Rivers and Flooding ✅ Flashcards
What is groundwater flow?
Water in rock flows downhill.
What is a drainage basin?
The area of land by a river where the water cycle takes place
What is transpiration?
The evaporation of water from plants
What is percolation?
When water moves vertically through the soil and rock
What is infiltration?
When water soaks into the soil
What is surface runoff?
When water flows above the ground
What is surface storage?
When water lies on the ground as puddles or lakes
What is interception?
When water droplets collect on trees or plants
What is through flow?
When water in the soil moves downhill
What is watershed?
A ridge of land or area which separates the drainage basins
What is a confluence?
The spot where a smaller stream or river feeds into a larger one
What happens at the source of the river severn?
The water emerges from the bog and becomes a flowing stream
What is erosion?
The wearing away of the river bed and banks by the moving water and the load that it carries
What is transportation?
The movement of pebbles, sand and mud down a river
What is Deposition?
When a river drops its load and it builds up on the bottom
What are the 4 processes of erosion?
Attrition, abrasion, solution and hydraulic action
What is attrition?
When the rocks and river knock together and wear away the banks
What is abrasion?
When the bank is worn away like sandpaper
What is solution?
When the water dissolves the rocks
What is hydraulic action?
When water is forced into the cracks in the bank
What are the 4 processes of transportation?
Suspension, solution, traction and saltation
What is suspension?
Small materials carried along the river
What is solution?
Dissolved material carried along the river
What is traction?
Large stones that roll along the riverbed