Rivers

Question 1

What is a drainage basin?

Answer 1

An area of land drained by a river and its tributaries.

Question 2

What is the source of a river?

Answer 2

The start of a river.

Question 3

What is the mouth of a river?

Answer 3

The place where the river enters a lake, sea, or ocean.

Question 4

What is a tributary?

Answer 4

A smaller river that joins a larger river.

Question 5

What is a confluence?

Answer 5

The point at which two or more rivers meet.

Question 6

What is a watershed?

Answer 6

The dividing line between two drainage basins.

Question 7

Name the three courses of a river.

Answer 7

Upper course, middle course, and lower course.

Question 8

What are key features of the upper course of a river?

Answer 8

Narrow, steep, contains waterfalls.

Question 9

What are key features of the middle course of a river?

Answer 9

Wider, deeper channel, contains meanders and oxbow lakes.

Question 10

What are key features of the lower course of a river?

Answer 10

Widest, flattest part, near the mouth, contains the floodplain.

Question 11

What is river load?

Answer 11

The material carried along in the river.

Question 12

What is erosion?

Answer 12

The breaking down or wearing away of material.

Question 13

What is vertical erosion?

Answer 13

Erosion that takes place downwards into the land.

Question 14

What is lateral erosion?

Answer 14

Erosion that moves across the land from side to side, causing meanders to widen.

Question 15

What is transportation in a river?

Answer 15

When rivers carry rocks and sediment along their journey.

Question 16

What is deposition?

Answer 16

When a river drops its load.

Question 17

What is a waterfall?

Answer 17

Water falling from a height when a river flows over a steep drop.

Question 18

What is a plunge pool?

Answer 18

An area at the base of a waterfall that undercuts the hard rock layer.

Question 19

What is a gorge?

Answer 19

A steep-sided valley left behind when a waterfall retreats upstream.

Question 20

What is a meander?

Answer 20

A bend in a river (middle course).

Question 21

What is a slip-off slope?

Answer 21

The sloping bend of a meander from the inside (shallow) to the outside (deep).

Question 22

What is a river cliff?

Answer 22

The undercut bank on the outside bend of a meander.

Question 23

What is a floodplain?

Answer 23

A wide, flat area of land that is flooded frequently when a river bursts its banks (lower course).

Question 24

What is a levee?

Answer 24

Banks found at the side of a river in the lower course.

Question 25

What is silt?

Answer 25

The fine, fertile eroded material transported by a river.

Question 26

What is precipitation?

Answer 26

Water falling to the ground in all forms (rain, snow, sleet, hail).

Question 27

What is interception?

Answer 27

When the leaves of trees stop precipitation reaching the ground.

Question 28

What is surface runoff?

Answer 28

The movement of water over the surface of the land back into a river.

Question 29

What is surface storage?

Answer 29

Water stored on the surface in lakes or puddles.

Question 30

What is infiltration?

Answer 30

The movement of water from the surface into the soil.

Question 31

What is throughflow?

Answer 31

The movement of water through the soil back into the river.

Question 32

What event happened in Southwest England in 2014?

Answer 32

Flooding of the Rivers Parrett and Tone.

Question 33

What were some causes of the 2014 Southwest England floods?

Answer 33

Deforestation, saturated ground from heavy rainfall, low-lying land, build-up of sediment in the channel.

Question 34

What were some effects of the 2014 Southwest England floods?

Answer 34

600 homes flooded, £200 million lost in the tourist industry, 6,800 hectares of agricultural land flooded, native bird species couldn’t hunt.

Question 35

What were some responses to the 2014 Southwest England floods?

Answer 35

20,000 sandbags provided, 65 pumps installed to drain water, Environmental Agency spending £6 million a year on dredging.