Rivers and Streams Flashcards
How water moves around the entire earth
The Hydrologic Cycle (the water cycle)
Key factors that effect water
Evaporation, precipitation, condensation
What is evaporation?
Liquid to Gas - Ocean to clouds
What does precipitation do with water?
Forms streams - helps water move from high to low elevation
water at the beginning of a stream
head waters
ultimate base level
the ocean
How do streams change?
Change from V to U shapes
Longitude profile changes with distance
Where do U shaped rivers form?
on hills (mostly)
Two types of flows
Laminar and Turbulent
Describe Laminar Flow
Slow movements
Smooth Beds
No mixing of major sediments
Turbulent flow features
Stream crisscrosses
Has suspended load
Velocity is based off of (3 things)
- ) Slope of the Stream
- ) Roughness of the Stream Bed
- ) Shape of the Chanel
How much water is going through a stream; varies from season to season
Discharge
Types of Sediment loads
Dissolved Load, Suspended Load, Bed Load
Smallest Load that carries ions
Dissolved Load
Fine particles existing in a stream that can effect color
suspended Load
Largest capacity of sediment, usually consisting of sand and bouncing and rolling on the bottom
Bed Load
Two types of sediment transport
Competence and capacity
Deals with energy and the maximum particle size is being transported
Competence
Maximum load amount being transported; deals with volume
Capacity
Where is friction the highest?
Shallow wide channels
Where is velocity the highest in a stream?
In the center
edge of stream that contain sand and clay; bring plants nutrients
Floodplains
Edge of stream consists of sand
point bars
snake shaped rivers
meanders
place where the velocity is the greatest and also the deepest part of chanel
thalweg
How steep something is
gradient
Highest elevation part of the stream; Gradient is steep;; competence is high and has bed load
Upper Coarse
Areas with increased turbulence; found in upper course of rivers
rapids
occur in sharp changes in gradients; form due to a fault or steep change; temporary base levels
water falls
Causes deep channels and usually in upper course rivers
Vertical erosion
Main stream with many interfingering channels
Shallow channels
usually in upper course
Braided streams
U shaped channels; goes from straight to meanders, channels getting bigger; suspended load
middle course
stream that forms when sediment load is too high but the gradient is low
Meanders
Low gradient; suspended material; slow velocity,
Low course
nature’s flood wall
Levees
forms when a stream enters standing water; stream divides into a fan of dis tributaries; dominated by sediment
deltas
no longer receive sediment; can be eroded; ruined by storms
abandoned deltas
