What is considered a river delta?

A river delta is a landform shaped like a triangle, created by the deposition of sediment that is carried by a river and enters slower-moving or stagnant water. This occurs when a river enters an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, or (more rarely) another river that cannot carry away the supplied sediment.



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The Ganges Brahmaputra Delta, also named Ganges Delta, Sunderban Delta or Bengal Delta is situated in Asia where the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers discharge into the Bay of Bengal. It is, with a surface area of some 100.000 km2, the world's largest Delta.

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The Nile delta (shaped by waves from the Mediterranean Sea) and Senegal delta (shaped by waves from the Atlantic Ocean) are both wave-dominated deltas. Tide-dominated deltas usually form in areas with a large tidal range, or area between high tide and low tide.

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In Louisiana, and in many places, the term “delta” is widely used. That's mainly because we live on a delta – the Mississippi River Delta – and much of the land that comprises coastal Louisiana was built by the Mississippi and other rivers creating new deltas over millennia.

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The Nile River forms an arcuate delta as it empties into the Mediterranean Sea. Stronger waves form a cuspate delta, which is more pointed than the arcuate delta, and is tooth-shaped. The Tiber River forms a cuspate delta as it empties into the Tyrrhenian Sea near Rome, Italy. Not all deltas are triangle-shaped.

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