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Some groundwater finds openings in the land surface and emerges as freshwater springs. In river valleys and floodplains, there is often continuous water exchange between surface water and ground water in the hyporheic zone. Over time, the water returns to the ocean, to continue the water cycle. The ocean plays a key role in the water cycle.
The diagram also shows how human water use impacts where water is stored and how it moves. [ 1 ] The water cycle (or hydrologic cycle or hydrological cycle) is a biogeochemical cycle that involves the continuous movement of water on, above and below the surface of the Earth .
Changes in the steepness of the stream gradient, the amount of sediment contained in the river, and the total amount of water flowing through the system, all influence how a river behaves. There is a delicate equilibrium that controls a river system, which, when disturbed, causes flooding and incising events to occur and produce terracing. [3] [4]
A river is a natural freshwater stream that flows on land or inside ... the processes by which water moves ... A diagram of a possible river with the Strahler number ...
The terms river morphology and its synonym stream morphology are used to describe the shapes of river channels and how they change in shape and direction over time. The morphology of a river channel is a function of a number of processes and environmental conditions, including the composition and erodibility of the bed and banks (e.g., sand, clay, bedrock); erosion comes from the power and ...
The amount of matter carried by a large river is enormous. It has been estimated that the Mississippi River annually carries 406 million tons of sediment to the sea, [5] the Yellow River 796 million tons, and the Po River in Italy 67 million tons. [6] The names of many rivers derive from the color that the transported matter gives the water.
In geomorphology a river is said to be rejuvenated when it is eroding the landscape in response to a lowering of its base level. The process is often a result of a sudden fall in sea level or the rise of land. The disturbance enables a rise in the river's gravitational potential energy change per unit distance, increasing its riverbed erosion rate.
Fluvial processes form several channel patterns, including: Straight, which are found in the most tectonically incised/active areas. This is more of a hypothetical end-member, and are not often found in nature. Straight-type channels can be found at alluvial fans.