GEOL 101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 14: Headward Erosion, Downcutting, Oxbow Lake
Document Summary
11:51 am: streams are bodies of water that flow down channels and drain the land surface. They grow by downcutting and headward erosion. Streams carry water out of a drainage basin. A drainage divide separates two adjacent basins. Drainage networks consists of many tributaries that flow into a trunk stream: permanent streams exist where the water table lies above the bed of the channel or when large amounts of water enter the channel from upstreams. Where the water table lies below the channel bed, streams are ephemeral: the discharge of a stream is the total volume of water passing a point along the bank in a second. Most streams are turbulent, meaning that their water swirls in complex patterns: streams erode the landscape by scouring, lifting, adbrading, and dissolving. The resulting sediment provides dissolved loads, suspended loads, and bed loads. The total quantity of sediment carried by a stream is its capacity.
