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teachingmyown
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| Posted: June 27 2006 at 8:06pm | IP Logged
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Okay, don't laugh at me.  This is a real question. I remember being taught that all rivers flow South except for the Nile. My son asked about it today and when I went to look up why that was true, I found an article that said many rivers flow North even in North America.
Can someone give me a quick explanation? I have a crying 2 yr old who is not letting me surf the net (dial-up style) for answers! 
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Molly
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lapazfarm
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| Posted: June 27 2006 at 8:24pm | IP Logged
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OK, here is my understanding. Rivers, of course, flow downhill. This can be any direction and there are plenty of rivers that flow south, west, east and north. The Nile is famous for flowing north, but there are lots of other north-flowing rivers, including the St. Johns in FL and the Willamette in Oregon.
This site has an interesting discussion of the North-flowing rivers confusion.
Rivers that flow North
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MacBeth
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| Posted: June 27 2006 at 9:08pm | IP Logged
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Downhill, yes. From high lands to low lands. But there are a few tidal exceptions like Reversing Falls in New Brunswick, Canada.  This is a fun place to visit right after the Moosehead Brewery tour. 
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MaryM
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| Posted: June 27 2006 at 10:05pm | IP Logged
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It's a great question, Molly. I would just add that one way to look at it, is that almost all rivers flow toward the ocean (or sea)- its "watershed" - that is the ultimate destination for drainage. So whatever direction a river needs to go to get there, based on land terrain, that is the direction they will flow.
In the United States there are a couple continental divides. The longest one (The Great Divide) basically runs through the Rocky Mountains (through Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico). All the water that hits the east side flows toward the Atlantic Ocean/Gulf of Mexico, all that hits the west side flows toward the Pacific. So many of the rivers in the US tend to have either a westerly or an easterly flow but of course not always directly east or west - they can flow NE, NW, SE, SW, etc. as well as south or north and the same river can flow one direction for many miles and then change direction because of slope and landforms it encounters. The divide through the Appalachian Mountains sends water toward the Atlantic or Gulf.
We just visited a point on the continental divide a week ago - Independence Pass. It's the higest passenger car pass on the Contintal Divide in the US at 12,095 ft. above sea level. Check out Maureen Wittmann's blog to see some pictures of her family at Independence Pass when she was here for our conference.
This "River Wild" thread from earlier in the spring has some ideas and resources for studying rivers. The book that started the discussion - River Wild, is very good.
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momwise
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| Posted: June 28 2006 at 7:54am | IP Logged
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Great pictures! I wanted to post a comment but blogspot wouldn't let me choose a username 
We were on the Continental Divide also on Berthoud Pass the weekend before last. Independence was much snowier!
I'm sure growing up near the mountains helped me to understand in which direction rivers flow. For instance if you drive along I-70 westbound, you'll follow the Colorado River as it goes down the mountain.
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MacBeth
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| Posted: June 28 2006 at 10:17am | IP Logged
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MaryM wrote:
| The longest one (The Great Divide) basically runs through the Rocky Mountains |
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Mary was gracious enough to take a member of my family to Independence Pass. The photo made my geology-fan son drool!
I'm glad you brought up the subject, Molly...I think I often forget to clear up these misconceptions with my own kids--I just kind of assume they know what I know!
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MacBeth in NY
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4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
Topic: What direction do rivers flow?
