Week 11 Flashcards
Streams
Channels of water that drain the landscape.
Hydrologic Cycle
Evaporation –> Transpiration –> Precipitation –> Infiltration –> Runoff
Tributary
Small stream, accumulates into a trunk stream.
The style of a stream reflects
material being eroded.
Drainage Basin
A land area that drains into a specific trunk stream.
Which stream the water ends up in.
Ephemeral Streams
Water flows seasonally.
Discharge
Amount of water flowing in the stream. Volume of water per second.
Streamflow is
turbulent
How sediment is transported
Dissolved loads –> Suspended loads –> Bed load
Dissolved load
Dissolved ion from mineral weathering
Fine particles entrained in the flow
Suspended loads
Bed load
Large particles that roll. Movement is called saltation.
Base level
A level down to which erosion will work. Lowest point to which a stream can erode. Just depositing at this level. Usually sea level.
What happens to the base level when the sea level goes up?
It goes up too.
Alluvial Fans
Build at the base of a mountain front.
Braided Streams
form where channels are choked by sediment.
Meandering rivers
Channels form intricately looping meanders along the lower gradient portion of the longitudinal profile. These evolve over time.
Flood plane
area that is flooded by river
Stream Piracy
A case where one stream captures another’s flow.
Stream rejuvenation
Initiated by base level fall. River can restart eroding the land. Uplift land, bring water down.
Superposed streams
Occur in deformed terrain. River erodes until it reaches an unconformity.
Antedecent River
Stream cuts through mountain range
Diverted Stream
Rate of uplift exceeds erosion.
3 types of deltas
Triangle shaped
Arch-like
Bird’s-foot
