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IGCSEs > Geography 🌍 | A River of information πŸ’§ | Deck 1 > Flashcards

Geography 🌍 | A River of information πŸ’§ | Deck 1 Flashcards

1
Q

Which river transports the biggest volume of water?

A

The amazon river.

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2
Q

What is the longest river?

A

The river nile.

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3
Q

Define evaporation.

A

When water turns from liquid into water vapour which is a gas.

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4
Q

Define condensation.

A

The water vapour in the air from evaporation turning back to water droplets when it cools.

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5
Q

Define precipitation.

A

The product of condensation of atmospheric water vapour, as rain, snow, hail, or sleet (rain and snow)

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6
Q

What is surface runoff?

A

The flow of water on the ground surface when excess rainwater cannot percolate or infiltrate the soil.

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7
Q

What is groundwater?

A

Water found underground in cracks and spaces in the ground.

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8
Q

What are aquifers?

A

An underground layer of water-bearing permeable rock.

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9
Q

Define drainage basin.

A

The area of land drained by a river and its tributaries.

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10
Q

What is the watershed?

A

The edge of a drainage basin, meeting a new drainage basin.

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11
Q

What is a channel in a river?

A

A wide strait or waterway between two landmasses lying close to each other.

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12
Q

What is a confluence?

A

The place where two rivers or streams join to become one.

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13
Q

What is a tributary?

A

A smaller stream that feeds into a larger stream or river.

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14
Q

What is the mouth of a river?

A

Where a river meets a body of water, usually the sea.

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15
Q

What is river erosion?

A

The wearing away of the land as the water flows past the bed and banks.

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16
Q

What is abrasion?

A

The scraping away of the river bed and banks by stones picked up and carried in the river’s flow, deepening the river.

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17
Q

What is hydraulic action?

A

Where the force of the water on the channel causes cracks forcing their way onto the bed and banks and gradually wears them away.

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18
Q

What factor influences the amount of hydraulic action?

A

The velocity of the flow of the river.

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19
Q

What is solution as an erosion process?

A

The dissolving of materials such as limestone in the rocks on the bed and banks which are carried away in the water. They are not visible.

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20
Q

What is attrition?

A

The banging of rocks against each other, gradually breaking each other down.

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21
Q

How does attrition affect the shape of rocks?

A

The rocks become smaller and more rounded.

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22
Q

What are the different processes of erosion in a river?

A

Abrasion, hydraulic action, solution, and attrition.

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23
Q

What are some hard rocks?

A

Granite and basalt

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24
Q

What are some soft rocks?

A

Clay and sandstone.

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25
Q

What are the different ways of transport in a river?

A

Traction, saltation, suspension, and solution.

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26
Q

What is traction?

A

When heavy rocks and boulders are rolled along the river beds.

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27
Q

How much energy do rivers need for traction to take place?

A

A lot of energy, especially in floods when the current is strongest.

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28
Q

What is saltation?

A

When small stones and pebbles are bounced against the river bed

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29
Q

What is suspension?

A

When very small particles of sand or clay are suspended in the water due to the energy of the water keeping the particles up.

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30
Q

What is solution as a process of transportation?

A

When dissolved material in water is transported.

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31
Q

What is deposition?

A

The process where material being transported by a river can no longer be carried and is dropped.

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32
Q

What are the two factors affecting deposition?

A

The size of material and amount of energy.

33
Q

In what situations does increased deposition take place?

A
  • Where a river enters a shallow area and floods
  • Where a river meets the sea
  • After drought where there is less water in the river
  • On the inside bend of a meander
34
Q

What is discharge?

A

The amount of water passing a given point in a given time – measured in cumecs (metres3/second) calculated by velocity x volume

35
Q

What are the parts of a river’s long profile?

A

The upper course, midcourse, and lower course.

36
Q

How does the gradient change across a river’s long profile?

A

It decreases as the river flows downstream as it passes from the upland area to lowland area.

37
Q

How does the channel depth and width change across a river’s long profile?

A

Erosion deepens and widens the channel.

38
Q

How does the velocity change in a river’s long profile?

A

As the river gets deeper the speed of flow increases as there is less friction from contact between the river and its banks. (as well as because more water from tributaries joins)

39
Q

How does discharge change across a river’s long profile?

A

As the river goes downstream and feeds into more tributaries, the discharge increases.

40
Q

How does erosion change along a long profile?

A

In the upper course it is vertical and not as prominent due to the shallowness of the channel and gradient. Approaching the lower course, it gets more lateral - increasing in the midcourse but slowing down towards the mouth as deposition increases.

41
Q

How does transport change around the long profile?

A

At the upper and mid course, larger rocks are only transported a short distance though it begins to be deposited at the mouth.

