The Water Cycle How Rain Reaches Rivers Flashcards
Evaporation
Sun warms seas or rivers water turns to water vapour gas
Condensation
When warm air rises it cools
Water vapour turns into tiny water droplets forming clouds
Clouds
Formed through condensation as warm air rises
Precipitation
When water droplets grow larger and fall as rain sleet or snow
River
Channel of water flowing from high to low ground under gravity
Eventually water released into sea/lake
Surface runoff
When rainwater falls on ground and runs down hill towards a river channel
Infiltration
When rainwater falls on ground and seeps into soil or rock beneath surface
Through flow
When infiltrated water returns to river by flowing through the soil under ground
Groundwater
Water soaked deeper into soil and collect as groundwater, constantly slowly flowing towards river channel
Source
Point where river begins
Mouth
Point at end of rivers journey where it flows out into lake or the ocean
Tributary
Small river which feeds into main river channel
Confluence
Point where two rivers join together (I.e) where a tributary feeds into the main river)
Floodplain
The flat land immediately next to a river which may flood when the river overflows
Watershed
The imaginary line that separates one river basin from the next
River drainage basin
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
Erosion
The process in which a river wears away at its banks and the bed
Transportation
Process in which river carries away eroded material (called rivers load)
Deposition
Process in which the river drops or leaves behind material that it is transporting because it no longer has sufficient energy to carry it
Solution
Some minerals in river bed and banks soluble, river dissolves these materials in this process
Abrasion
Some of rivers load will wear away at river banks like sandpaper
Break down over time
Hydraulic action
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
Attrition
Rocks and stones being carried in the river water often bump into each other
They wear each other down forming smoother rounder pebbles
Suspension
Fine grains of sand suspended in water
Solution
Minerals dissolved in water
Traction
Big stones, roll along river bed
Saltation
Smaller pebbles bouncing along river bed
Estuary
Partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more water bodies flowing into it, and a free connection to open sea.
Long profile
Shows changes in the height of the course of a river from its source to its mouth
Deposition
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
Formation of valley and interlocking spurs
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.
