Home > The Fluvial Processes > Quick Review >
     
The Fluvial Processes
Quick Review

1 .       Fluvial processes are those that involve running water. 

 
 


2 .       All of the area that contributes overland flow and groundwater to a particular stream is called a watershed. 

 
 


3 .       Interfluves normally have clear-cut drainage systems; valleys do not. 

 
 


4 .       Stream order is a hierarchy of streams beginning with the largest (first-order). 

 
 


5 .       A stream load contains three different loads: dissolved, suspended, and bedload. 

 
 


6 .       Competence is a measure of the largest particle size a stream can transport. 

 
 


7 .       Capacity is a measure of the amount of solid material a stream can transport. 

 
 


8 .       Alluvial material typically is smooth and round due to the battering the particles receive from their flow downstream. 

 
 


9 .       Discharge is the volume of stream flow. 

 
 


10 .       A dendritic pattern is treelike and consists of a random merging of streams. 

 
 


11 .       Friction between the solid and liquid surfaces cause a stream to flow fastest in the middle and at the surface. 

 
 


12 .       Base level is an imaginary surface extending underneath the continents from sea level at the coasts. 

 
 


13 .       Erosion occurs on the inside of stream bends. 

 
 


14 .       Deltas usually consist of a maze of roughly parallel channels called distributaries. 

 
 


15 .       Aggradation is the process of alluvium accumulation on the streambed that raises its bed elevation. 

 
 


16 .       In the final analysis, all topographic study is the study of how slopes change through time. 

 
 






Copyright © 1995-2008, Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Pearson Prentice Hall Legal and Privacy Terms