River delta

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Nile River delta, as seen from Earth orbit. Photo courtesy of NASA.

A delta is a landform where the mouth of a river flows into an ocean, sea, desert, estuary, lake or another river. It builds up sediment outwards into the flat area which the river's flow encounters (as a deltaic deposit) transported by the water and set down as the currents slow. Deltaic deposits of larger, heavily-laden rivers are characterized by the main channel dividing amongst often substantial land masses into multiple streams known as distributaries. These divide and come together again to form a maze of active and inactive channels.

1 Delta formation
2 List of deltas
3 See also
4 External links

This arcuate delta has formed on the south-west coastline of Greenland, near Narsarsuaq.

The deposit at the mouth of a river is usually roughly triangular in shape. The triangular shape and the increased width at the base are due to blocking of the river mouth by fine sediment, with resulting continual formation of distributaries at angles to the original course. These distributaries start out flowing fairly fast, but slow as more sediment is deposited and ultimately, the water flows elsewhere. This change in flow affects the particle size in the suspended and bed loads, the size of the particles grow smaller as the flow slows and the larger particles are deposited. This deposition goes on continually in a cyclic fashion, creating alternating sediment beds of coarse and fine grain deposits. Herodotus the great historian used this term for the Nile river delta because the sediment deposit at its mouth had the shape of upper-case Greek letter Delta: $Δ$ .

Where delta formation is river-dominated and less subject to tidal or wave action, a delta may take on a multi-lobed shape which resembles a bird's foot. The Mississippi Delta is an example of this type.

The most famous delta is that of the Nile River, and it is this delta from which the term is derived, because the Nile delta has a very characteristic triangular shape, like the (upper-case) Greek letter delta ( $Δ$ ). Ganges/Brahmaputra combination (this delta spans most of Bangladesh and West Bengal) is the world's largest delta, and empties into the Bay of Bengal. Other rivers with notable deltas include the Sacramento-San Joaquin, the Rhine, the Rhône, the Danube, the Ebro, the Volga, the Lena, the Tigris-Euphrates, the Indus, the Krishna-Godavari, the Truckee, the Carson River, the Kaveri, the Ayeyarwady, and the Mekong.

Other rivers, in particular at coasts with significant tidal range, do not form a delta but enter into the sea in form of an estuary. Notable examples are the Saint Lawrence River and the Tagus estuary.

In rare cases the river delta is located inside a large valley and is called an inverted river delta. Sometimes a river will divide into multiple branches in an inland area, only to rejoin and continue to the sea; such an area is known as an inland delta, and often occur on former lake beds. The Niger Inland Delta is the most notable example. The Amazon has also an inland delta before the island of Marajo.