Key Terms Flashcards
Relief?
The shape of the land
Mass movement?
Small landslides due to gravity move material into the stream
Fjords?
Drowned glaciated valleys
Peat?
Soft, mossy, squidgy land. When squashed further it makes coal
Quartzite?
Hard upland rock
Watershed?
The edge of the drainage basin, a ridge of highland forming the boundary between two drainage basins
Tributary?
A smaller river that comes off the main stream
Confluence?
Where two rivers join
Source?
Where two rivers join
Estuary?
Where the main stream enters the sea
Floodplain?
The whole of the flat river valley
V shaped valley?
A steep sided valley close to the source
Meander?
The winding course of a river
Levee?
Course embankments that form at the sides of a river
Erosion?
The sculpting of a landscape, for example by rivers (sea, wind, ice) including the removal of material
Weathering?
The decay or breaking down of rocks in situ
Abrasion?
Where sand and pebbles are dragged along the river bed (corrasion)
Hydraulic action?
Where fast flowing water is forces into cracks, breaking up the bank over time
Attrition?
Where rocks and stones wear away each other as they knock together
Solution?
Where rocks such as limestone as dissolved in acid rainwater
Traction?
Method used to move largest material - boulders rolled along the bed
Suspension?
Method of carrying very fine material so that it floats in the river
Saltation?
Method that moves small stones and grains or sand by voicing them along the bed of the river
The Hjulström curve?
A graph to show how the speed of the river flow affect the size of the particles in the water