Rivers begin their journey in the mountains and end it in the seas or in large lakes. As the river flows, it carries with it a lot of small rocks, mud and silt as it erodes the mountains and its banks. When it approaches the sea, a river fans out into many smaller channels. These smaller channels dump a lot of the mud and silt along their banks thus forming a large flat area called a 'Delta'.
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This happens because as river reaches a sea, the flow of water slows down considerably due to flat terrain. Slow moving water cannot transport the silt and mud thus the river becomes shallow. As the water collects in an area, it tends to spill over its banks and finds a new path to the sea. This is how new channels are formed. In a delta the river is constantly depositing the mud and silt and at the same time finding new channels to reach the sea. Soils in most deltas are very rich and fertile.
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