Turbulent Rapids

As you wind your way down the river, the raft picks up speed and is carried along by the fierce force of the rapids. Pure adrenaline is surging through your heart as you navigate each turn, and glide past the jotting rocks. The water begins to foam almost white in color. You are triumphant in withstanding its might. A rapid is a section of a river where the river bed has a relatively steep gradient, causing an increase in water velocity and turbulence. A rapid is a hydrologicalfeature between a run (a smoothly flowing part of a stream) and a cascade. A rapid is characterised by the river becoming shallower and having some rocksexposed above the flow surface. As flowing water splashes over and around the rocks, air bubbles become mixed in with it and portions of the surface acquire a white colour, forming what is called "whitewater". Rapids occur where the bed material is highly resistant to the erosive power of the stream in comparison with the bed downstream of the rapids. Very young streams flowing across solid rock may be rapids for much of their length.