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aquifer
Any rock or sediment through which groundwater flows easily
hernando de soto
guy who discovered misisippi river
firn
waht is compacted to before glacier ice
erratic
big rock left by glacier
moraines
lines of material left behind from glacier. sediment build up in piles basically
esker
winding ridge from river taht cut channel under=/through glacier ice
kettle
when glacier retreats and ice breaks off, is buried, then melts, leaving hole thing ( called ______ pond when has water, walden pond)
frost weathering, plucking, abrasion, transportation
four step process/ways glacier erosion and weathering
drumlin
symmetrical smooth hill left by glacier ( ________ hill in Concord)
trough
u shaped valley left behind glacier
till
sediment deposited when glacier melts
calving
large piece of glacier breaks off
ablation
loss of ice in a glacier
zone of wastage
zone below snowline more loss than incrase
isostasy
rebound of continents when glaciers melted during ice age
Louis Agassiz
father of glaciology proposed ice age idea (before was the great flood of noah’s arc)
assabet and sudbury
two tributaries of the concord river
merrimack
river that concord is tributary to
discharge
amoutn of water in river measured by how much passes a point in a certain amount of time
Bed Load
Big sediments that are rolled or dragged along the bottom of a river.
cutbank
eroded stream bank on the outside of a meander curve
Delta
a fan-shaped deposit of sediment that forms when a river flows into a non-flowing large body of water, such as a lake, ocean or inland sea.
Deposition
The process of laying down of sediment.
Dissolved Load
Sediment that is dissolved into the water and transported within the current of the stream.
Drainage Basin / Watershed
All of the land area where rainfall will run off or infiltrate into a river system, bounded by divides.
Flood Plain
a flat plain next to a river that is made of fine river sediment and is subject to periodic flooding
Gradient
the slope of a river channel or landscape over a certain distance. Expressed by the equation: change in elevation/distance
groundwater
water beneath the surface stored and flowing in pore space in rock/sediment.
Meander
a bend in the channel of a river. Characteristic formation when gradient decreases and erosion is mostly side-to-side vs. downcutting.
oxbow lake
A crescent-shaped body of water formed when sediments deposited by a river during flood stage cut off a meander from the river.
permeability
The ability of a rock or sediment to let fluids pass through its open spaces, or pores.
Point Bar
crescent shaped pile of sediment built up by river deposition on the inside of a meander
River System
A river and all of its tributaries
Suspended Load
describes the transportation of clay or silt sized sediment carried within the current of the river
Tributary
a smaller river that flows into a bigger river
water table
the top of the zone of saturation
zone of aeration
the zone in an aquifer above the water table where the pore spaces are filled with air
zone of saturation
the zone in the aquifer below the water table where all open spaces are filled with water
mouth
place where a river empties into another body of water
headwaters
a stream's point of origin
Runoff
water that flows over the ground surface rather than soaking into the ground
Erosion
Processes by which rock, sand, and soil are broken down and carried away
trunk stream
a major river, fed by a number of fairly large tributaries; the main stream in a river system
meander scar
Dried up oxbow lake
Velocity
the speed of an object in a particular direction
young river
a fast-moving, relatively straight river that down cuts in a "V" shape and has waterfalls and rapids
middle-aged river
a river's journey, when it gets wider, slows down, and meanders start to form, creating point bars and cutbanks
old river
-slow-moving, flat river
-low gradient
-little erosive energy
-many bends and meanders
channel
the path that a stream or river follows
Continental Divide
mountain ridge that separates river systems flowing toward opposite sides of a continent
triple divide peak
location where two continental divides touch
river age/stage
section of a river that is defined by certain characteristics
saltation
Small pebbles and stones are bounced along the river bed
Porosity
Percentage of open spaces between grains in a rock.
impermeable layer
A layer of material (such as clay or shale) in an aquifer through which water does not pass.
runoff
precipitaion falls on ground and then moves downslope
recharge
precipitation falls on ground and soaks into ground
Atmosphere, groundwater, surface freshwater, oceans and salt lakes, glaciers, living things
six reservoires of water
