River Courses

Question 1

Where is a river steepest?

Answer 1

Upper course

Question 2

Where is a river most deep?

Answer 2

Lower course

Question 3

Where is the river most narrow?

Answer 3

Upper course

Question 4

Where is a river most shallow?

Answer 4

Upper course

Question 5

How does the discharge change as a river moves through its course?

Answer 5

Discharge starts low at upper but then becomes high at the lower course

Question 6

What will the gradient be like at the lower course?

Answer 6

Flat or low

Question 7

Where is the river widest?

Answer 7

Lower course

Question 8

What kind of valleys are in the upper course?

Answer 8

V-shaped valleys

Question 9

What kind of valleys are in the lower course?

Answer 9

More semi circular u shaped valleys

Question 10

Where does lateral erosion occur?

Answer 10

Lateral erosion occurs in the middle and Lower course

Question 11

Why will rocks in the lower course be smaller?

Answer 11

Because of attrition taking affect over the whole course of the river

Question 12

What does the lower course of a river have because it is flat?

Answer 12

Flood plains

Question 13

Give some features of the upper course

Answer 13

Shallow in depth, narrow, steep, slow flow

Question 14

Give some features of the middle course

Answer 14

Flatter valley, faster flow, lateral erosion, wider

Question 15

Where does vertical erosion occur?

Answer 15

Upper course

Question 16

What erosional processes occur in the lower course?

Answer 16

Transportation and deposition

Question 17

Give some features of the lower course

Answer 17

Most energy, widest, flatter, deeper, meets the sea

Question 18

What landforms are found in the upper course?

Answer 18

Waterfalls, gorges, v -shaped valleys, interlocking spurs and the source

Question 19

Why are valleys shaped as a v in the upper course?

Answer 19

The river erodes vertically down causing the sides to be attacked by weathering processes, weakening them and causing mass movement processes.

Question 20

Interlocking spurs are…

Answer 20

Areas of more resistant rock in a v shaped valley as the softer rock has eroded away

Question 21

When do waterfalls form?

Answer 21

When a river is on two bands of hard and soft rock.

Question 22

What are the steps to waterfall formation?

Answer 22

1. Less resistance rock eroded by hydraulic action and abrasion
2. Hydraulic action continues undercutting and creates a pluge pool
3. Overhang created collapses and waterfall retreats upstream
4. a steep sided gorge is left

Question 23

Where is the waterfall in Northumberland located?

Answer 23

River Tees near Middlestone and Teesdale

Question 24

How tall is the waterfall in Northumberland ?

Answer 24

20m

Question 25

Give an example of a meander in the river Tees

Answer 25

Yarm

Question 26

Water does what on the outside bend of a meander?

Answer 26

Flows faster

Question 27

What is a slip off slope?

Answer 27

Where a river deposits material because the bed is more shallow on the inside of a meander

Question 28

What is an oxbow lake?

Answer 28

A small horse-shoe shaped lake that is not connected to any other river channels

Question 29

How does an oxbow lake form ?

Answer 29

As the neck of a meander gets narrower, fast flowing water eroded a more efficient channel and breakers through the land between a meander in times of a flood. Then alluvium is deposited between the new river channel and meander causing it to get cut off and eventually dry up

Question 30

What landforms are found in the middle course?

Answer 30

Oxbow lakes and meanders

Question 31

What is a helicoidal flow?

Answer 31

A continuous corkscrew motion of water as it flows along a river channel

Question 32

What is a river cliff?

Answer 32

Steep edge of a river

Question 33

Landforms in the lower course are...

Answer 33

Levees, floodplains, large meanders and oxbowlakes

Question 34

Where are deltas found?

Answer 34

In the lower course of a river with high load as it starts to slow down

Question 35

What are floodplains?

Answer 35

Wide flat areas of land either side of a river liable to floods

Question 36

What is a levee?

Answer 36

An embankment built up on either side of a river after flooding

Question 37

Where is the mouth of the river Tees?

Answer 37

In the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar near Middlesbrough

Question 38

How may deltas be useful to humans?

Answer 38

They provide new farming grounds as the land is extremely fertile

Question 39

Describe a fan shaped delta with an example

Answer 39

When land around the river mouth arches out to sea, splitting the river many times creating a fan affect e.g. river Niger in Nigeria

Question 40

What is a cuspate delta and give an example?

Answer 40

When the land around a river just out, arrow like, into the sea e.g. river Ebro in Spain

Question 41

Describe Bird’s foot delta and give an example

Answer 41

When a river splits lm the way to sea and each part of the river just out to sea like a bird’s foot e.g. Mississippi River in the USA

Question 42

What is a delta?

Answer 42

A low lying area at the mouth of a river where it deposits so much sediment that it extends beyond the coast