Lecture Review: River Processes, Denudation, and Wind Erosion

A collection of vocabulary flashcards defining key geological and hydrological terms from the lecture on rivers, denudation, and wind formations.

Denudation

The process of bearing away land mass through weathering, erosion, mass movement, and transportation, resulting in lowered elevation and leveled peaks.

Weathering

The disintegration of rocks caused by atmospheric agents, such as changes in weather conditions, temperature, moisture, and precipitation.

Deposition

The laying down of material that has been weathered, eroded, and transported by natural agents like water and wind.

Load

The material or content carried and transferred by a river.

Mouth

The point where a river enters the sea or ocean, or disappears before joining the sea.

Tributaries

Small streams or rivers that join and support the main river.

Distributaries

Channels or smaller rivers formed when a main river divides.

Profile of a river

The three sections into which a river is divided: the upper course, middle course, and lower course.

Down cutting

An erosion process in the upper course of a river that deepens valleys into a V-shaped profile.

Waterfall

A vertical fall of water formed due to a large difference in the rate of erosion along a river's course.

Plunge pool

A deep basin at the bottom of a waterfall formed where water falls over the edge of hard resistant rock onto softer rock.

Lateral cutting

Sideways erosion of river banks that becomes more active than down cutting in the middle course of a river.

River meanders

Curved bends formed along a river, generally under conditions of a gentle slope and sufficient water volume.

Oxbow lake

A lake formed when the loop of a meander becomes highly circular and the river breaks through the narrow neck.

Delta

A landform formed at the end of a river where it divides into many distributaries and deposits large amounts of sediment.

Deflation

A wind erosion process that involves the lifting and blowing away of loose sand grains and dust from the ground.

Sand dunes

Hills of sand formed by the movement of wind that are continuously moved, reshaped, and redeposited.

Burchans

Moon-shaped active sand dunes formed by sand accumulation at an obstacle, featuring a convex windward side and a steep leeward crest.