EARTHSC 2GG3 Lecture 6: Lecture 6 - Rivers
25 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
They transport water that has fallen onto land toward the oceans. If precipitation does not infiltrate into the soil, it flows along the surface (this is called runoff). Eventually, the runoff will reach a stream (if it does not evaporate first). Stream is a small branch of a river, and the river drains the water back into the ocean. Every river has a drainage basin (the area of surrounding land that is drained by that river) Drainage basins can also be defined for lakes. In that case, it is defined as the area of land that drains into that lake. A divide is a ridge of higher land that separates which way rivers flow. The continental divide is located along the spine of the rocky mountains. It separates which ocean the streams and rivers will eventually drain into. It is determined by calculating the change in figure 9. 2 elevation over the distance the river flows.
