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A distributary, or a distributary channel, is a 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...
 that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel. They are a common feature of river delta
River delta

A delta is a landform that is created at the mouth of a river where that river flows into an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, flat arid area, or another river....
s. The phenomenon is known as river bifurcation
River bifurcation

River bifurcation is the separation of a stream into two parts. The creation of distributary are the consequences of bifurcation.One of the most famous bifurcations is the Casiquiare canal that links the Orinoco River with the Amazon River....
. The opposite of a distributary is a tributary
Tributary

A tributary is a stream or river which flows into a Mainstem river. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea. Tributaries and the mainstem river serve to drain the surrounding drainage basin of its surface water and groundwater by leading the water out into an ocean or some other large body of water....
. Distributaries usually occur as a stream nears a 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....
 or the 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....
, but they can occur inland as well, such as in an endorheic
Endorheic

An endorheic basin is a closed drainage basin that retains water and allows no outflow to other bodies of water such as rivers or oceans. Normally the water accruing in drainage basins flows out through surface rivers or by underground diffusion through Permeability rock to the oceans....
 basin, or when a tributary stream bifurcates as it nears its confluence with a larger stream.






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A distributary, or a distributary channel, is a 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...
 that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel. They are a common feature of river delta
River delta

A delta is a landform that is created at the mouth of a river where that river flows into an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, flat arid area, or another river....
s. The phenomenon is known as river bifurcation
River bifurcation

River bifurcation is the separation of a stream into two parts. The creation of distributary are the consequences of bifurcation.One of the most famous bifurcations is the Casiquiare canal that links the Orinoco River with the Amazon River....
. The opposite of a distributary is a tributary
Tributary

A tributary is a stream or river which flows into a Mainstem river. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea. Tributaries and the mainstem river serve to drain the surrounding drainage basin of its surface water and groundwater by leading the water out into an ocean or some other large body of water....
. Distributaries usually occur as a stream nears a 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....
 or the 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....
, but they can occur inland as well, such as in an endorheic
Endorheic

An endorheic basin is a closed drainage basin that retains water and allows no outflow to other bodies of water such as rivers or oceans. Normally the water accruing in drainage basins flows out through surface rivers or by underground diffusion through Permeability rock to the oceans....
 basin, or when a tributary stream bifurcates as it nears its confluence with a larger stream. In some cases, a minor distributary can "steal" so much water from the main channel that it can become the main route.

Related terms

Common terms to name individual river distributaries in English-speaking countries are arm and channel. They may refer to a distributary that won't rejoin the channel it has branched off (e.g., the North, Middle, and South Arms of the Fraser River
Fraser River

The Fraser River is the longest river in British Columbia, Canada, rising near Mount Robson in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for 1,375 km , into the Pacific Ocean at the city of Vancouver, British Columbia....
, or the West Channel of the Mackenzie River
Mackenzie River

The Mackenzie River originates in Great Slave Lake, in the Northwest Territories, and flows north into the Arctic Ocean. It is the longest river in Canada at 1,738 km and, together with its headstreams the Peace River and the Finlay River, the second longest river in North America at 4,241 km in length....
), or one that will (e.g. Annacis Channel and Annieville Channel of the Fraser River
Fraser River

The Fraser River is the longest river in British Columbia, Canada, rising near Mount Robson in the Rocky Mountains and flowing for 1,375 km , into the Pacific Ocean at the city of Vancouver, British Columbia....
, separated by Annacis Island
Annacis Island

Annacis Island is an island located in Delta, British Columbia, British Columbia, Canada. The island is now mostly industrial, and it contains one of the Greater Vancouver Regional District, British Columbia's waste water treatment plants....
).

In Australia, the term anabranch
Anabranch

An anabranch is a section of a river or stream that diverts from the main watercourse channel and rejoins the mainstem downstream.In the simplest case, an island or rock in the river creates a main course and an anabranch course; a more significant anabranch would diverge for a distance of several kilometres before rejoining....
 is used to refer to a distributary that diverts from the main course of the river and rejoins it later. In North America
North America

North America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and almost totally in the western hemisphere....
 an anabranch is called a braided stream.

Distributaries in other countries


North America

In Louisiana
Louisiana

The State of Louisiana is a U.S. state located in the U.S. Southern States of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans....
, the Atchafalaya River
Atchafalaya River

The Atchafalaya River is a distributary of the Mississippi River and Red River rivers, approximately 170 miles long, in south central Louisiana in the United States....
 is an important distributary of the Mississippi River
Mississippi River

The Mississippi River is the longest river in the United States, with a length of from its source in Lake Itasca in Minnesota to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico....
. Because the Atchafalaya takes a steeper route to the Gulf of Mexico
Gulf of Mexico

The Gulf of Mexico is the ninth largest body of water in the world. Considered a smaller part of the Atlantic Ocean, it is an oceanic basin largely surrounded by the North American continent and the island of Cuba....
 than the main channel, it has captured more and more of the Mississippi's flow over several decades, including capturing the Red River
Red River (Mississippi watershed)

The Red River is one of Red River. It rises in two branches in the Texas Panhandle and flows east forming the border between Texas and Oklahoma, and briefly between Texas and Arkansas....
, which was formerly a tributary of the Mississippi. The Old River Control Structure
Old River Control Structure

The Old River Control Structure is an artifice built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at the divergence of the Mississippi River and Atchafalaya Rivers in order to maintain the water distribution between the two, at 70% and 30%, respectively....
, a 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....
 which regulates the outflow from the Mississippi into the Atchafalaya, was completed in 1963 to prevent the Atchafalaya from capturing the main flow of the Mississippi and stranding the ports of Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

An example of inland distributaries is the Teton River
Teton River (Idaho)

The Teton River is a tributary of Henrys Fork of the Snake River, approximately 60 mi long, in southeastern Idaho in the United States. It drains through the Teton Valley along the west side of the Teton Range along the Idaho-Wyoming border at the eastern end of the Snake River Plain....
, a tributary of Henrys Fork in Idaho
Idaho

The State of Idaho is a U.S. state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States of America. The state's largest city and Capital is Boise, Idaho....
, which splits into two distributary channels, the North Fork and South Fork, which join Henrys Fork miles apart.

