Click on image and then click on different sources on this interactive map. 

Video source http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ednXhLcwZz0

Terminology for the study of rivers

Drainage basin - the area of land drained by a river.

Catchment area - the area within the drainage basin.

These are bends or loops in the river created across the flood plain as the current swings from side to side. 

Click on image to see an animation of a river meander

oxbow lake,  small lake located in an abandoned meander loop of a river channel. It is generally formed as a river cuts through a meanderneck to shorten its course, causes the old channel to be rapidly blocked off, and then migrates away from the lake

What is the water cycle?

The water cycle describes the existence and movement of water on, in, and above the Earth. Earth's water is always in movement and is always changing states, from liquid to vapor to ice and back again. The water cycle has been working for billions of years and all life on Earth depends on it continuing to work. 

Click on image to see an interactive Water Cycle process

Rivers and streams are the general terms used to describe natural and man-made bodies of moving water. Rivers are larger than streams and empty into large waterbodies such as oceans and lakes. River and stream systems consist of numerous tributaries joined together to form a main channel.