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ENVIRO & ECOLOGY > Rivers & Hydrology > Flashcards

Rivers & Hydrology Flashcards

1
Q

What is a drainage basin/ basin

A

The area that the river and tributaries drain into

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2
Q

Where does a river start and end

A

Starts - at source

Ends - at mouth

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3
Q

What is a confluence?

A

Where two rivers meet

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4
Q

What is a tributary?

A

Where small rivers join main rivers

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5
Q

What is it called when two rivers meet

A

a confluence

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6
Q

What is it called when a small river joins a main river?

A

Tributaries

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7
Q

what is watershed?

A

The area of land that drains to a particular point on a stream

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8
Q

What is a delta?

A

A low-lying plain of landform occurring at the mouth of the river

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9
Q

What shape of the valley is at the upper river?

A

V shaped = steep gradient

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10
Q

What does a V shaped valley mean

A

it has a steep gradient

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11
Q

where are rapids and waterfalls normally found

A

at the upper river

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12
Q

What are the 3 parts of a river course?

A

Upper
Middle
Lower

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13
Q

Which part of the river is normally used for sheep farming/ grazing, tourism and dams?

A

Upper

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14
Q

What is erosion like at upper rivers?

A

lots of vertical erosion

minimal lateral erosion

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15
Q

What is erosion like in middle rivers?

A

Equal amounts of vertical and lateral erosion

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16
Q

What is erosion like in lower rivers?

A

minimal vertical erosion

Lots of lateral erosion

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17
Q

What valley shape is in lower rivers?

A

U-shaped, wide and flat

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18
Q

Which part of the river meanders

A

Middle

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19
Q

What is the valley like in the middle of a river course?

A

Flat valley floor, sloping valley sides

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20
Q

What can the middle river course be used for?

A

fields and crops and animals

Villages and communication lines

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21
Q

What can lower river courses be used for?

A

Intensive farming, industry, towns, cities, ports, built on floodplains

22
Q

Where would you find ox-bow lakes, Levées and Deltas?

A

At the lower course of a river

23
Q

What are the 3 types of channel?

A

Straight channels
Braided channels
Meander channels

24
Q

What are the features of a straight channel?

A

often man made
goes straight
some variation in flow

25
Q

What are some features of a braided channel?

A

Have multiple channels and islands of sediment between channels
river deltas
Semi-arid environments

26
Q

What are meander channels?

A

The bender bits of rivers that occur in the middle/ lower regions of the course

27
Q

What is the River Rhone in south france an example of?

A

A braided channel

  • has large delta at mouth
  • sand and silt deposits caused river to split into 2 distributaries (Grande and Petite Rhone)
28
Q

How do meanders form?

A

rivers create sediment in alternating bars (riffles) - when low flows in river and low hydraulic radius is enough to encourage deposits
Riffles lower hydraulic radius

Areas of high friction flow around deposit - creates flow variation - causes side-to-side motion
Pools are eroded in deeper riffle

29
Q

What are riffles

A

Areas of shallow water caused by deposition of coarse sediment

30
Q

What are river pools?

A

Areas areas of deeper water between riffles. Caused by Coarse pebbles create steeper gradient than eroded pools.

31
Q

Which factors create a channel gradient

A

Riffles and pools

32
Q

Where do ox-bow lakes form?

A

In the lower course of a river

33
Q

How do ox bow lakes form

A

outside bend of river is continuously eroded
Neck of meander narrows
neck eventually breaks
Forms straight channel
Deposition continues, causing old meander to seal off

34
Q

What is the riparian area?

A

the interface between land and a river/ stream

35
Q

What are the 3 river processes?

A

Erosion
Transportation
Deposition

36
Q

What is erosion

A

wearing away/ breaking down of material by an agent (in rivers, this is water)

37
Q

What is transportation?

A

= movement of eroded material

38
Q

What is deposition?

A

material drops out of solution – alluvium = the names of the load that is dropped

39
Q

What 4 factors cause erosion?

A

Hydraulic action
Abrasion
Corrasion/ Attrition
Corrosion

40
Q

What 4 factors cause transportation?

A

Traction
Saltation
Suspension
Solution

41
Q

How does hydraulic action cause erosion?

A

force of water removing material from bed and banks

42
Q

how does attrition cause erosion?

A

Rivers load collides with itself reducing rocks to particles – makes angular rocks more rounded

43
Q

what is saltation?

A

when small pebbles bounce along the bed with the river flow - a type of transportation

44
Q

what is suspension?

A

When fine particles (om, silt, clay) are carried in the river flow

45
Q

How does solution cause transportation?

A

minerals dissolve in the water and are carried in flow (limestone, chalk = examples)

46
Q

Which of the 3 river processes is most likely to change the shape of a river?

A

deposition

47
Q

which part of the river has most deposition?

A

Lower course

48
Q

Which part of the river does transportation mainly occur

A

Middle course

49
Q

Which part of the river does erosion mainly occur?

A

upper course

50
Q

Name 3 reasons why rivers lose energy

A 
Gradient lessens 
low precipitation/ high evaporation 
Human abstraction (usage)
Beaver dams
Overflow into banks
51
Q

What does a Hjulstrøm curve show?

A

it determines whether a river will erode, transport or deposit sediment

52
Q

Which 2 curves make up the Hjulstrøm curve ?

A

A critical erosion velocity curve

A mean settling velocity curve

ENVIRO & ECOLOGY (24 decks)

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