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6.5 Lesson

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13 views

6.5 Lesson

Uploaded by

adham.elminiawy.3915
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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6.

5 How do rivers shape


the land?

Progress in Geography: Key Stage 3 Boost © Hodder & Stoughton


6.5 How do rivers shape the land?

Learning objectives:
• To identify and explain the formation of river
landforms – waterfall, meanders, ox-bow lakes.
• To identify river landforms on OS maps and
photographs.

Progress in Geography: Key Stage 3 Boost © Hodder & Stoughton


6.5 How do rivers shape the land?

Erosion, transportation and deposition occur in all rivers.


Each process has a role to play in the formation of different
river landforms.
In the previous lesson, you discovered how rivers create
v-shaped valleys and interlocking spurs in the upper course.
In this lesson you will further investigate river landforms.

Progress in Geography: Key Stage 3 Boost © Hodder & Stoughton


How are waterfalls formed?
A waterfall forms at a steep drop in the long profile of a river. This is
usually where a river flows across a geological boundary between
two different rock types; where a hard layer of rock lies over a softer,
less resistant rock.
This is the case at High Force waterfall, along the course of the River
Tees (see Diagram A and Photo B).
As the river flows over the steep drop, it suddenly gains energy. The
river can now pick up large rocks at the base of the waterfall, hitting
them against the softer rocks.
The rushing water forms a deep pool in the river bed at the base of
the waterfall, called a plunge pool.
These less resistant rocks are eroded quickly, undercutting the
harder rock above. Eventually the overhanging hard rock collapses,
as its weight can no longer be supported.
Progress in Geography: Key Stage 3 Boost © Hodder & Stoughton
The large angular boulders that fall into the base of the plunge pool
are then used by the river to further erode the softer rock.
This process of undercutting and collapse repeats many times and
slowly the waterfall retreats upstream, leaving a steep-sided deep
gorge that marks where the waterfall once was located.

Activity
1. What are a waterfall, plunge pool and gorge?

Progress in Geography: Key Stage 3 Boost © Hodder & Stoughton


A: The formation of waterfalls

Watch the video clip, compare it with diagram A.


You can show a video clip describing High Force and explaining how it formed.
7.39 to 11 mins
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlwgwSvb6Rg

Progress in Geography: Key Stage 3 Boost © Hodder & Stoughton


Activity
3. Look carefully at Diagram A and Photo B.
a) Name the features labelled 1-6 on Photo B.
b) Draw a cartoon strip or flipbook to show
how a waterfall forms and develops.
c) Write a paragraph to explain which of the
four processes of erosion will contribute to 1
the formation and changing state of a 3
5 2
waterfall.
4
A: The formation of waterfalls

Progress in Geography: Key Stage 3 Boost © Hodder & Stoughton


B: High Force waterfall
How are meanders formed?
Meanders are bends in the course of a river.
On the outside of a meander the water is deeper and the current
flows faster. The force of water undercuts the bank of the outside
bend, forming a steep bank. This is called a river cliff.
On the inside bend the current is slower, the river deposits sand and
pebbles, forming a gentle slip-off slope.
Meanders slowly move across a landscape, as the erosion bank cuts
into the valley. Lateral erosion occurs at this lower stage of the river,
forming a wide flat valley called a flood plain.

C: Features of a meander
Progress in Geography: Key Stage 3 Boost © Hodder & Stoughton
C: Features of a meander Watch the video clip comparing it to Diagram C
www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/clips/zvm3cdm
Progress in Geography: Key Stage 3 Boost © Hodder & Stoughton
Sometimes when the loop of a meander bend becomes extreme,
two erosion banks can meet at a narrow neck of a meander.
Eventually the channel cuts through leaving the meander loop
detached, forming as an ox-bow lake (see Diagram D).

E: Aerial view of an
D: The formation of an ox-bow lake ox-bow lake

Watch the video clip


www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/clips/zrhc87h
Progress in Geography: Key Stage 3 Boost © Hodder & Stoughton
Activities
4. What is a meander?
a) Annotate your diagram to show where and why
erosion and deposition are happening and how the
meander moves sideways to create a wide, flat,
valley floor.

Progress in Geography: Key Stage 3 Boost © Hodder & Stoughton

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