River Processes

Question 1

What is a process?

Answer 1

A set of activities that interact to achieve a result

Question 2

What are the three main river processes?

Answer 2

Erosion, transportation and deposition

Question 3

What is erosion?

Answer 3

The process that wears away the river bed and banks

Question 4

What is transportation?

Answer 4

The act of rivers transporting materials

Question 5

What is deposition?

Answer 5

When rivers drop the material they’ve been carrying

Question 6

What are the four subsections in erosion?

Answer 6

Hydraulic action, abrasion, attrition and solution

Question 7

What is hydraulic action?

Answer 7

Where fast flowing water is forced into cracks and breaks up the bank over time

Question 8

What is abrasion?

Answer 8

Where sand or pebbles get dragged along the river bed or knock into it by saltation wearing away the bank

Question 9

What is attrition?

Answer 9

When rocks knock together and wear each other away

Question 10

What is solution?

Answer 10

When alkaline rocks get dissolved by acidic rain water

Question 11

What are the four subsections of transportation?

Answer 11

Traction, saltation, suspension and solution

Question 12

What is traction?

Answer 12

When large stones get dragged along the river bed

Question 13

What is saltation?

Answer 13

When smaller stones are picked up then dropped giving them a bouncing motion

Question 14

What is suspension?

Answer 14

When tiny particles are carried in the river’s current

Question 15

What is solution in transportation?

Answer 15

When dissolved chemicals, invisible to the naked eye are carried along the river

Question 16

When does erosion happen?

Answer 16

If a river has a lot of energy left after overcoming friction ( a fast flowing, efficient channel)

Question 17

When does deposition happen?

Answer 17

If a river does not have enough energy to carry load

Question 18

What are the three types of weathering that happen in a river valley?

Answer 18

Physical, chemical and biological

Question 19

What is physical weathering and give an example?

Answer 19

When physical force breaks rocks into pieces e.g. freeze thaw.

Question 20

What is chemical weathering and give an example?

Answer 20

Any chemical change/ decay of a solid rock e.g acid rain on limestone

Question 21

What is biological weathering?

Answer 21

Where small cracks allow plant roots to penetrate forcing the cracks apart as the plant grows

Question 22

What are the two types of mass movement and state if they are rapid or slow?

Answer 22

Soil creep (slow) and slumping (rapid)

Question 23

What is soil creep?

Answer 23

When rain dislodges tiny soil particles at a rate of around 2m per year

Question 24

What is slumping?

Answer 24

Where a large segment of the cliff moves down-slope