Hydrologic Cycle / Surface Water Processes

 

 

Terms to learn are in BOLD  in the outline below:

                       

Topic outline:

1. Hydrologic cycle
2. Drainage basin (watershed)
   1. Stream valley
   2. Drainage divide
   3. Drainage patterns - dendritic, radial, rectangular, trellis
3. Stream processes
   1. Streamflow
   2. 1. Factors affecting streamflow velocity
      2. Stream gradient
      3. Stream discharge
      4. Competence versus Capacity
   3. Erosion
   4. Transportation
      1. Stream load - bed, suspended, dissolved
   5. Areas of deposition  - delta, alluvial fan, point bar, natural levee
4. Stream evolution
   1. V-shape
   2. Base-level
   3. meandering - oxbow lake

 

Interesting places to visit:

General info on streams and floods: http://www.mhhe.com/earthsci/geology/mcconnell/streams/

 

Great site on flooding: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/flood/

 

Another great site on floods: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/infocus/floods.html

 

Good review: http://www.mhhe.com/earthsci/geology/plummer/student/olc/chap10intro.mhtml

 

When you are finished with this topic, you should be able to answer these questions:

1. What is the hydrologic cycle?
2. What factors influence the velocity of a stream?
3. What is stream gradient and how does it change over the longitudinal stream profile?
4. What are the types of stream load?
5. What is the difference between a delta and an alluvial fan?
6. How are oxbow lakes formed?
7. How are floodplains formed and what are natural levees?
8. What controls how far down a stream erodes?