rivers geo

• drainage basin- an area of land drained by a river and its tributaries
• 1)source

  2)upper course

  3)waterfalls

  3)middle course

  4)tributaries

  5)lower course

  6)estuaries

  7)river mouth
• source is where a river starts usually in the mountains
• mouth is where a river ends at a lake/sea
• tributary is when a smaller river joins a larger one
• confluence is the point at which rivers meet
• watershed is the highland separating one river basin from another
• cross profile is like cross section of a mountain, an imaginery slice across a river channel
• long profile is the line representing the river from its source to its mouth .it shows how the river changes over its course
• cross change downstream:

  1. river channel becomes wider and deeper and valley becoming wider and flatter
  2. sides are less steep compared to v shaped appearance further upstream
  3. changes happen bc of amt of water flow in river
  4. tributaries bring water from one part of drainage basin and river becomes bigger
• upper course has shallow turbulent water as friction with land slows flow rate but it can be fast and narrow bc it's deeper, showing that velocity can vary
• the middle course has lots of tributaries which bring in water making it deeper channels and the less friction and more velocity makes it float faster. it's less steep than mountains
• the lower course has gentler gradient and the water mouths out to a larger water body