![]() As groundwater leaches through layers of soil and rock, minerals dissolve and are carried away. Many minerals are ionic compounds that dissolve easily in water, so water moves these elements to the sea as part of the dissolved load that the stream carries. Some of these materials are carried in solution. Streams continually erode material away from their banks, especially along the outside curves of meanders. On a much grander scale, entire continents have divides, known as continental divides.Īs streams move over the ground, they transport weathered materials. Rain that falls on the north side of a ridge flows into the northern drainage basin and rain that falls on the south side flows into the southern drainage basin. A stream may create a pool where water slows and becomes deeper.The point at which a stream comes into a large body of water, like an ocean or a lake is called the mouth.Ī divide is a topographically high area that separates a landscape into different water basins. The smaller of the two streams is a tributary of the larger stream. A stream may have more than one sources and when two streams come together it’s called a confluence. ![]() The source is known as the headwaters or the head of the stream. The source is likely to be in the high mountains where snows collect in winter and melt in summer, or a source might be a spring. Oddly enough, there are a variety of different types streams. ![]() Describe the types of deposits left behind by rivers and streams.Describe how surface rivers and streams produce erosion.You will learn about the erosional effects and the deposits that form as a result of this moving water. As this water flows it does the work of both erosion and deposition. Some of this water moves over the surface and some moves through the ground as groundwater. Ultimately, gravity is the driving force, as water moves from mountainous regions to sea level. Rivers and streams complete the hydrologic cycle by returning precipitation that falls on land to the oceans (Figure 10.1). The Amazon River, the world’s river with the greatest flow, has a flow rate of nearly 220,000 cubic meters per second! People have used rivers since the beginning of civilization as a source of water, food, transportation, defense, power, recreation, and waste disposal. Rivers are the largest types of stream, moving large amounts of water from higher to lower elevations. Stream erosion and deposition are extremely important creators and destroyers of landforms and are described in the Erosion and Deposition chapter. In streams, water always flows downhill, but the form that downhill movement takes varies with rock type, topography, and many other factors. Creeks, brooks, tributaries, bayous, and rivers might all be lumped together as streams. Geologists recognize many categories of streams depending on their size, depth, speed, and location. Streams are bodies of water that have a current they are in constant motion. Along with wetlands, these fresh water regions contain a tremendous variety of organisms. \)įresh water in streams, ponds, and lakes is an extremely important part of the water cycle if only because of its importance to living creatures.
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