River Flashcards
Whats is Stream?
any flowing body of water
What is River?
major branch of large stream system
What is Channel?
The stream passage way
What is Load?
The sediment carried by the stream
What is Discharge?
The quantity of water passing a give point
Laminar Flow?
- straight or gently curved streamlines that run parallel to one another without mixing or crossing
- can carry only small, light silt sized particles
- low velocities
Turbulent Flow?
- complex pattern of movement with streamlines crossing and forming swirls and eddies
- can carry pebbles and cobbles
- higher velocities
Suspended Load
- all the material temporarily or permanently suspended in the flow
- silt and clay
bed load
- the material carried by the stream along its bottom by sliding and rolling
- gravel and sand (saltation)
Saltation
jumping of sands grains as they are lifted off the bottom, carried a short distance and then settle out.
List the drainage patterns.
- Dendritic
- Parallel
- Trellis
- Rectangular
- Radial
Meandering Rivers
- consist of a single main channel that bends and loops
- Low gradient
- Oxbow Lakes
Braided Rivers
- have numerous channels that repeatedly divide and merge
- high sediment load
- steeper gradient than meandering
- rapid and frequent variations in water discharge
- erodible banks
List surficial processes
- erosion
- transportation
- deposition on the Earth’s surface (or near surface)
List Surfical proecess Agents
- running water (streams and drainage systems)
– groundwater
– glaciers
– gravity (mass wasting)
– wind
Coarse material suspended in a river forms _____ and flood plains when the river bursts its banks.
levees
How long has it taken for the Fraser River delta to form?
Around 18,000 years
Since the end of the last Ice Age
River discharge is related to stream velocity and cross-sectional area. True or False?
True
Laminar flow tends to occur at low velocities. True or False?
True
Name the drainage pattern of streams when bedrock is relatively
uniform.
Dendritic
