Deltas (Science Project)

Have you ever wondered what happens to a river when it reaches an inland or the sea? Well, the answer is a delta. A delta is a fan shaped area of land formed by mud, sand and stones dropped by a rivers mouth when it gets dumped into the sea. The river divides into many small paths called channels as it flows through the delta to the sea or an inland. Like, I mentioned before, a common name people call deltas are fan shaped areas. Now you have a good idea what a delta is and looks like.

Deltas have a particular process of how they work and how they get formed. With deltas, it is not like you wake up in the morning and you hear the news of a new delta formed. It takes a lot of time for a delta to form. Deltas always relate to rivers since rivers cause deltas. Deltas’ main agents are water and silt. So, it all starts at the beginning of the river up in the mountains. And as the river flows down the valley it slows down. Now, the journey is almost over for the river, the land got very flat and now the river is wide. It meanders its way very slowly in big loops crossing the flood plain. The river is still carrying the stone and the soil which is called silt. Now the river finally reaches the ocean, and it makes an estuary. And it dumps all of its silt in the estuary and it will create marshy mud flats. Some, deltas actually dump so much silt that it creates a new island! And the result of the silt is a beautiful delta!

Deltas are scattered all over the world. But they are mostly in the Northern Hemisphere. These magnificent tourist attractions are found in Argentina, Canada, Nigeria, and Africa. Plus, there are a lot of deltas in the U.S.! In any country you go to that has a delta, you will find a river (for sure) and an ocean or an inland body of water next to it.

Some deltas are extremely famous and are known all around the world. The Nile River is the longest river in the world, but it is also very famous for its amazing delta, (The Nile Delta). It is formed in Northern Egypt and it drains into the Mediterranean Sea. The Okavango River in Western Africa never reaches the sea, it actually fans through Namibia into Botswana. Then it separates into too many channels that flood in the springs. It is the largest inland delta in the world!

I chose to make my project on deltas because I wanted to challenge myself and do something that I am not familiar with. At the start, it was a confusing topic, but then it started to appeal to me as interesting. Now, at the end of my project I am more than satisfied with selecting deltas amongst all the other landforms.

Title: Rivers, Author: Donna Bailey Website: www.wikipedia.org Pictures: http://www2.geog.ucl.ac.uk/~mtodd/accord/index.htm