Yr 8 River Processes

Match the key words to their definitions

• Mouth

• Boundary between two drainage basin, normally on the top of a hill​

• Tributary

• Small rivers which lead into the main river channel​

• Watershed

• Where the river flows into the sea

• Drainage Basin

• The point at which a river starts. It is often just boggy land

• Source

• An area of land which a river drain

Categorise the river features into the correct section of the river course

Groups:

(a) Upper Course

,

(b) Middle Course

,

(c) Lower Course

• Widest, deepest channel

• Meander

• Wide, deeper channel

• Waterfall

• Steep, narrow channel

• Floodplain and levee

What is the best definition of erosion?

• The breaking down of rocks over time

• The movement of rocks

• Rocks being dropped by the water

• The river flowing over rocks

Match the types of erosion to their definitions

• Hydraulic Action

• Rocks drag along the walls and base of the channel smoothing the banks down

• Solution

• The pressure of the water itself gets into cracks in the bank and widens them until pieces of rock break away

• Attrition

• Rocks repeatedly knock into each other, which causes the rocks to erode or to break

• Abrasion

• Small particles from rocks dissolve in the water 

What landform can you see in this picture?

• Waterfall

• V Shaped Valley

• Meander

• Ox-bow lake

Put these steps in order to explain the formation of a waterfall

• A river flows over an area of hard and soft rock

• The waterfall retreats to form a gorge

• The soft rock is slowly eroded away forming an undercut and a plunge pool

• The hard rock is overhanging and unsupported, it eventually falls into the plunge pool

• The hard rock is not eroded, however the soft rock is eroded

What landform can you see in the picture?

• U shaped valley

• V Shaped Valley

• Floodplain

• Waterfall

What landform can you see in the picture?

• Meanders

• Rapids

• Estuary

• V shaped valleys

Label the features of a meander

c

d

e

f

b

a

Shallow channel

Erosion - River cliff

Fast flowing water

Deep channel

Deposition - Slip off slope

Slow flowing water

What is the land next to the river called and how would you describe it?

• Floodplain, steep land next to the river.

• Floodplain, flat land next to the river.

• Floodplain, flat land away from the river.

• Floodplain, flat land on top of the river.