Rivers Flashcards
What is the course?
The route of the river.
What is a source?
It is the point where the river begins.
What is the tributary?
It is when a small river or stream that joins the main river.
What is the confluence?
It is the point where the tributary joins the river
What is the mouth?
It is where the river enters the sea.
What is the estuary?
It is the part of a river mouth that is tidal.
What is the river basin?
The area of land that is drained by rivers.
What is a water shed?
High ground the separates one river basin from anothers
What are the three stages of a river?
The Upper/ youthful stage
The Middle/ middle stage
The Lower/ old stage
What features are in the youthful stage of a river?
V-shaped valleys
Waterfalls
Describe the youthful stage in a river.
The river flows quickly in down slopes and is usually small but can get bigger during heavy rain.
What is a waterfall?
A waterfall is a fall of water caused by a drop in the river.
What are V-shaped valleys?
They have steep sides and steep slopes which is why youthful rivers flow quickly.
What are the features of the Middle stages?
Meanders
Floodplains
Describe the middle stages of a river.
The river slows down in the middle stage and has more water because it has been joined by tributaries.
What are Meanders?
Meanders are the bends of rivers when they flow from side to side.
What is a floodplain?
They are the stretch of land on one pr both sides of a rivers channel.
How is floodplain caused?
It is caused by abbrasion this is when the rivers load hits its banks and wears it away.
What is alluvium or silt?
When heavy rain falls it spreads on the land leaves a fine material called silt.
What does alluvium have?
It had minerals.
What does the old stage of a river look like?
The river flows slowly, it has big meanders and it has wide level floodplains
What are the features of the old stage of a river?
Meander, Ox-bow lake, Levees and Deltas.
What is an ox bow lake?
When there is a curvy meander since rivers take the easiest route they erode the curves until there is a giant piece of land in the middle of the river they soon deposit their load making a horse shoe.
What are levees?
These are tiny slopes that are made of the rivers load.
What are Deltas?
This when the river deposits its alluvium in the mouths and are usually in a triangular shape.
Name and explain a feature of river erosion(long question)
This is a vertical drop in the youthful stage of a river.The areas of soft rocks erode by hydraulic action and abrasion.While erosion continues it forms a notch that larger until it forms a vertical slope.because of abrasion the load begins to form a plunge.Since soft rock erodes faster than hard rock it creates an overhang that eventually collapses when it’s unsupported as seen in the diagram.When happens it forms it retreats and forms a gorge, this is called headward erosion
Name and explain a feature of river deposition?
This is an oxbow lake that is formed in the old stage of a river and used to be a meander. Hydraulic action happened near the meander, the neck gets thinner as seen in the diagram.When the river floods the rivers gains energy and the power cuts the the neck of the meander.Alluvium spreads on the river banks and this deposition cuts the meander off and it forms an oxbow lake
