Depositional Features

• Floodplains are formed by deposition in times of river flood
• When a bank breaks, the water causes friction with the land and reduces velocity, this causes deposition
• ...

  A) Silt deposits of flood plain

  B) River's lateral erosion as meanders creates floodplain

  C) Smaller sediment is carried further away

  D) Largest sediment closer as river starts losing energy

  E) Layers of sediment create a levee

  
• With every flood, the river banks are built up a little higher with the heaviest particles closest to the river bed, creating raised banks and the finest particles further away as the energy can transport it
• An estuary is the thin zone along a coastline where freshwater systems meet and mix with salt water oceans and seas. It is the tidal part of a river where the channel broadens
• Where the fresh water and salt water meet, velocity is reduced, which causes deposition. This builds up layers of mud called mud flats. They will be covered at high tide but exposed at low tide