River processes

L/O To be able to explain how a river works.

Where in the river

would these be- why?
Upper course - Source

What makes these changes happen?

The actions of the river = river processes

Lower course - Mouth

 Discuss - How do rivers work?

Carrying

Wearing away

Dropping
Key Geography ideas

• Process – something that happens

• River feature - something you can see – e.g

waterfalls
Weathering and mass movement
As the river flows, it erodes the land creating a valley with steep sides called a v-shaped valley. If the river meets
more resistant rock it will flow around the rock. This produces interlocking spurs. The river erodes the valley bottom,
but the valley sides are broken down by weathering.

There are three types of weathering:

Mechanical – physical changes causes rocks to break down, for example, a change in temperature from day to night
causes rock to expand and contract and break up (eg onion skin weathering). Or, changes in temperature cause
water to freeze and expand, melt and contract leading to freeze-thaw weathering.
Chemical – rainwater is slightly acidic and over time this wears away the rock.
Biological - occurs when plants and animals wear away rocks, for example, roots growing in cracks in the rock or
animals such as rabbits burrowing into rock.

The broken rock fragments (as a result of weathering) move down the slope through mass movements. These can
be rapid, such as landslides or slow as with soil creep:
Landslides are occasional, rapid movements of a mass of earth or rock sliding along a steep slope. They can occur
after periods of heavy rain, when the water saturates overlying rock, making it heavy and liable to slide.
Soil creep is a very slow movement, occurring on very gentle slopes because of the way soil particles repeatedly
expand and contract in wet and dry periods. When wet, soil particles increase in size and weight, and expand at
right angles. When the soil dries out, it contracts vertically. As a result, the soil slowly moves down slope.
 River process Key Terms
• Erosion: The removal or wearing away of material

The movement of the eroded material. This is called the

• Transportation:
river LOAD.

• Deposition: The dropping of eroded material.

Erosion
Erosion is the process that wears away the
river bed and banks. Erosion also breaks up
the rocks that are carried by the river.
There are four types of erosion:
•Hydraulic action - This is the sheer power of
the water as it smashes against the river
banks. Air becomes trapped in the cracks in
the rock of the river bank and bed, and causes
the rock to break apart.
•Abrasion - When pebbles grind along the
river bank and bed in a sand-papering effect.
•Attrition - When rocks that the river is Task
carrying knock against each other. They break
apart to become smaller and more rounded. Draw four annotated
•Solution - When the water dissolves certain diagrams explaining the
types of rocks, eg limestone. four types of erosion
Types of transportation

The river picks up sediment and carries it

downstream in different ways.

There are four types of transportation:

Traction - large, heavy pebbles are rolled along
the river bed. This is most common near the
source of a river, as here the load is larger.
Saltation - pebbles are bounced along the river Task
bed, most commonly near the source. Draw four annotated diagrams
Suspension - lighter sediment is suspended explaining the four types of
(carried) within the water, most commonly transportation
near the mouth of the river.
Solution - the transport of dissolved chemicals.
This varies along the river depending on the
presence of soluble rocks.
Deposition

When the river loses energy, it drops any of the material it has been carrying. This
is known as deposition.

Factors leading to deposition:

shallow water at the end of the river's journey, at the river's mouth
when the volume of the water decreases
Odd one out

Which of these is the odd one out? Explain

why

1. Freeze-Thaw Attrition Abrasion

2. Meander Mouth Solution
3. Abrasion Suspension Hydraulic Action
Upper course - Source

Lower course - Mouth

Name the features of a drainage basin. Your
answer should include: Watershed /
Confluence / Tributary / Floodplain / Mouth
https://youtu.be/_M48ANM3hAQ
River profiles - Long profile

A long profile is a line

representing the river from its
source (where it starts) to its
mouth (where it meets the
sea). A river changes with
increasing distance
downstream from its source
towards its mouth. It moves
through its upper course, to
its mid-course and finally into
its lower course.
River profiles - Long profile

Upper course - this is where the river starts and is usually an

upland area. Slopes are steep - this can increase the velocity
of the river after heavy rainfall, when discharge is high. The
river channel is narrow and shallow here. The river's load is
large in the upper course, as it hasn't been broken down by
erosion yet. When discharge is high vertical erosion erodes
the river bed and larger sediments are transported by
traction.
Mid-course - here the gradient becomes less steep. The river
channel gets deeper and wider as the bed and banks are
eroded. The sediment load of the river gets smaller in size.
Small meanders and a small floodplain can be found in this
part of the river.
Lower course - the final course of the river is where the land
is a lot flatter. The river's load is fine sediment, as erosion has
broken down the rocks. The river channel is at its widest and
deepest as it flows towards its mouth. Deposition is the main
process in this part of the river, which creates large
floodplains and deltas.
The Bradshaw Model shows the changes that occur as a river flows from its source
to its mouth.
Discharge – volume of water in the river measured in
cumecs – cubic metres per second

Velocity – speed of the river

Load – material carried by the river

Written task – answering GCSE style questions:

Using the information from your text marked sheet:

explain how the river;
A sentence is for life, not
a. Explain how a river erodes (4 marks) just for English
b. Explain how a river transports (4 marks)
c. Explain how a river deposits (3 marks)

d. Extra - Describe a river during a:

1. flood
2. drought.
Model answer (or is it?)
Explain how a river erodes (4 marks)

A river erodes in a number of ways. It erodes the bottom of the river, the
river bed, and the sides, the river banks. It does this by loosening and
dislodging the river bed and banks as it flows. Some river beds are made of
rocks that the river can dissolve e.g. chalk. When the river is carrying lots of
material it can also act like sandpaper and rubs against the river bed.
How can this answer be improved?
 Explain how a river transports (4 marks)

• A river transports material in a number of ways, it drags and rolls

pebbles along the river bed. Larger pebbles also jump along the river
bed. In some rivers material or the load, is dissolved in the water, or
held in suspension, when this happens the river is often brown in
colour , as so much material is being moved by the river.

How can this answer be improved?

Explain how a river deposits
(3 marks)
When the river starts to slow down near the mouth of the
river it deposits (drops) it’s load. In these areas the land is flat
and it is called a floodplain.
How can this answer be improved?
 Literacy skill – reading factual information
and text marking

A. Class activity: Reading the text

B. Now you need to mark the text using three different

colours.
one for EROSION,
one for TRANSPORTATION
one for DEPOSITION.

Literacy
Retrieving information from text.
 Tell me - How do rivers work?

Wearing away
http://
www.scienceforkidsclub.com/
erosion.html

Carrying
http://walrus.wr.usgs.gov/
sediment-transport /

Dropping https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Sediment_transport