The River Flashcards
What is the load?
The material transported by a river as bedload, suspended load or dissolved load
What is the mouth?
Where a river ends, at a lake or sea
What is the source?
Where a river starts, usually in the mountains
What is the course?
The path a river takes as it flows from an upland area down through its valley until it enters the sea
What is a tributary?
A stream or smaller river that connects to a larger area
What are distributaries?
Finger-like river channels which branch away from a main river channel in a delta
What is a confluence?
The point at which two rivers meet
What is an estuary?
The tidal mouth of a river, with large, flat expanses of mud exposed at low tide
What is a flood plain?
The wide, flat floor of a river valley. It consists of sediments (alluvium) deposited by the river
What is a drainage basin?
The land that is drained by a river and its tributaries
What is eutrophication?
High nitrate levels combined with phosphates- results in loss of oxygen and the biological death of the river
What is the gradient?
The slope of the river profile, steep close to the source and gradually becoming gentler until the river reaches sea level
What is river discharge?
The volume of water carried by a river at any given time.
What is hydraulic action?
Is the erosion that is caused by the force of the moving water.
What is cavitation?
Is another form of hydraulic action.