42
Q

How does deposition change along the long profile?

A

In the upper course, larger rocks are deposited and smaller materials are held in suspension. In the midcourse, deposition occurs when velocity slows and a large amount happens in the lower course.

43
Q

What percentage of fresh water is available to us?

A

1%

44
Q

What are the landforms in the upper course of a river?

A

Waterfalls, Gorges, V shaped valleys, and potholes.

45
Q

What are the landforms in the midcourse of a river?

A

Meanders and oxbow lakes

46
Q

What are the landforms in the lower course of the river?

A

Levees, floodplains, deltas.

47
Q

How is a waterfall formed?

A
  1. The faster erosion of soft rock undercuts hard rock leaving it elevated above the riverbed.
  2. The drop gets steeper as abrasion and hydraulic action erode the plunge pool
  3. Overhand collapses and the waterfall retreats.
48
Q

Where does a waterfall occur?

A

Where a river crosses a band of less resistant rock after flowing over resistant rock.

49
Q

What is the difference between lateral and vertical erosion?

A

Vertical erosion erodes the river beds, lateral erosion erodes the banks.

50
Q

What is the overhang?

A

The hard rock that hangs over a waterfall.

51
Q

What is a plunge pool?

A

The depression at the bottom of a waterfall formed by erosion.

52
Q

What is left behind by a retreating waterfall?

A

A gorge.

53
Q

What is a gorge?

A

A very narrow, steep sided valley downstream of a waterfall.

54
Q

What is found in a gorge?

A

Bare rock sides and collapsed boulders in the riverbed.

55
Q

How is a v-shaped valley formed?

A
  1. A small stream naturally follows depression in the landscape.
  2. As it flows down, bed erodes downwards.
  3. Vertical erosion deepens the valley
  4. Gravity and weathering wears down steep valley sides: material forced into the stream and cutting the valley deeper.
56
Q

What is the river bank?

A

Land along the edge of a river.

57
Q

What is a pothole?

A

A hole/depression in the riverbed.

58
Q

How is a pothole formed?

A
  1. Water swirls around irregular depressions in the river bed creating vertical erosion.
  2. Rocks are swept into the depressions and abrade the hollow. The rocks are called grinders.
  3. The process continues, deepening and enlarging the holow.
59
Q

What is the thalweg?

A

The fastest part of the river flow in a meander.

60
Q

What happens in the outside bend of the meander?

A

The thalweg is here, so erosion takes place.

61
Q

What happens in the INNER bend of a meander?

A

As water is more slow moving, deposition takes place.

62
Q

What landform is in the outer bend of a meander?

A

A river cliff.

63
Q

What landform is in the inner bend of the river?

A

A slip-off slope.

64
Q

What are the characteristics of the inner bend of a meander?

A
  • Slow flowing water
  • Shallower channel
  • Slip-off slope
65
Q

What are the characteristics of the outer bend of a meander?

A
  • Faster moving water
  • Deeper channel
  • Steep sided river cliff
  • Undercuts from lateral erosion
66
Q

How does an oxbow lake form?

A
  1. The narrow neck of a meander, gradually eroded, meets another one.
  2. Deposition takes place cutting off the old meander completely as water takes the fastest route
  3. The oxbow lake is completely left behind.
67
Q

What is a meander scar?

A

When the water in the oxbow lake dries up, the scar on the landscape.

68
Q

What is a floodplain?

A

The large area of flat land either side of the river.

69
Q

What are the characteristics of a floodplain?

A
  • Wide and flat
  • Made of alluvium, sediment deposited from floods, providing better soil.
70
Q

What is a floodplain made up of?

A

Layers of sediment deposited over time by continuous floods.

71
Q

How do floodplains widen?

A

The meanders cutting across the floodplain widen it by lateral erosion.

72
Q

How do floodplains raise?

A

The buildup of sediment.

73
Q

What are levees?

A

Raised banks from deposition of larger materials. Often covered with glass.

74
Q

How do levees form?

A

Larger sediments are deposited first, made of gravel, stone, and alluvium.

75
Q

What is the danger of raising levees?

A

It reduces flood risk but impacts the amount of alluvium in the floodplain.

76
Q

What is an estuary?

A

The tidal part of a river, where the channel widens as it reaches the sea - the transitional zone between the river and coastal environment.

77
Q

What is a tidal bore?

A

Where waves of a tide travel up a river, often in estuaries.

78
Q

What sort of land is found at a delta?

A

Mudflats.

79
Q

How are deltas formed?

A
  1. The river slows down and spreads out as it approaches the sea
  2. This causes bars or islands of sediment to build in the main channel
  3. The river splits into the sea
  4. Layers of sediment build delta out into the sea.

IGCSEs (68 decks)

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