Fluvial Process and Landforms Questions and Solutions
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SPLA
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SPLA
Fluvial Process and Landforms Questions and Solutions
What are the following: splash erosion, sheet erosion, rill erosion and gully erosion? Where does each one operate and and how does one progress to the next?
Splash erosion: direct force of falling drops on soil causes a geyser-like splashing....
fluvial process and landforms questions and soluti
what are the following splash erosion sheet eros
what are the different drainage patterns including
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Fluvial Process and Landforms
Questions and Solutions
What are the following: splash erosion, sheet erosion, rill erosion and gully erosion?
Where does each one operate and and how does one progress to the next? - answer
Splash erosion: direct force of falling drops on soil causes a geyser-like splashing. Soil
particles are lifted and dropped into new positions.
Sheet Erosion: water flows across the surface in a thin sheet.
Rill erosion: more concentrated flow pattern carving into the surface with parallel
streams of water.
Gully erosion: rills coalesce into fewer, larger channels called gullies. More water means
more energy, and therefore, more erosion takes place.
What are the different drainage patterns including what they look like and what they tell
us about the underlying geology or characteristics of the region over which the water
flows? Be able to identify a drainage pattern from a picture or description. - answer
Drainage patterns reflect the type and arrangement of bedrock material within the basin.
Patterns are:
Dendritic: most common pattern seen in nature. Consists of random merging streams
Rectangular: main streams and their tributaries display many right angle bends and
exhibit sections of approx. the same length. Indicative of streams following prominent
fault or joint systems that break the rock into rectangle shaped blocks.
Radial: Usually found when streams descend from some sort of concentric uplift.
Trellis: Response to underlying structural control: Alternating bands of tilted hard and
soft strata.
Annular: More complex. Develop in a dome or in a basin where erosion has exposed
alternating concentric bands of tilted hard and soft rock.
Centripetal: Usually associated with streams converging in a basin.
Deranged: chaotic drainage where the rivers flow wherever they can. Characteristic of
areas that have undergone glaciation. Plenty of standing water in lakes, marshes and
rivers.
, Define the terms: drainage basin, interfluve, drainage divide. What is the continental
divide and which drainages does it separate? - answer Drainage basin: land system
drained by a stream system.
Interfluves: higher land areas separating one valley from the next.
Drainage divide: interfluve that separates two drainage basins.
Continental divide: pattern that reflects the type and arrangement of bedrock material
within the basin.
What is base level? What is the ultimate base level? What happens to the ability of a
stream to erode its channel as it approaches base level? - answer A stream's profile
is controlled by base level. Base level is a point below which a stream cannot erode its
valley. The ocean is the ultimate base level, but there are local base levels such as
lakes and dams.
What are the differences between tributaries and distributaries? - answer Tributary: a
stream that flows into a larger river.
Distributary: a stream or small river that splits off from a larger river and flows in a
different direction.
What are the 'rules' for Horton's stream order as we've seen in the lecture materials and
textbook? Be able to assess the order of stream segments on a test question. The
exam question is simple in comparison to the practice exercise since you are taking the
exam on computer. - answer A. When two streams of the same order merge, the
resulting stream will be one order higher.
Example: 1+1=2, 2+2=3, 3+3=4, 5+5=6
B. When two streams of a different order merge, the resulting stream will be the same
number as the higher order stream.
Example: 1+2=2, 2+4=4
What is a graded stream? - answer A stream with a graded profile after a long period
of time of stream profile re-adjustments. The graded stream is in equilibrium and the
river has just the right velocity to remove the load eroded from the drainage basin. No
deposition or erosion of the channel is occurring.
Where is stream velocity the greatest? Slowest? What factors influence the velocity of a
stream? - answer Lowest stream velocities near the sides and bottom.
Greatest velocity near the center, but only in straight moving stream segments.
Greatest velocity shifts to the outer side of a bend in the river.
Actual stream velocity is controlled by downslope effect of gravity (gradient) and the
energy lost by overcoming friction (roughness).
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