Geo Ultimate Study Guide

Drainage Basin

The entire topographically defined area drained by a trunk stream and its tributaries.

Confluence

The junction point where two or more watercourses meet to form a single channel.

Perennial Stream

A river channel that flows continuously throughout the year.

Intermittent Stream

A stream that flows only during specific wet seasons or after precipitation.

Exotic Stream

A perennial river that flows through arid regions, originating in humid areas.

Braided Stream

A stream with multiple channels that divide and recombine, often featuring transient islands.

Alluvial Fan

A fan-shaped deposit of water-transported sediment at the base of a mountain.

Natural Levee

A ridge of sediment deposited along a river channel during flooding.

Oxbow Lake

A crescent-shaped lake formed from an abandoned river meander.

Delta

A triangular landform at the mouth of a river where it meets a body of water.

Flash Flood

A rapid local flood, often seen in narrow canyons, due to intense rainfall.

Glacier

A mass of recrystallized ice that flows under its weight, formed from accumulated snow.

Cirque Glacier

The smallest alpine glacier found in a bowl-shaped depression.

Piedmont Glacier

An ice lobe formed when a valley glacier spills out onto a flat lowland.

Ice Cap

A dome-shaped ice mass covering less than 50,000 km², often on high peaks.

Mass Balance

The difference between accumulation and ablation in a glacier.

Calving

The detachment of chunks of ice from a glacier, forming icebergs.

Morainic Landform

A landform created from sediment deposited by glaciers, including lateral and terminal moraines.

Esker

A ridged landform composed of sorted glacial sediments deposited by meltwater streams.

Drumlin

An elongated hill formed by the movement of a glacier, indicating its direction of flow.

Kame

A steep-sided mound formed from glacial sediment deposited in a crevasse.

Kettle Lake

A lake formed by melting ice blocks buried in sediment.