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The side of a levee in Sacramento, California. A levee (/ ˈ l ɛ v i / or / ˈ l ɛ v eɪ /), [a] [1] dike (American English), dyke (British English; see spelling differences), embankment, floodbank, or stop bank is an elevated ridge, natural or artificial, alongside the banks of a river, often intended to protect against flooding of the area adjoining the river.
These structures share a similar function, to help prevent flooding in the region they're built in. But they also serve different purposes. What are the differences between dams, dikes and levees?
In geology, a dike or dyke is a sheet of rock that is formed in a fracture of a pre-existing rock body. Dikes can be either magmatic or sedimentary in origin. Magmatic dikes form when magma flows into a crack then solidifies as a sheet intrusion, either cutting across layers of rock or through a contiguous mass of rock.
Where it carries a stream, it may be called a running dike as in Rippingale Running Dike, which leads water from the catchwater drain, Car Dyke, to the South Forty Foot Drain in Lincolnshire (TF1427). The Weir Dike is a soak dike in Bourne North Fen, near Twenty and alongside the River Glen. [citation needed]
Land reclaimed from a body of water, such as a lake or the seabed; Flood plains separated from the sea or river by a dike; Marshes separated from the surrounding water by a dike and subsequently drained; these are also known as koogs, especially in Germany; The ground level in drained marshes subsides over time. All polders will eventually be ...
Current dikes are made with a core of sand, covered by a thick layer of clay to provide waterproofing and resistance against erosion. Dikes without a foreland have a layer of crushed rock below the waterline to slow wave action. Up to the high waterline the dike is often covered with carefully laid basalt stones or a layer of tarmac. The ...
A subsurface dyke is a structure that is built in an aquifer with the intention of obstructing the natural flow of ground water, thereby raising the ground water level and increasing the amount of water stored in the aquifer. Acting as an underground barrier impermeable to water, it controls the groundwater flow in an aquifer and raises the ...
Dike (geology), formations of magma or sediment that cut through and across the layering of adjacent rocks; Dike (mythology), Dikē, the Greek goddess of moral justice; Dikes, diagonal pliers, also called side-cutting pliers, a hand tool used by electricians and others; Dyke (automobile company), established 1899