Technical > Weather > [Tech] Hierarchy: running water

[Tech] Hierarchy: running water

Where/what is the question?

Oh the title......

Well there are some damn big things called creeks
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reply to capecoddah
I'm not sure there is a hierarchy. Here in Texas we have rivers and creeks. A creek doesn't necessarily have water in it and this past summer rivers looked like creeks. I think of a stream as something "up north" probably in the mountains and usually fed by snow (never saw a stream in Texas although in my mind it is basically a creek which doesn't go dry). Similarly, we don't have brooks down here, although I would visualize one as flowing tranquilly on relatively flat land. I think my point is that there are probably geographical differences as to use of the terms.

reply to capecoddah
River wins.
River > Brook/ Creek/ Stream.

I asked here because I figured this crew would know USGS Maps/charts and the difference between NAD 27, WGS 84 and Guam 1963.

robbin may have hit the nail on the head. It could (is) be regional.

Well don't forget NAD83.

Anyway, gennerally speaking brooks, creeks, and streams are usually tributaries to rivers. So yes a river wins, as for the other 3, I think it's more of what ever whoever got there first called it.

reply to capecoddah
I think that whether it's called a stream, brook or creek varies by the region where it exists. Kind of like the "I say potato, you say..." thing.

A river usually empties into the ocean somewhere.

reply to capecoddah
Look at the headwaters of the Mississippi, it is a river but no bigger than a creek to me.

Plus I know of creeks that are nearly as large as small rivers.

Rivers can flow into other Rivers, Lakes or Ocean.

Creek would typically flow in to lake or River.

Then again in my area we don't have streams or brooks.