Home | Session 4 | Rivers Pg 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

Rivers

Presented by Ellen Metzger
San Jose State University and BAESI

  1. Introduction

Rivers are the major agent of erosion that have shaped the landscape and play an important role in both the water cycle and the rock cycle.

Rivers transport (carry) and deposit the sediment derived by weathering of rocks.

  1. How do rivers begin?

A. Runoff is the water moving over the Earth's surface. When it flows as a thin channels over surface: sheet erosion.

B. Due to gravity, runoff and the material it contains move downhill.

C. As runoff travels, it forms tiny grooves in the soil (rills).

D. As rills flow into one another, they form larger grooves in channels called gullies, which flow only after it rains.

E. Gullies join together to form streams. Streams are channels along which water is continuously flowing down hill (some streams are intermittent).

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updated March 4, 2002

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