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Rivers System
Types of Sediment Loads Carried by Streams: Dissolved load, Suspended load, Bed load
Stream Capacity and Competence Capacity - refers to the total amount of sediment a stream is able to transport
The greater the discharge (amount of water flowing in a stream), the greater the streams capacity
Base Level
A base level is a level at which no erosion can occur A stream reaches a local base level where it flows over erosionally resistant rock A stream also reaches a local base level where it flows into a pond, lake, or the ocean because the gradient is 0. Sea level is the ultimate base level A base level can be below sea level (e.g., Death Valley)
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Types of Stream Erosion Downcutting: deepens the channel Headward erosion: lengthens the channel Lateral erosion: widens the channel and flood plain
Downcutting
Headward Erosion
Lateral Erosion
Youthful or mature?
Youthful or mature?
it loses energy and therefore deposits its coarser suspended load (sand and silt) as bars or natural levees
In Summary
Where the current is fast, energy is high, erosion occurs Where the current is slow, energy is low, deposition occurs
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Stream Terraces:
Products of Downcutting, flooding, and lateral Erosion
Stream Terraces
Alluvial Fans
Are fan-shaped depositional features formed by intermittently flowing streams They form at the base of a hill or mountain where the gradient suddenly flattens Alluvial fans commonly form where steep-gradient gullies and canyons dump into low-gradient ditches, valleys, or deserts The sudden decrease in gradient drastically decreases the streams energy, competence Which, in turn, causes the stream to drop its bed load nearest the hill suspended load farthest away, in the toe of the fan
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Braided Streams
Are continuously-flowing, sediment-overloaded streams that flow in networks of interconnected rivulets around numerous channel bars They form where steep-gradient gullies and canyons dump into low-gradient ditches, valleys, or plains They also form down hill of melting glaciers, in glacial valleys and on their outwash plains The sudden decrease in gradient drastically decreases the streams energy, competence Which, in turn, causes the stream to become sedimentoverloaded and drop its bed load and suspended load as channel bars
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Channel bars
Braided Stream
Deltas
Are fan-shaped depositional features formed at the mouth of a stream where it flows into a large body of relatively still water, such as a lake or ocean Thus, the stream has reached a base level, where the stream suddenly loses energy and competence because the gradient is flat (horizontal) The stream diverges into small, shifting channels, distributaries, that carry sediment away from the main channel and distribute it over the surface of the delta The topset beds and bottomset beds deposited in a delta are subhorizontal The foreset beds, deposited where the water suddenly deepens, dip shallowly to steeply seaward
Features of a Delta
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Floods
Floods are the most common and most destructive geologic hazard Floods result from naturally occurring and human-induced factors Causes of flooding include
heavy rains rapid snow melt dam failure topography surface conditions
Big Thompson Canyon Flash Flood (1976) and Fort Collins Flash Flood (1997)
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Flood Control
Engineering efforts include building artificial levees building flood-control dams clearing and straightening channels Good floodplain management