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A tributary 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...
 or 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....
 which flows into a mainstem
Mainstem (hydrology)

A mainstem is defined as the principal river within a given drainage basin, in the case where a number of tributaries discharge into a larger watercourse....
 (or parent) river. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea. Tributaries and the mainstem river serve to drain the surrounding drainage 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....
 of its surface water and 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....
 by leading the water out into an ocean or some other large body of water.

A confluence
Confluence (geography)

Confluence, in geography, describes the meeting of two or more bodies of water. It usually refers to the point where a tributary joins a more major river, called the mainstem , when that major river is also the highest Strahler Stream Order in the drainage basin....
 is when two or more bodies of water
Bodies of Water

Bodies of Water is a band from the Highland Park, Los Angeles, California neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, signed to independent record label Secretly Canadian....
 meet together, usually referring to the action of tributaries.






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Encyclopedia


A tributary 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...
 or 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....
 which flows into a mainstem
Mainstem (hydrology)

A mainstem is defined as the principal river within a given drainage basin, in the case where a number of tributaries discharge into a larger watercourse....
 (or parent) river. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea. Tributaries and the mainstem river serve to drain the surrounding drainage 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....
 of its surface water and 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....
 by leading the water out into an ocean or some other large body of water.

A confluence
Confluence (geography)

Confluence, in geography, describes the meeting of two or more bodies of water. It usually refers to the point where a tributary joins a more major river, called the mainstem , when that major river is also the highest Strahler Stream Order in the drainage basin....
 is when two or more bodies of water
Bodies of Water

Bodies of Water is a band from the Highland Park, Los Angeles, California neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, signed to independent record label Secretly Canadian....
 meet together, usually referring to the action of tributaries. An affluent is synonymous to the word 'tributary', being defined as a stream or river that simply flows into a larger one.

A parallel to tributaries is the distributary
Distributary

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

Terminology


'Right tributary' and 'left tributary' are terms stating the relative positions of the tributary to the mainstem river. These terms are applied from the perspective of looking downstream (in the direction the current of the water is going).

A tributary is also a metaphor for intercultural communication. It is the idea that many cultures flow into other lands just as tributaries flow into many bigger streams/rivers.

Ordering and enumeration


In orography
Orography

Orography is the study of the formation and relief of mountains, and can more broadly include hills, and any part of a region's elevated terrain....
, tributaries are ordered from those nearest to the source of the river
Source (river or stream)

The source of a river or stream is the place from which the water in the river or stream originates....
 to those nearest to the mouth of the river
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....
.

The Strahler Stream Order
Strahler Stream Order

The Strahler Stream Order is a simple hydrology algorithm used to define stream size based on a hierarchy of tributary.The streams range from one to the most powerful which is the Amazon River at "12." The Ohio River is an "8" and the Mississippi River is a "10." 80 percent of the streams and rivers on the planet are first or second orde...
 examines the arrangement of tributaries in a hierarchy
Hierarchy

A 'hierarchy' is an arrangement of items The word derives from the Greek language , from ?e?????? , "president of sacred rites, high-priest" and that from , "sacred" + , "to lead, to rule"....
 of first, second, third, and higher orders, with the first order tributary being typically the least in size. For example, a second order tributary would compose of two or more first order tributaries combining to form the second order tributary.

See also


  • Distributary
    Distributary

    A distributary, or a distributary channel, is a stream that branches off and flows away from a main stream channel. They are a common feature of river deltas....
  • Mainstem (hydrology)
    Mainstem (hydrology)

    A mainstem is defined as the principal river within a given drainage basin, in the case where a number of tributaries discharge into a larger watercourse....