The Water Cycle How Rain Reaches Rivers

Question 1

Evaporation

Answer 1

Sun warms seas or rivers water turns to water vapour gas

Question 2

Condensation

Answer 2

When warm air rises it cools

Water vapour turns into tiny water droplets forming clouds

Question 3

Clouds

Answer 3

Formed through condensation as warm air rises

Question 4

Precipitation

Answer 4

When water droplets grow larger and fall as rain sleet or snow

Question 5

River

Answer 5

Channel of water flowing from high to low ground under gravity
Eventually water released into sea/lake

Question 6

Surface runoff

Answer 6

When rainwater falls on ground and runs down hill towards a river channel

Question 7

Infiltration

Answer 7

When rainwater falls on ground and seeps into soil or rock beneath surface

Question 8

Through flow

Answer 8

When infiltrated water returns to river by flowing through the soil under ground

Question 9

Groundwater

Answer 9

Water soaked deeper into soil and collect as groundwater, constantly slowly flowing towards river channel

Question 10

Source

Answer 10

Point where river begins

Question 11

Mouth

Answer 11

Point at end of rivers journey where it flows out into lake or the ocean

Question 12

Tributary

Answer 12

Small river which feeds into main river channel

Question 13

Confluence

Answer 13

Point where two rivers join together (I.e) where a tributary feeds into the main river)

Question 14

Floodplain

Answer 14

The flat land immediately next to a river which may flood when the river overflows

Question 15

Watershed

Answer 15

The imaginary line that separates one river basin from the next

Question 16

River drainage basin

Answer 16

Area which collects rainwater and feeds it into a river
Every major river channel has its own drainage basin usually also consisting of many smaller rivers called tributaries feeding into the main rivers

Question 17

Erosion

Answer 17

The process in which a river wears away at its banks and the bed

Question 18

Transportation

Answer 18

Process in which river carries away eroded material (called rivers load)

Question 19

Deposition

Answer 19

Process in which the river drops or leaves behind material that it is transporting because it no longer has sufficient energy to carry it

Question 20

Solution

Answer 20

Some minerals in river bed and banks soluble, river dissolves these materials in this process

Question 21

Abrasion

Answer 21

Some of rivers load will wear away at river banks like sandpaper
Break down over time

Question 22

Hydraulic action

Answer 22

Rivers can flow very fast and water can be forced into cracks in the banks and bed
Air can also be forced into these cracks, hihi puts the material in the river’s banks under pressure eventually breaking them down

Question 23

Attrition

Answer 23

Rocks and stones being carried in the river water often bump into each other
They wear each other down forming smoother rounder pebbles

Question 24

Suspension

Answer 24

Fine grains of sand suspended in water

Question 25

Solution

Answer 25

Minerals dissolved in water

Question 26

Traction

Answer 26

Big stones, roll along river bed

Question 27

Saltation

Answer 27

Smaller pebbles bouncing along river bed

Question 28

Estuary

Answer 28

Partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more water bodies flowing into it, and a free connection to open sea.

Question 29

Long profile

Answer 29

Shows changes in the height of the course of a river from its source to its mouth

Question 30

Deposition

Answer 30

When river loses its energy and deposits material in the riverbed
Occurs when river loses energy e.g heavy load loses energy or less water

Question 31

Formation of valley and interlocking spurs

Answer 31

The upper course of the river is very steep so the effect of gravity is significant. This means that erosion is vertical, creating a deep, narrow sided v shaped Valley. As the river flows downstream, it erodes areas of softer rock more easily, and therefore winds around outcrops of hard rock. This results in the formation of interlocking spurs.