Chapter 16 Flashcards
What is the most important external agent in the fluvial processes?
Running water
What type of water do fluvial processes involve?
Running water moving Overland
What is the ultimate goal of the fluvial processes?
To smooth landforms
What is streamflow?
The channel movement of water along valley bottom
What is Overland flow?
Unchanneled downslope movement of surface water
What is a valley?
A portion of the terrain in which a drainage system is clearly established
What is an interfluve?
Higher land above valley sides that separates adjacent valleys
Drainage basin
Area within which all water flows towards a single stream
Drainage divide
Highground that separate streams flowing into one drainage basin from streams flowing into another
Stream order
The arrangement of streams in the drainage basin
Splash erosion
Movement of particles downhill caused by collision of raindrops with the ground
Sheet erosion
Thin sheet of water that transports material already loosened by splash erosion
Rills
Tiny channels that occur when volume of overland flow increases resulting in rill erosion
Erosion by streamflow
More erosion because there’s more water
Chemical weathering
How is the effectiveness of erosion determined?
The flow speed, turbulence of flow, and by the resistance of the bedrock
What is competence?
The size of the largest particle that can be transported by a stream
What stream capacity?
The maximum load that a stream has the potential to transport
When does deposition occur?
When flow speed or water volume decreases
What is alluvium?
Stream deposited sediment
What is downcutting
Lowering of the streambed
Deep valley with steep sides
V-shaped
What causes valley deepening
Waterfalls and Rapids
What is the limit of downcutting called
Baselevel
What causes valley widening
Weathering, mass wasting, overland flow
Is lateral erosion?
The main flow of the current swings from one bank to the other, eroding where the water speed is greatest and disposing where it is released
Lateral erosion versus alluvium
Lateral erosion is what leads to the alluvium being deposited
How is A valley Lengthened
Through headword erosion or Delta formation
Water flows fastest…
Round edge of curves
Waterflow slowest
In the middle of the stream
