The object of this essay is to highlight, find and tell you about rivers. Looking and investigating all aspects of it and noting what I find here is what came of it.

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Section:                             Page:

Introduction        3

Upper Course        4

Middle Course        6

Lower Course        8

Methodology        9

Presentation of Results        11

Data Analysis        13

Evaluation        14

Introduction:

The object of this essay is to highlight, find and tell you about rivers. Looking and investigating all aspects of it and noting what I find here is what came of it.

Rivers begin by a little stream called the source and end up as a mouth. These flows of water are strengthened by many tributaries, which join the main river at a confluence. The source is normally a natural spring coming from high up in the mountains or a hilly area such as v-shaped valleys. The source and the whole river is placed in an area drained by a river

called the Drainage Basin-.

-Drainage basin

 

The natural spring is a run-off from precipitation, which then shoots out of the ground to form a source. There are many changes from the source to the mouth such as the shape of the channel (width and depth), the velocity, wetted perimeter, rate and type of erosion, deposition, sediment sizes and human uses.

-Picture of river spring

 -Picture of river source

Upper Course

In the upper courses of the river e.g. the source, the shape of the channel is a V. This shows that there is vertical erosion present, as the erosion is penetrating further down instead of across. There are four ways the upper course can be eroded. These are; -

  1. Hydraulic power, where the force of the water on the bed and the banks of the river. It is particularly powerful when the river is in flood. The force of the water removes material from the beds and banks of the river.
  2. Corrasion is when the river carries in its load sand and slit. It also carries pebbles and boulders, which rubs its self against the beds and banks, which wears them away. This is also called abrasion.
  3. Corrosion is where rock minerals, such as calcium carbonate in limestone and chalk, slowly dissolve in the river water. This makes the river water slightly acidic.  
  4. Attrition is where the load carried in the water collides and rubs against itself, breaking up into smaller and smaller pieces. The rough edges become smooth, forming smaller rounded material. Eventually the particles are reduced to sand and silt-sized particles.
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At this stage in the upper course the river channel is narrow, shallow and v-shaped,

 and is often lined with large angular boulders. It is shallow at this stage as there is not a lot of erosion present to dig away at the channel bed yet. The gradient of the river may be quite steep waterfalls and rapids may become of this. The velocity of the river is high at waterfalls and rapids but may be low in other areas where there are rocky beds in the river. This would slow the velocity down, as much energy would ...

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