Glacial lakes form when meltwater is trapped behind a dam, usually glacial ice, bedrock or a type of moraine (terminal types being an unconsolidated pile of debris at the maximum extent of the glacier). When a dam fails, ...
A system of ancient ceramic water pipes, the oldest ever unearthed in China, shows that neolithic people were capable of complex engineering feats without the need for a centralized state authority, finds a new study by University ...
Archaeology
Aug 14, 2023
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875
A quartet of hydrologists and geoscientists with the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research-UFZ, has developed a new way to assess the propensity of rivers to generate extreme floods.
As ice sheets began melting at the end of the last ice age, a series of cataclysmic floods called the Missoula megafloods scoured the landscape of eastern Washington, carving long, deep channels and towering cliffs through ...
Earth Sciences
Feb 14, 2022
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1906
The first scientific analysis of images taken by NASA's Perseverance rover has now confirmed that Mars' Jezero crater—which today is a dry, wind-eroded depression—was once a quiet lake, fed steadily by a small river some ...
Planetary Sciences
Oct 7, 2021
15
14393
The number of "extreme streamflow" events observed in river systems have increased significantly across the United States and Canada over the last century, according to a study from Dartmouth College.
Earth Sciences
Jan 7, 2021
2
187
Overflowing rivers can cause enormous problems. Worldwide, the annual damage caused by river floods is estimated at over $100 billion—and it continues to rise. To date, it has been unclear whether Europe is currently in ...
Environment
Jul 22, 2020
0
230
Atmospheric rivers pose a $1 billion-a-year flood risk in the West, according to a study released today.
Earth Sciences
Dec 4, 2019
1
291
A recent study of more than 100 years of river level records from the Amazon shows a significant increase in frequency and severity of floods. The scientists' analysis of the potential causes could contribute to more accurate ...
Environment
Sep 19, 2018
14
107
Geologists have found the first evidence for China's Great Flood, a 4,000-year-old disaster on the Yellow River that led to birth of the Xia dynasty and modern Chinese civilization, researchers said Thursday.
Earth Sciences
Aug 4, 2016
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3013
A flood is an overflow or accumulation of an expanse of water that submerges land. In the sense of "flowing water", the word may also be applied to the inflow of the tide. Flooding may result from the volume of water within a body of water, such as a river or lake, which overflows or breaks levees, with the result that some of the water escapes its normal boundaries. While the size of a lake or other body of water will vary with seasonal changes in precipitation and snow melt, it is not a significant flood unless such escapes of water endanger land areas used by man like a village, city or other inhabited area.
Floods can also occur in rivers, when the strength of the river is so high it flows out of the river channel, particularly at bends or meanders and causes damage to homes and businesses along such rivers. While flood damage can be virtually eliminated by moving away from rivers and other bodies of water, since time out of mind, people have lived and worked by the water to seek sustenance and capitalize on the gains of cheap and easy travel and commerce by being near water. That humans continue to inhabit areas threatened by flood damage is evidence that the perceived value of living near the water exceeds the cost of repeated periodic flooding.
The word "flood" comes from the Old English flod, a word common to Germanic languages (compare German Flut, Dutch vloed from the same root as is seen in flow, float). The specific term "The Flood," capitalized, usually refers to the great Universal Deluge described in the Bible, in Genesis, and is treated at Deluge.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
