Surface Water Exam 3

Question 1

Surfacewater Significance

Answer 1

Runnig water is the primary agent of erosion
63% of the nations drining water comes from surface water
Flooding causes property damage and threatens lives

Question 2

Stream

Answer 2

A body of running water confirmed to a channel that runs downhill under the influence of gravity

Question 3

Headwater

Answer 3

Upper part of strream near its source in the mountains

Question 4

Mouth

Answer 4

Place where a stream eneters sea lake or larger stream

Question 5

Channel

Answer 5

A long narrow depression eroded by a stream into rock or sediment

Question 6

Stream bank

Answer 6

side of channel

Question 7

Stream Bed

Answer 7

Bottom of the channel

Question 8

Floodplain

Answer 8

Flatvalley floor composed of sediment deposited by the stream

Question 9

Drainage Basin

Answer 9

The total area drained by a stream and its tributaries

Question 10

Tributary

Answer 10

A small stream flowing into a larger one can be outlined on a map by drwing a line around the region drained byb all of the tributaries of stream

Question 11

Divide

Answer 11

Ridge or strip of high ground that divides one drianage basin from another

Question 12

Continental Divide

Answer 12

Sepreates the streams taht flow into the pacific from those taht flow into the atlantoc and the Gulf of mexico

Question 13

Watershed

Answer 13

All the land that drains to stream

Question 14

Drainage Pattern

Answer 14

The arrangemnet in map view of a stream and its tributaries

Question 14

Dendritic

Answer 14

Drainage patter resembling the branches of a tree

Question 15

Radical Pattern

Answer 15

Streams diverge outward like the spokes of a wheel

Question 16

Trellis Patters

Answer 16

parallel streams with short tributaries meeting at right angles

Question 16

Rectangualr Pattern

Answer 16

Tributaries have frequent 90* bends and join other streams at right angles

Question 17

Streams as agents of Transport

Answer 17

Load
Bed Load
Suspended Load
Dissolved Load

Question 17

Load

Answer 17

material carried/transported by the stream

Question 18

Bed Load

Answer 18

coarse particles moved along stream bed

Question 19

Suspended Load

Answer 19

Fine Particles carried long distance suspended by the water

Question 20

Dissolved load

Answer 20

Ions in solutions

Question 21

Downcutting

Answer 21

Process of deepening a valley by erosion of a streambed

Question 22

V-Shaped Valleys

Answer 22

typically form from downcutting of river channel combined with mass wasting and sheet erosion of valley walls

Question 23

Streams cannot erode

Answer 23

below the elevation of the mouth of the stream - base level (ultimately sea level)

Question 24

Lateral Erosion

Answer 24

widens streams valleys by undercutting of streams banks and valleys walls as stream swings from side across the valley floor

Question 25

Headward Erosion

Answer 25

Slow uphill growth of a valley, above its original service

Question 26

Bars

Answer 26

ridges sediment usually sand or gravel depsoited in the middle or along the sides of a stream

Question 27

Floodplains

Answer 27

broad strips of land built up by sedimentation on either side of a stream channel - sediments are left behind as flood waters slow and recede at the end of flood events

Question 28

Natural levees

Answer 28

Main channel has slightly raised banks with respect to the floodplain

Question 29

Deltas

Answer 29

a body of sediment deposited at the mouth of a river when the flow velocity decreases

Question 30

Alluvial fans -

Answer 30

large, fan- or cone-shaped piles of sediment that usually form where a stream’s velocity decreases as it emerges from a narrow mountain canyon onto a flat plain (desert regions)

Question 31

Meandering Stream –

Answer 31

typical of moist climates - Meander - Oxbow lake - Yazoo Stream

Question 32

Braided Stream –

Answer 32

typical of desert climates (flash flow events)

Question 33

Flood

Answer 33

when water levels rise and overtop the banks of a river: – Natural process on all rivers (flood plain) – Floods involve an increase in velocity and total discharge – Described by recurrence intervals: an estimate of the likelihood of a flood to occur

Question 34

Wise

Answer 34

use planning, including prevention of building within 100-year floodplains, is most effective.

Question 35

Dams

Answer 35

designed to trap flood waters in reservoirs upstream and release it gradually over time.

Question 36

Artificial Levees

Answer 36

designed to increase capacity of river channel– Works well until stream levels overtop artificially raised levees, leading to extremely rapid flooding and erosion than would have occurred otherwise.

Question 37

Retention Basins:

Answer 37

designed to manage storm water runoff to prevent flooding