Fluvial processes

Question 1

What is fluvial?

Answer 1

Fluvial refers to the processes associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them

Question 2

What is a river?

Answer 2

A river is a stream that has many tributaries.

Question 3

What is a river system?

Answer 3

A river system is a group of streams and rivers that drain an area of land.

Question 4

What is a tributary?

Answer 4

A tributary is a stream that flows into a larger stream/ river.

Question 5

What is stream ordering?

Answer 5

A method of classifying types of streams based on their number of tributaries the smallest order being the first order.

Question 6

What is the drainage basin?

Answer 6

The drainage area which contributes water to a particular channel or set of channels, river systems are divided into areas called drainage basins.

Question 7

What is a divide?

Answer 7

Watersheds are separated from each other by an area of higher ground. Rivers on different sides of the divide flow in the opposite directions.

Question 8

What are drainage patterns?

Answer 8

Also known as river systems, they are the patterns formed by the streams, rivers, and lakes in a particular drainage basin.

Question 9

What is a dendritic pattern?

Answer 9

Looks like a leaf, develops relatively on uniform surface or bedrock.

Question 10

What is a radial pattern?

Answer 10

Develops in isolated volcanic cones or domes.

Question 11

What is a rectangular pattern?

Answer 11

Develops on high jointed bedrock, high angle junctions. Angles turns into a tributary.

Question 12

What is a trellis pattern?

Answer 12

Develops in areas of alternating weak and resistant bedrock, small streams feed from the sides.

Question 13

What is a stream channel?

Answer 13

A channel is the path that a stream follows, as more soil and rock are washed away, the channel gets wider and deeper. Over time, tributaries flow into the main channel of a river. The larger amount of water makes the main channel longer and wide.

Question 14

What is gradient?

Answer 14

A measure of the change in the height of a stream over a certain distance. Gradient can be used to measure how steep a stream is.

Question 15

What is discharge?

Answer 15

The volume of water passing a point along the river in a given amount of time.

Question 16

How do you measure discharge?

Answer 16

Discharge= area x velocity

Question 17

How do you measure velocity?

Answer 17

Velocity= distance (m)/ time (sec) = m/sec

Question 18

What is laminar flow?

Answer 18

Laminar flow- water slowly flowing nearly in a straight path, the flow is smooth, the layers do not mix.

Question 19

What is turbulent flow?

Answer 19

Water moving quickly in an erratic fashion (horizontal and vertical). Occurs when water moves in tiny circle parts as it moves downstream. Much more mixing

Question 20

What is stream load?

Answer 20

The material carried in the stream’s water. A fast-moving stream can carry large rocks. The large rocks can cause rapid erosion by knocking away more rock and soil. A slow-moving stream carries smaller rocks in its load. The smaller particles erode less rock and soil. The stream also carries material that is dissolved in the water.

Question 21

What is bed load?

Answer 21

Large rocks that bounce along the bottom of the stream.

Question 22

What is suspended load?

Answer 22

Materials that are floating in the water, they often make the stream look muddy or cloudy.

Question 23

What is dissolved load?

Answer 23

Tiny particles that dissolved in the water.

Question 24

What are sinkholes?

Answer 24

Circular surface depressions that may be solution sinkholes formed by slow subsidence or collapse sinkholes formed in a sudden collapse through the roof of an underground cavern below.

Question 25

What is the angle of repose?

Answer 25

The steepest angle, or slope, at which the loose material no longer moves downhill. If the slope of a pile of material is larger than the angle of repose, mass movement happens.