List the Most Common "Reality" Errors!

[Chick]

A discussion in another thread has led to a suggestion that we need a general list of the most common "reality" errors people make.

Rivers are well covered in the excellent tutorial "How to Get Your Rivers in the Right Place", so that's a good start.

I'd like to compile a simple list of the most common errors, so please post the things you know of that newcomers get wrong. I'll start ....


1. Lakes have one and only one outlet. Not 0, not 2 or more, just one. (Yes, there are rare exceptions, but this list is for the "norm")

2. River systems end in the ocean. They may go through lakes, but ultimately all water flows to the sea.

3. Rivers never split. If they go around an island, they rejoin immediately. A river may have multiple channels through a final delta to the sea, but the river is still just one river.

4. Mountains form in linear or gently curving ranges. Ranges don't meet at sharp angles.

5. Lonely mountains form only as shield volcanoes, otherwise mountains are part of a range.

6. Rivers don't run through (in one side and out the other) a mountain range unless there is a clear water-level pass though the mountains.

7. Swamps and lakes form in depressions, not on hillsides.

8. Deserts form in middle latitudes, not equatorial.

9. Rivers flow downhill always.

10. Rivers run fairly straight down in hills and mountains, but wind around and meander on flat land.

11. Rivers generally taper wider toward the downstream, but most of the width growth occurs at confluences.

12. Coastlines are jagged and irregular, not round and smooth.

13. Forests should always be shorter than the nearby mountains.

14. Towns and cities should be smaller than the mountains.


See the remainder of this thread for discussions of these items.
Please continue this list !!

[Meshon]

This is a great idea! I consider myself completely out of touch with reality, so I'll do my best to avoid posting here, and learn rather.

cheers,
Meshon

[Azélor]

2- This could be misleading and not always true : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endorheic_basin the Tarim basin is clearly not a sea

[Ghostman]

4. Mountains form in linear or gently curving ranges. Ranges don't meet at sharp angles.

Sharp angle junctures might be rare (depending on just what counts as 'sharp' anyway) but not extraordinary. You can probably spot a few examples of those on this map.

[Chick]

2- This could be misleading and not always true : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endorheic_basin the Tarim basin is clearly not a sea

Sharp angle junctures might be rare (depending on just what counts as 'sharp' anyway) but not extraordinary. You can probably spot a few examples of those on this map.

As I have stated, this thread is about the NORM. There are exceptions, but they are rare and unusual and require special circumstances. I really don't want to include them, and no one who wants reality should be using them unless they understand the special circumstances required.

This thread is about COMMON situations and the common mistakes that newcomers make, not about exceptions. So please keep it to that, thanks

[ChickPea]

This is a great idea for a thread (though I just knew there'd be a bunch of people along saying X can occur in nature blah blah....!)

I know you've pointed out that lakes have only one outlet above, but I think it's worth emphasising that - generally speaking - lakes always HAVE an outlet. That's not something I'd realised before (not that I'd really thought about it much though.) If it hadn't been pointed out to me, I would certainly have included lakes that were just stand-alone bodies of water with no outlets.

[Chick]

I thought of another list item ...

6. Rivers don't run through (in one side and other the other) a mountain range.

[Bobemor]

2. Water always flow downwards towards the sea

Might be a bit clearer?

[ChickPea]

Here's something that I think I saw discussed once, but I'm not sure if this happens in nature often or if it's in the 'unlikely' category.

I see maps sometimes where there is a river that has its origin near the coast on one side of a continent, then it flows all the way across the land to exit into the sea at the other side of the continent. There is no mountain range or suchlike to obstruct the nearer coast. Is it realistic that a river would wind its away across a continent like that, rather than flowing towards the nearest coastline? (May as well pick your brains while I'm here!)

[J.Edward]

ChickPea - It's unlikely but water follows gravity and landform. If the landform is just right it could do that even if unlikely.