Question for the day

[grumpie]

This question will take some thinking.
Where do rivers always flow.

[DiveCaptDean]

WISE MEN SAY " TO THE SEA TO THE SEA" but of course thats a song

[DiveCaptDean]

yeah..im going with that.....They follow the path of least resistance flowing "Down" at all times eventually to the Sea

[newbiediver]

They always flow downhill!

[DiverQueen]

Gravity works!  The only way a river could flow uphill is when the wind blows really hard the opposite direction....Having Kayaked on the Mississippi with a 7mi. current and a 30 mi headwind, you go upriver when you stop paddling!
Eventually rivers flow into another body of water, wheather it be a lake or an ocean.

[AngelFire91]

I'm going to say they flow into the sky.

Rivers flow into lakes or oceans and evaporate into the atmosphere. unless of course your talking about aquafers, then they flow underground but eventually they all end up in the sky, which if you want to get really technical they flow back into eachother because it then rains and the water evertually ends up back where it came from. Just a guess though.

[MAXFACTOR]

RE RIVER FACTS...

heres my guess

some times north, some times south,  some times east and some times west......   but always from the highest point to the lowest point.   The path of least resistance.   They also flow from the smallest point to a larger part.  ie   mississippi.   I have been at the headwaters, where you can step across the entire misssissippi with a little step, but would need a boat to cross it at its meeting point with the gulf of mexico.  They also usually flow above the softest soil.  This causes both erosion and sedimet deposits.  That is to say that why soil is constantly being deposited or moved from upper gradiant areas to lower gradiant levels,  both process's are have been happening for thousands of years with the bias towards the lower of all basins. 

When considering river flowage..... you must take into account a number of factors. These are gradient, soil density, soil composition, depth of river and the characteristics of rainfall and wind conditions.

When it rains, if the ground is tilted in any direction, a portion of the water will immediately run off, and a portion will stay in the soil. The part that runs off follows the direction of the highest gradient, that is, the steepest path downhill. The remainder gets absorbed by the soil. This is determined by the soil density and composition.  Thats why when were up in Crosby after a rain storm, you can see the water turns cloudy from the sediment that is running off the hillside. etc.  The water remains cloudy until the semi suspended particles become heavier then the water molecules can support and then obviously they sink to the bottom.  So does that mean the pits will eventually be full of hillside?  NO.

Dry clay, for example, will run off almost all of the water in a hard, fast rain, but in a slow soaking rain will gradually turn into mud. The soil density and composition also affect the percolation of the soil.   An example would be like in Arizona and Nevada.

When water runs across the ground, it erodes the ground it's on. This creates a small depression which is more likely to divert water flow in the future. You can see that this is an accelerating path. Even if the ground is perfectly flat, the soil is probably not uniform all the way across, and will still sink differently, causing a flow.

No matter which mechanism causes the water to flow, gradient or composition or both, once the flow starts, it continues in an accelerating rate of growth, so long as the waterflow is reliable. When you look at the larger pattern of streams and rivers in a country or continent, you can see that they work from smaller to larger, and transport water to the oceans.  Miss. River.... to Gulf. of mex.

Rivers don't form in straight lines, because they always follow the steepest gradient, and they usually follow the softest soils. This process can continue for thousands of years as a river gouges down into the rock, leaving something like the Grand Canyon behind if conditions are right.
thanks to river facts reference..... we can now rest easy....

I also like the idea of evaporation, and flowing into the the river bottom earth but...... that could only account for a very small part of the continuing cycle,  therefore, I revert back up to my other answers.

I also think that river can flow whereever man wants it to flow.  IE"   locks and damms,    and you can also change the direction of river flow,  such as what they did in the Chicago River.  Where the river flow was actually changed to accomadate the drinking water not being contaminated by the sewer discharge water that was flowing back into lake Michigan. 
I'm not sure if the Panama Canal is technically  river or a canal?   but  you can also change the flow by tidal influence and move water (flowage) from ocean to ocean in the form of a river or canal.

GRUMPIE.....GIVE US THE DAMM ANSWER  please !   I hope it wasn't something that we all missed either.   COLLECTIVELY   WE HAVE YOUR ANSWER.    Right?    Right???????? oops.....we didn't think of that.  LOL.

maxfactor

[MAXFACTOR]

dairyQUEEN.... i think its impossible for the river to actually flow uphill regardless of the winds conditions.  The only reason you are going "upriver" is because you are getting a blowing j.

You are more or less effectively less resistant then the water.  Water molecules are tighter bound then your kiak or kick boat then the water is to each other water molecule.  Thus,  it is easier to blow the surface object then the mass of the water.    ie"  when ocean diving,  the lower you go  often the less the current affects you as opposed to being closer to the surface. 

REST ASSURED,   the river is flowing to the lowest point and is only slightly slowed by wind conditions which are blowing from the opposite directions of the water flow.  However, if the wind is blowing in the direction of the flow, it will speed it up slightly.    HAVE A DAIRY QUEEN  DAY.

Additionally, a river can flow right through a lake, and at that time the body of water is called a lake, however, when the flow continues beyond the boundaries of the lake it becomes a river again.  It reminds me of the book  A RIVER FLOWS, by I.P. Daily
Maxfactor

[MNLakeDiver]

whereever they want to.
just ask Grandforks,Bostin ect.

[JoeV]

Re:  water always flowing downhill, how about tidal bores where gravity from the moon makes a river's water backflow, along with ocean water?