What is the relationship between a river and a drainage basin?

What is the relationship between a river and a drainage basin?

A stream is a body of flowing surface water of any size, ranging from a tiny trickle to a mighty river. The area from which the water flows to form a stream is known as its drainage basin.

What is a drainage basin of a river?

Drainage basins refer to the area of land drained by a major river and its tributaries. All rivers flow from the source (often in the mountains) to the mouth (the sea). The drainage basin is regarded as a closed system because water never leaves. Instead, it is recycled from one state to another.

What determines the area that a river basin drains?

The term “drainage area” is defined as the land area where precipitation falls off into creeks, streams, rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. It is a land feature that can be identified by tracing a line along the highest elevation between two areas on a map, often a ridge.

What is the boundary of a drainage basin called?

Watershed
Watershed – the edge of highland surrounding a drainage basin which marks the boundary between two drainage basins.

What is the difference between a drainage basin and a river basin?

River Drainage Basins A river drainage basin is an area drained by a river and all of its tributaries. A river basin is made up of many different watersheds. A watershed is a small version of a river basin. Every stream and tributary has its own watershed, which drains to a larger stream or wetland.

What are 5 features of a drainage basin?

Characteristics of the drainage basin

• Drainage basin – the area of land drained by a river.
• Catchment area – the area within the drainage basin.
• Watershed – the edge of highland surrounding a drainage basin which marks the boundary between two drainage basins.
• Source – the beginning or start of a river.

Which is the largest drainage basin of the world?

The Amazon Basin
The Amazon Basin, in northern South America, is the largest in the world. The Amazon River and all of its tributaries drain an area more than 7 million square kilometers (about 3 million square miles).

What is another name for drainage basin?

Other terms for drainage basin are catchment area, catchment basin, drainage area, river basin, water basin, and impluvium. In North America, the term watershed is commonly used to mean a drainage basin, though in other English-speaking countries, it is used only in its original sense, that of a drainage divide.