In geography, a confluence occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river ; or where two streams meet to become the source of a river of a new name ; or where two separated channels of a river rejoin at the downstream end.
Confluence of the Bhagirathi and Alaknanda Rivers to produce the Ganges at Devprayag, India
The same confluence viewed from upstream at a different time; note the swirl of sediment from the Alaknanda.
The fountain at Point State Park in Pittsburgh, at the apex of the confluence of the Allegheny (top) and the Monongahela
The White Nile and Blue Nile merge at Khartoum; April 2013 satellite view
A stream is a continuous body of surface water flowing within the bed and banks of a channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream may be referred to by a variety of local or regional names. Long, large streams are usually called rivers, while smaller, less voluminous and more intermittent streams are known as streamlets, brooks or creeks.
Rocky stream in Italy
Frozen stream in Enäjärvi, Pori, Finland
Stream near Montriond in south-eastern France
Aubach (Wiehl) in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany