Rivers and Drainage: How Water Finds Its Way to the Sea

Imagine a heavy rainstorm over a mountain range. Rain hammers the peaks, soaks into the soil, trickles down slopes, and eventually — somehow — finds its way to the ocean hundreds of kilometres away. How does water do that? Every drop that falls on land is on a journey, and rivers are the highways it travels. Before you read on, think about a river you have heard of — the Amazon, the Nile, the Thames, the Ganges, or any other. Picture it in your mind. Is it wide or narrow? Fast or slow? Where do you think it starts, and where does it end?