North Two Ocean Creek splits into two distributaries, Pacific Creek and Atlantic Creek, which flow into the different oceans.

South America

The Casiquiare is a distributary of the upper Orinoco
Orinoco

The Orinoco is one of the longest rivers in South America at 2,140 km, . Its drainage basin, sometimes called the Orinoquia covers 880,000 km?, 76.3% in Venezuela with the rest in Colombia....
, which flows southward into the Rio Negro and forms a unique natural 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....
 between the Orinoco and Amazon
Amazon River

The Amazon River of South America is the list of rivers by length in the world by volume, with a total river flow greater than the next top eight largest rivers combined....
 river systems. It is the largest river on the planet that links two major river systems.

Europe

  • The IJssel
    IJssel

    River IJssel , sometimes called Gelderse IJssel to avoid confusion with its Hollandse IJssel namesake in the west of the Netherlands, is a branch of the Rhine in the Netherlands provinces of Gelderland and Overijssel....
    , the Waal and the Nederrijn
    Nederrijn

    Nederrijn is the name of the Netherlands part of River Rhine from the confluence at the town of Angeren of the cut-off Rhine bend of Oude Rijn and the Pannerdens Kanaal ....
     (Lower Rhine) are the three principal distributaries of the Rhine
    Rhine

    File:Swiss Grand Canyon.jpgThe Rhine is one of the longest and most important rivers in Europe, at , with an average discharge of more than ....
    .
  • The Akhtuba River
    Akhtuba River

    The Akhtuba River ; also transliterated Achtuba on some maps)is a left distributary of the Volga River.The Akhtuba splits off the Volga above the city Volgograd , and flows toward...
     is a major distributary of the Volga.
  • The Tärendö River
    Tärendö River

    The T?rend? River , is a small tributary river to the Kalix River in Norrbotten County, Sweden.It is the second largest river bifurcation in the world ....
     in northern Sweden
    Sweden

    Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic countries on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden has land borders with Norway to the west and Finland to the northeast, and it is connected to Denmark by the ?resund Bridge in the south....
     is a real distributary, far from the mouth of the river. It begins at the Torne River
    Torne River

    The Torne River , is a river in northern Sweden and Finland. Approximately a half of the river's length is a part of the border between these two countries....
     and ends at the Kalix River
    Kalix River

    The Kalix River is one of the four major rivers of Norrland, northern Sweden, that are untouched by water power constructions. It is 461 kilometres long, flowing up to the Kebnekajse mountain range in Kiruna Municipality....
    .

Asia

Other notable distributaries are the Kollidam River
Kollidam River

The Kollidam is a river in southeastern India. The Kollidam is the northern distributary of the Kaveri River as it flows through the river delta of Thanjavur....
, a distributary of the Kaveri River
Kaveri River

The Kaveri River , also spelled Cauvery in English language, is one of the major rivers of India, which is considered sacred by Hindus....
, and the Hoogli River, a distributary of the Ganges River
Ganges River

The 'Ganges' is one of the major rivers of the Indian subcontinent, flowing east through the Gangetic Plain of northern India into Bangladesh....
, both in India
India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
. Also, the Munneru is the distributary of the Krishna River
Krishna River

The Krishnaveni River Krishna , one of the longest rivers of India ....
.

Africa

  • The Nile River has two distributaries, the Rosetta
    Rosetta

    Rosetta is a port city on the Mediterranean Sea coast in Egypt. It is located 65 km east of Alexandria, at , in Al Buhayrah Governorate Governorates of Egypt....
     and the Damietta
    Damietta

    Damietta, Damiata, or Domyat is a harbor and the capital of the governorate of Domyat Governorate, Egypt. It is located at the intersection between the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile, about north of Cairo....
     branches. According to Pliny the Elder
    Pliny the Elder

    Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was an ancient author, naturalist or natural philosopher and naval and military commander of some importance who wrote Natural History ....
     it had in ancient times seven distributaries (east to west):
    • The Pelusiac
    • The Tanitic
    • The Mendesian
    • The Phatnitic
    • The Sebennytic
    • The Bolbitine
    • The Canopic
See History of the Nile Delta
Nile Delta

The Nile Delta is the River delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. It is one of the world's largest river deltas?from Alexandria in the west to Port Said in the east, it covers some 240 km of Mediterranean coastline?and is a rich agricultural region....
.
  • The Okavango River
    Okavango River

    The Okavango River is a river in southwest Africa. It is the fourth-longest river system in southern Africa, running southeastward for 1,600 km ....
     ends in many distributaries in a large inland delta called the Okavango Delta
    Okavango Delta

    The Okavango Delta , in Botswana, is the world's largest inland River delta.The area was once part of Lake Makgadikgadi, an ancient lake that dried up some 10,000 years ago....
    . It is an example of distributaries that do not flow into any other body of water.


See also

  • Tributary
    Tributary

    A tributary is a stream or river which flows into a Mainstem river. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea. Tributaries and the mainstem river serve to drain the surrounding drainage basin of its surface water and groundwater by leading the water out into an ocean or some other large body of water....