Zusammenfassung der Ressource
River Processes
- Erosion
- Lateral vs. Vertical
- Hydraulic Action
- The power of the water undercutting
and eroding weak points in the river
- The cause of meanders widening
on the outside bend
- Abrasion/Corrasion
- The scouring of the bed
and banks by the
sedimentary load carried
in the river
- Combined with turbulent
waters and potholes in the
river bed may form
- Attrition
- The reduction in size of
sediment in the river through
collision with other particles
- The cause of smoother pebbles
downstream
- Corrosion
- Most common in carbonate rocks, eg
limestone, it is the dissolving of the
rock into the water
- Transportation
- Bedload
- Larger materials, eg. rocks, are
too heavy to be lifted so bounce
and 'skip' along the river bed
- Suspended Load
- Forms the bulk of sediment transportation
- Fine muds and clay become suspended in
the turbulence of the water
- Is the reason why bodies of
still water appear cloudy
where a river flows into them
- Dissolved/Solution Load
- The product of corrosion
- Where the river runs over carbonate
rock the dissolved material becomes
dissolved in the river
- Competence is the largest calibre of load a river can carry
- Capacity is the largest amount of load a river can carry
- Deposition
- A river deposits, or drops, it's load when it runs out of energy
and can no longer carry it. This usually occurs where a river
moves into a slower moving, or stationery, body of water.
- Due to the nature of deposition larger
boulders are dropped further upstream,
pebbles midstream, and dissolved or
light materials far out at sea or in lakes.