Table of Contents
Where does water move most rapidly in the meander of a stream?
In a meandering river, water will tend to flow fastest along the outside bend of a meander, and slowest on the inside bend.
What conditions would create the most runoff?
The most familiar type of natural runoff is snowmelt. Mountains that cannot absorb water from heavy snowfalls produce runoff that turns into streams, rivers, and lakes. Glaciers, snow, and rain all contribute to this natural runoff. Runoff also occurs naturally as soil is eroded and carried to various bodies of water.
What is the area of land from which water runs off into a stream system?
watershed
All of the land area whose water drains into a stream system is called the system’s watershed, or drainage basin. Watersheds can be rela- tively small or extremely large in area. A divide is a high land area that separates one watershed from another.
What is the ground that borders a stream and holds the water within the confines of the channel called?
Bank – The sloping ground that borders a stream and confines the water in the natural channel when the water level, or flow, is normal.
What factors control a stream’s velocity?
The velocity of a river is determined by many factors, including the shape of its channel, the gradient of the slope that the river moves along, the volume of water that the river carries and the amount of friction caused by rough edges within the riverbed.
Where is most of the water located?
One estimate of global water distribution
| Water source | Water volume, in cubic miles | Percent of total water |
|---|---|---|
| Oceans, Seas, & Bays | 321,000,000 | 96.54 |
| Ice caps, Glaciers, & Permanent Snow | 5,773,000 | 1.74 |
| Groundwater | 5,614,000 | 1.69 |
| Fresh | 2,526,000 | 0.76 |
What is the surface of the water called?
Surface water is any body of water above ground, including streams, rivers, lakes, wetlands, reservoirs, and creeks. Water that seeps deep into the ground is called groundwater. Surface water and groundwater are reservoirs that can feed into each other.
What is a depression in the landscape that collects and holds water?
A lake is a depression in the surface materials of a landscape that collects and holds water.
Which is the correct definition of stream flow?
Stream flow, or discharge, is the volume of water that moves over a designated point over a fixed period of time. It is often expressed as cubic feet per second (ft3/sec).
How are streams and rivers driven by gravity?
A stream is flow of water, driven by gravity, in a natural channel, on land. A small brook in a meadow and the Amazon River are both streams. It is interesting to watch water on a recently bulldozed construction site with a slope. At first the water saturates the ground and begins to flow downhill across the surface of the slope in a thin sheet.
How does the amount of water in a stream increase?
As the amount of water in a stream increases, the stream must adjust its velocity and cross sectional area in order to form a balance. Discharge increases as more water is added through rainfall, tributary streams, or from groundwater seeping into the stream. As discharge increases, generally width, depth, and velocity of the stream also increase.
What causes the surface of water to move?
Movement of Water Surface movement includes rivers, streams, creeks, lakes, ponds, and human-made “flood” control. All surface water is trying to reach sea level due to gravity. As water flows in channels, the streambed and banks of the channel will resist the flow of water.