masses, but it may also refer to a navigable channel through a body of water that is otherwise not navigable, for example because it is too shallow, or...
   - a narrow channel of water that connects two larger bodies of water, and thus lies between two land masses.
• Stream
  Stream
  
  A stream is a body of water less than 60 feet wide with a current , confined within a stream bed and stream banks. Depending on its locale or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to as brook, beck, Burn , creek, crick, kill, lick , rill, river syke, bayou, rivu...
   - a body of water with a detectable current, confined within a bed and banks.
• Subglacial lake
  Subglacial lake
  
  A subglacial lake is a lake under a glacier, typically an ice cap or ice sheet. There are many such lakes, with Lake Vostok in Antarctica being by far the largest known at present....
   - a lake that is permanently covered by ice and whose water remains liquid by the pressure of the ice sheet and geothermal heating. They often occur under glaciers or ice caps. Lake Vostok
  Lake Vostok
  
  Lake Vostok is the largest of more than 140 subglacial lakes found under the surface of Antarctica. It is located beneath Russia's Vostok, Antarctica, 4,000 meters under the surface of the central Antarctic ice sheet....
   in Antarctica
  Antarctica
  
  Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent, overlying the South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctica of the southern hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean....
   is an example.
• Swamp
  Swamp
  
  A swamp is a wetland featuring temporary or permanent inundation of large areas of land, by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a substantial number of hammock , or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation....
   - a wetland that features permanent inundation of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water, generally with a substantial number of hummocks, or dry-land protrusions.
• Tarn
  Tarn (lake)
  
  File:Velke Hincovo pleso.jpgA tarn is a mountain lake or pool, formed in a cirque excavated by a glacier. A moraine may form a natural dam below a tarn....
   - a mountain lake or pool formed in a cirque
  Cirque
  
  Cirque may be:* Cirque a geological formation* Makhtesh, an erosional landform found in the Negev desert of Israel and Sinai of Egypt*Cirque , a novel by Terry Carr...
   excavated by a glacier.
• Tide pool
  Tide pool
  
  Tide pools are rocky pools by oceans that are filled with seawater. Tide pools are habitats of uniquely adaptable animals that have engaged the special attention of naturalists and marine biology, as well as philosophical essayists: John Steinbeck wrote in The Log from the Sea of Cortez, "It is advisable to look from the tide pool to the...
   - a rocky pool adjacent to an ocean and filled with seawater.
• Vernal pool
  Vernal pool
  
  Vernal pools, also called ephemeral pools, are temporary pools of water. They are usually devoid of fish, and thus allow the safe development of natal amphibian and insect species....
   - a shallow, natural depression in level ground, with no permanent above-ground outlet, that holds water seasonally.
• Wash
  Arroyo (creek)
  
  An arroyo , also called a wash or draw, is a usually dry stream bed or gulch that temporarily fills with water after a heavy rain, or seasonally....
   - a usually dry creek bed or gulch that temporarily fills with water after a heavy rain, or seasonally.
• Wetland
  Wetland
  
  File:Mangrove trees in Everglades.JPGA wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with moisture either permanently or seasonally. Such areas may also be covered partially or completely by shallow pools of water....
   - an environment "at the interface between truly terrestrial ecosystems and truly aquatic systems making them different from each yet highly dependent on both" (Mitsch & Gosselink, 1986).

See also

• Waterway
  Waterway
  
  A waterway is any navigable body of water. These include rivers, lakes, seas, oceans, and canals. In order for a waterway to be navigable, it must meet several criteria:...
  
• Port
  Port
  
  ||-||-|-||-||-||-||-||-||-|}A port is a facility for receiving ships and transferring cargo. They are usually found at the edge of an ocean, sea, river, or lake....