Running Water Ch 15

Front 1

What is capacity?

Back 1

- the maximum load of solid particles a stream can transport.
- the greater the discharge, the greater the capacity.
- during flood stage, capacity increases because

Front 2

What is a streams competence?

Back 2

- the maximum particle size a stream can transport.
- the higher the velocity, the higher the competence.

Front 3

What are braided streams?

Back 3

- accumulations of sediments become thick enough to act as obstacles, which will then split water into multiple paths.
- this is due to an increase in velocity, allowing the load to drop its larger obstacles.
- they occur when steep gradients promote large sediment and suddenly flow into flatlands.

Front 4

What are meandering streams?

Back 4

- single channels that meanders through a broad floodplain.

Front 5

what is a drainage basin?

Back 5

- the land area that contributes water to the stream.
- separated by a divide which can range from a small ridge seperating 2 gullies

Front 6

What is a dendritic pattern?

Back 6

- irregular branching of streams that resembles the branching of a stream.
- forms because the underlying bedrock is uniform meaning the material does not control the pattern of streamf low.

Front 7

What are glacial erratics?

Back 7

- large blocks that eroded due to glaciers and transported far from its origin.

Front 8

What are truncated spurs?

Back 8

- triangular shaped cliffs.
- as ice flows around curves, its great erosional force removes the spurs of land that extend into the valley.

Front 9

What are hanging valleys?

Back 9

- when main glaciers cut into the valleys of smaller tributary valleys, the receding valley is left standing.

Front 10

what are cirques?

Back 10

- bowl shaped depressions at the head of glacial valleys.
- tarns are lakes that are left behind when the glacier has melted.

Front 11

What are fjords?

Back 11

- deep, steep-sided inlets of the sea that occur at high latitudes where mountains are adjacent to the ocean.
- drowned glacial troughs that became submerged as the ice left the valley and sea level rose.

Front 12

How are Roche Mountains formed?

Back 12

-when protruding bedrock knobs are existent, glacial abbrasion smoothes the slope facing the glacier and plucking steepens the opposite side as ice rides over the knob.

Front 13

What distinguishes sediments deposited from other erosional agents then sediments deposited by glaicers?

Back 13

- glacial deposits consist primarily of mechanically weathered rock debris that underwent little or no chemical weathering before depositon.
- material deposited directly is know as till.