Stream or Brook?

[HikerBob]

OK - If the map calls it a brook or stream I'll call it that. Otherwise... what differentiates a brook from a stream?

Bob

 

[Grumpy]

A stream gurgles and a brook babbles - that's one way to tell.
I consider a brook to be sizable while a stream is more piddly.

Ooops! Conflicting ideas here. My impression is that a "stream" runs at a more leisurely pace than a "brook," but actually may (although not necessarily) be larger when we measure it in various ways.

That said, the first part of AlpSum's comment might be what's needed to resolve this question. The gurgle vs babble thing works for me. For some reason I always think of brooks as flowing with more obvious vigor than streams.

Now, just for fun, what's the difference between a brook and a stream and a river and a creek?

G.

 

[Waumbek]

A stream streams, and a brook brooks.

 

[Raymond]

I'll brook no more of ths truck.

Webster's New World College Dictionary,1997:

brook a small stream, usually not so large as a river

stream (blah blah blah) a small river

 

[NH_Mtn_Hiker]

Creek (Websters def.) .....a small stream, somewhat larger than a brook.

Crick = a southern creek

 

[Grumpy]

Creek (Websters def.) .....a small stream, somewhat larger than a brook.

Crick = a southern creek

Are you saying the ouch! in my back when I roll out of bed in the morning is really a southern watercourse?

G.

 

[Neil]

To go with the flow here, what's the diff between a pond and a lake? Copperas and Wallface ponds are big enough to sail a boat on.

 

[HikerBob]

OK - so river, stream, brook, trickle seems to be the order.

Of course, given the variation in flow todays brook could be tomorrows stream... not to mention raging torrent

Bob

 

[TomEske]

Are you saying the ouch! in my back when I roll out of bed in the morning is really a southern watercourse?

No Grumpy, I think that is a CREAK, or perhaps a CRACK, but not a CRICK.
Tom

 

[Grumpy]

OK - so river, stream, brook, trickle seems to be the order.

Where do freshet and rill fit into this continuum?

G.

 

[snowshoe]

The difference between and Pond and Lake is this. To be considered a pond the sunlight has to hit the bottom. A lake the sun does not hit the bottom.

As for a stream, Brook, Kill and Creek. There is no difference. It just all depends on what area you live in. For my area there are a lot of things with Kill. This is because Dutch settled the area. Kill is dutch for creek.

That also holds true for swamp and bog. A swamp has an outlet stream a bog does not.

 

[ripple]

Liminology my favorite!! The study of lotic (running waters) and lentic (standing waters) systems. A brook and stream are all the same. Rivers are larger faster moving and often warmer, some are also stratified. To add to snowshoes imput on the lake/pond issue. Lakes tend to have wind swept shores, and the dominant role of mixing comes from the wind, w/ ponds a gentler convective mixing predominates. Lakes tend to be more thermally and chemically stratified. Ponds have a higher order of rooted plants. Which goes back to snowshoes, light comments. Often do to turibity light does not even get to the very bottom of ponds. Ask any liminologist and they will give many different definitions of lake/pond. In General the aquatic community will use several differnt methods to discribe a lake/pond. One more piece of info. Swamps have trees, marshes have no trees but lots of grasses. There could be a swamp and marsh making up the same wetland. Sorry I went on, just my favorite topic.

 

[Neil]

The difference between and Pond and Lake is this. To be considered a pond the sunlight has to hit the bottom. A lake the sun does not hit the bottom.

So, exactly how do the proverbial they check that?
Hey Ripple! I used to think your screen name was based on a form of a popular salted snack food. Now I know it has to do with the wind's effect as it blows gently across a pond, lake, marsh, bog or swamp's surface.

 

[ripple]

Neil :
My screen name is two fold.. yes rippling water and one of my favorite Dead songs. If you are asking about measuring light in the lakes /pond bottoms one method is to use a secchi disk, it was invented by Angelo Secchi. It is a white disk that is lowered down in the water colum till it is visible then a bunch of math jargon is used.

 

[masshysteria]

OK, perhaps someone can categorize the different names according to size, say smallest to largest. Now it seems to me that the Kinderhook Creek would be called a river in Mass. Same with the Battenkill, to me, that's a river. Can I also surmise that streams are nameless? I've never heard of John's Stream, or Allagash Stream. That tells me that streams are smaller than brooks.

 

[ripple]

According to the aquatic experts there is no difference in stream or brook expect in the name. Technically Rivers and streams have a wide range of definitions to define one or the other also. Gradient, temp, to what life they support help in defining a river from a stream. Streams except in the tropics will have a mean temp less then 20 degrees C and tend to have more dissovled O2 due to the rocky bottoms and riffle zones. Most rivers current and turibity are too great to support plant life except along the edge. Rivers also tend to have a muddy bottom laden w/ debri, due to the lower gradient. Rivers and streams(brooks) use the order system to classify them. Two first order rivers come together to make a second order river. If that second order river meets up w/ a 1st order river no change is made. When that second order river joins w/ an other second order river it becomes a third order river. The Mississippi river is a 12th order river. Again sorry about goin on and on. Love this topic.

 

[Jasonst]

Wow, now that one is effectively beaten to death, what's the diff between a rock and a stone?

 

[Neil]

Two first order rivers come together to make a second order river. If that second order river meets up w/ a 1st order river no change is made. When that second order river joins w/ an other second order river it becomes a third order river. The Mississippi river is a 12th order river.

Overheard at a cocktail party that Ripple attended: You don't say? Waiter, please bring us more olives for the martinis would you. So Ripped one, you say you're interested in swamps, did I ever tell you about the time...Oh there's Betty! Hello Betty, come and meet Ripped Pill, he's sooo cute and he loves swamps and creepy crawly things...

 

[ripple]

Neil
I thought that was you at that party. Did you have a good time?

 

[arghman]

<begin swamp/bog tangent>

That also holds true for swamp and bog. A swamp has an outlet stream a bog does not.

Close... bogs and fens are peatlands and may have outlets, but they are always poorly drained (if they do have an outlet it's a very slow one) which typically coincides with low pH, low nutrient content, and the presence of moss (particularly Sphagnum). Picky scientists would tell you the difference between bogs and fens in a scientific sense has to do with whether the water drains in from other sources or whether it gets water directly from rain/fog only & doesn't get any runoff nutrients. (bog = rain-fed, fen = may get water from a stream/brook/etc.) Most of the "bogs" in NH are actually fens in a strict sense. Lonesome Lake in Franconia Notch is probably a fen (but I'd call it a bog ); it's definitely filling in with peat moss though who knows whether the dam there is slowing that down or speeding it up.
<end swamp/bog tangent>

In general I'd go with the nonscientific answer & say that it depends on where you're talking about & when it was named. I have spent too many hours looking at the DeLorme Atlases from NH and ME, and the word "stream" tends to get used in far northern NH and most of ME north & east of Bangor, whereas "brook" gets used in the rest of NH. Can't remember what dominates in the rest of Maine. (Can't tell you what the trend is in other states.) Both generally have the same size. I dunno how they tell when they get to be large enough to be called a "river".

My guess is that this had to do with when the areas in question were named & who named them; the "stream" areas are more remote and were settled/explored later.

We have "ponds" in NH and ME that would be called "lakes" elsewhere. (regardless of what the scientific community thinks)