<p>I've looked this up as best as I could and couldn't find a clear answer. I've seen for example articles on the age of several rivers as being the oldest ones, but nothing regarding the opposite. Could you enlighten this for me?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-12T07:14:42.467Z
A river can form within minutes, given the right circumstances like torrential rain and rather flat, unperturbed terrain. Water takes the course of least opposition, aka downhill. A small dent in the terrain will lead to accelerated water flow, which in turn increases erosion, which in turn increased the dent, etc, pp. You can see this e.g. with newly finished embankments on roads after a strong rain, there's a lot of tiny gorges in them.
Erik
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-10-18T23:32:00.983Z
This [Glacial lake outburst flood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacial_lake_outburst_flood#England/France) created a river in a short time (It no longer exists due to sea level rise).
Keith McClary
<geology><rivers><age>
How many years does it take for rivers to form?
Bawddor
# How many years does it take for rivers to form?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2020-10-12)

I've looked this up as best as I could and couldn't find a clear answer. I've seen for example articles on the age of several rivers as being the oldest ones, but nothing regarding the opposite. Could you enlighten this for me?

**Tags:** geology, rivers, age

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: A river can form within minutes, given the right circumstances like torrential rain and rather flat, unperturbed terrain. Water takes the course of least opposition, aka downhill. A small dent in the terrain will lead to accelerated water flow, which in turn increases erosion, which in turn increased the dent, etc, pp. You can see this e.g. with newly finished embankments on roads after a strong rain, there's a lot of tiny gorges in them.  
> **username_2**: This [Glacial lake outburst flood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacial_lake_outburst_flood#England/France) created a river in a short time (It no longer exists due to sea level rise).  

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