River Landscapes

• The valley cross profile is a diagram of the valley as if it had been cut from one side to the other to show the shape of the valley
• River discharge is the volume of water flowing through a river channel; measured at any given point in cubic metres per second
• The long profile of the river illustrates the changes in the altitude of the course of the river from source to mouth
• A drainage basin is the area of land drained by a river and its tributaries. When a droplet of water falls onto the land as rain, gravity will make sure that the water is 'pulled' downhill to return to the sea
• The watershed is the line that separates drainage basins. It runs along a geographical barrier between drainage basins such as a ridge, hill or mountain
• Types of Erosion:

  Hydraulic action - rocks being forced away from other rocks from force of water into cracks
• Types of Erosion:

  Abrasion - rocks scraping on the bed as it's carried along like sandpaper
• Types of Erosion:

  Attrition - Rocks being chipped to smoother pieces as it's carried by colliding with each other
• Types of Erosion:

  Corrosion/solution - chemical reaction removing the material and it dissolving into the water to be carried along
• Types of transportation:

  Traction - moving and rolling on bed
• Types of transportation:

  Saltation - bouncing on bed
• Types of transportation:

  Suspension - Tiny insoluble parts floating within the water
• Types of transportation:

  Solution - small particles being carried by and being dissolved in the water
• Tributary - a stream or river which flows into a mainstream river
• Source - point at which a river starts
• Mouth - point at which a river ends
• Confluence - the meeting of two or more bodies of water (usually when a tributary joins a more major river)
• Deposition - a river's deposited material. Happens when either it is no longer competent or no longer has to capacity to carry the load