This lecture introduces the development and formation of river channels and their environment, as well as what attributes of rivers are studied. Content includes calculating discharge, oxbows formation, river channel geometry, stream evolution and the Los Angeles flood of 1938.
Fluvial geomorphology is the study of the interactions between the physical shapes of rivers, their water and sediment transport processes, and the landforms they create.
Erosion by moving water can happen in two ways. Firstly, the movement of water across the stream bed exerts shear stress directly onto the bed. If the cohesive strength of the substrate is lower than the shear exerted, or the bed is composed of loose sediment which can be mobilized by such stresses, then the bed will be lowered purely by clearwater flow. However, if the river carries significant quantities of sediment, this material can act as a tool to enhance the wear of the bed (abrasion). At the same time, the fragments themselves are ground down, becoming smaller and more rounded (attrition).
Sediment in rivers is transported as either bedload (the coarser fragments which move close to the bed) or suspended load (finer fragments carried in the water). There is also a component carried as dissolved material.
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