Driftwood facts for kids

An expanse of driftwood along the northern coast of Washington state.

Driftwood caught on a weir of the River Avon, Bath, England

Driftwood is wood that has been washed onto the shore of a sea, river, or lake by winds, tides, waves or man.

In some waterfront areas, driftwood is a major nuisance. However, the driftwood provides shelter and food for birds, fish and other aquatic species as it floats in the ocean. Gribbles, shipworms and bacteria decompose the wood and gradually turn it into nutrients that are reintroduced to the food web. Sometimes, the partially decomposed wood washes ashore, where it also shelters birds, plants, and other species. Driftwood can become the foundation for sand dunes.

Driftwood can be:

• a tree or part of a tree that is in a large body of water because of strong winds or flooding
• buildings and their contents that are in the sea because of floods, storms and tsunamis
• wooden objects placed into the water from shore
• remains of wooden ships and boats
• lost cargo

In history

According to Norse mythology, the first humans, Ask and Embla, were formed out of two pieces of driftwood, an ash and an elm, by the god Odin and his brothers, Ve and Vili.

Driftwood carried by Arctic rivers was the main, or sometimes only, source of wood for some Inuit and other Arctic populations living north of the tree-line until they came into regular contact with European traders.

Many people use driftwood as parts of decorative furniture or other art forms, and it is a popular element in the scenery of fish tanks.

Images for kids

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  A beach on the West Coast of New Zealand covered by drift wood.

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  A sign made of driftwood in Hokitika, New Zealand

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  Driftwood provides a perch for a bald eagle on Fir Island, Washington.

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  These large diameter Sequoia sempervirens logs spent enough time exposed to wave action to round their contours before being driven into the mouth of a narrow ravine by storm surf. Sequoia's high tannin content is resistant to decay, so these logs retain structural strength for decades. Storm flows within Shorttail Gulch are insufficient to move the logs back to sea. This unique habitat at the mouths of small estuaries of the California coast is threatened by the diminished quantity of large redwood logs available in flood waters since the logging of native forests.

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  Driftwood appears to envelop boulder

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  Driftwood sculpture of a horse by artist Heather Jansch at the Eden Project

See also

In Spanish: Madera flotante para niños