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aguas salvajes

English translation: flashflood/freshet

11:11 May 8, 2015
Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Science - Science (general) / water
Spanish term or phrase: aguas salvajes
"El agua que cae en forma de precipitaciones (lluvia, nieve o granizo) sobre el suelo suele moverse sobre él, originando aguas salvajes, torrentes y ríos... Las aguas salvajes son corrientes temporales de agua superficial sin cauce fijo, que se producen después de una lluvia intensa o de un rápido deshielo de la nieve."

This is from a textbook for Spanish secondary school children, in a section called "Aguas subterráneas". I am toying with wild waters and whitewater. Also not sure whether torrentes is translated as streams here? Many thanks
saritaclark
Spain
English translation:flashflood/freshet
Explanation:
A friend of mine nearly drowned in the pre-Sahara in a flashflood caused by torrential rain in the Atlas. Flashfloods fill dry riverbeds (torrents) and gullies very fast and don't usually last very long.
Freshet is a similar, usually longer lived phenomenon caused by ice-melt.
Whitewater is, in my opinion a term for the turbulent water in a river where it narrows, shallows or its gradient increases, as in white water rafting. This may be more prevalent during a freshet...
Selected response from:

Peter Guest
Spain
Local time: 00:18
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
5 +4flashflood/freshet
Peter Guest
4whitewater
neilmac
4wild water
jude dabo
3surface runoff / overland flow
Jacob Z. (X)
3raw water
liberfo
Summary of reference entries provided
torrente -> torrent
neilmac

  

Answers


9 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
whitewater


Explanation:
AKA "aigües braves" in Catalan, aguas bravas in Castilian.

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Note added at 10 mins (2015-05-08 11:22:16 GMT)
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WIKIPEDIA:
Whitewater, usually spelled white water in both American and British English, is formed in a rapid, when a river's gradient increases enough to create so much turbulence that air is entrained into the water body, that is, it forms a bubbly or aerated and unstable current; the frothy water appears white. The term is also loosely used to refer to less turbulent, but still agitated, flows...

neilmac
Spain
Local time: 00:18
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 37
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33 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 5/5 peer agreement (net): +4
flashflood/freshet


Explanation:
A friend of mine nearly drowned in the pre-Sahara in a flashflood caused by torrential rain in the Atlas. Flashfloods fill dry riverbeds (torrents) and gullies very fast and don't usually last very long.
Freshet is a similar, usually longer lived phenomenon caused by ice-melt.
Whitewater is, in my opinion a term for the turbulent water in a river where it narrows, shallows or its gradient increases, as in white water rafting. This may be more prevalent during a freshet...

Peter Guest
Spain
Local time: 00:18
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  neilmac: Yes, perhaps better than my suggestion...
3 hrs
agree  Henry Hinds: flash flood
4 hrs
agree  philgoddard: Yes, two words.
6 hrs
agree  Muriel Vasconcellos
14 hrs
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2 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
surface runoff / overland flow


Explanation:
According to the asker's source text, "aguas salvajes" here refers to water flowing outside of any established river, stream channel etc., so I think this may be a good equivalent for the posted term.

See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surface_runoff

Another description of aguas salvajes in Spanish (and torrentes at the end):

"Las aguas salvajes son aguas superficiales carentes de cauce y caudal fijos. Corresponden por tanto a fenómenos episódicos de precipitaciones más o menos intensas o fenómenos de deshielo repentino de origen climático o volcánico, por ejemplo. Su efecto erosivo puede llegar a ser muy importante, arrastrando grandes cantidades de materiales, destruyendo el suelo edáfico e, incluso, ocasionando avenidas y desencadenando movimientos de ladera. En todo caso, depende de factores como: cubierta vegetal del terreno, pendiente, tipo de material.
Los torrentes se encauzan en canales persistentes aunque el caudal es también temporal."
http://platea.pntic.mec.es/~cmarti3/GEO/mod/salva.htm



Jacob Z. (X)
United States
Local time: 15:18
Native speaker of: English

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
neutral  neilmac: I think this would be "escorrentía"in Spanish, rather than "aguas salvajes"...
1 hr
  -> I think they are synonyms, check out section 2.1 at this link: http://www.2bachillerato.es/CTM/tema5/p2.html -- Also note the reference to Horton's Theory on the wikipedia page for escorrentía, then see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horton_overland_flow
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5 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
wild water


Explanation:
my choice

jude dabo
Local time: 23:18
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
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6 days   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5
raw water


Explanation:
water,simply water

liberfo
Italy
Local time: 00:18
Native speaker of: Native in ItalianItalian
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Reference comments


6 mins
Reference: torrente -> torrent

Reference information:
It's already an English word, somewhat more hefty than a "stream"...

Torrent; plural noun: torrents
a strong and fast-moving stream of water or other liquid..."rain poured down in torrents"
Synonyms: flood, deluge, inundation, spate, cascade, rush, stream, current, gushing, flow, overflow, tide, fountain More


    https://www.google.es/?gws_rd=ssl#q=torrent+meaning
neilmac
Spain
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 37
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