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A flood (in Old English flod, a word common to Teutonic languages; compare German Flut, Dutch vloed from the same root as is seen in flow, float) is an overflow of water, an expanse of water submerging land, a deluge. In the sense of "flowing water", the word is applied to the inflow of the tide, as opposed to the outflow or "ebb".
The Flood, the great Universal Deluge of myth and perhaps of history is at Deluge (mythology).
In many arid regions of the world, the soil has very poor water retention characteristics, or the amount of rainfall exceeds the ground's ability to absorb water. When a rainfall does occur, it can sometimes result in a sudden flood of water filling dry streambeds known as a " flash flood".
Many rivers that flow over relatively flat land border on broad flood plains. When heavy rainfall or melting snow causes the river's depth to increase and the river to overflow its banks, a vast expanse of shallow water can rapidly cover the adjacent flood plain. Flooding deposits silt on the flood plain, improving its fertility. Throughout history, this has attracted agriculture and other human development. In order to preserve these farms and cities, some rivers prone to flooding have had extensive and elaborate systems of dikes constructed along their shores and surrounding nearby cities. Unfortunately, by restraining flood waters, these dikes can result in much greater flooding upstream and in locations where they break. The control of annual flooding, by dikes and by dams, also prevents the deposition of silt on the rich farmlands and can result in their eventual depletion. The annual cycle of flood and farming was of great significance to many early farming cultures, most famously to the ancient EgyptJumhuriyat Misr al-Arabiyah ( In Detail) Official language Arabic Capital Cairo Largest City Cairo President Hosni Mubarak Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif Area Total % water Ranked 29th 1,001,450 kmē 0. 6% Population Total (2003) Density Ranked 15th 74,718,797ians of the NileThe Nile ( Arabic: an-nil , in Africa, is one of the two longest rivers on Earth. Whether the Nile is longer than South America's Amazon still remains the subject of much debate. This is, for the most part, due to two reasons: first, the lengths of rivers river and to the MesopotamiaThis is an article about the ancient middle eastern region. For the region in modern times, see Iraq, Syria. See also Mesopotamia, Ohio. Mesopotamia ( Greek: , translated from Old Persian Miyanrudan "the Land between the Rivers" or the Aramaic name Beth-Nns of the TigrisThe Tigris ( Old Persian: Tigr Syriac Aramaic: Deqlath Arabic: , Dijla Turkish: Dicle biblical Hiddekil is the eastern member of the pair of great rivers that define Mesopotamia, along with the Euphrates, which flows from the mountains of Anatolia through and EuphratesThe Euphrates (the traditional Greek name for the river, which is in Aramaic Frot/Frat Old Persian Ufrat in Arabic , in Turkish Firat and in ancient Assyrian language Pu-rat-tu is the westernmost of the two great rivers that define Mesopotamia ( Bethnahri rivers.
Under some rare conditions associated with heat waves, flash floods from quickly melting mountain snow has caused loss of property and life.
Undersea earthquakes, eruptions of island volcanos that form a caldera, (such as Thera or Krakatau) and (marine landslip on continental shelf) may all engender a tidal wave called a tsunami that causes destruction to coast areas. See the tsunami article for full details of these marine floods.
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