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Rivers
Key vocabulary to support the teaching of rivers
Term | Definition |
---|---|
Bank | The ground at the side of a river. |
Bed | The riverbed is the ground at the bottom of the river. |
Channel | A groove in the land that a river flows through. |
Confluence | Where two rivers or streams meet. |
Current | The flow of a river. |
Downstream | The directio that a river flows, towards the mouth of the river. |
Deposition | When a river drops the sediment or material that it was carrying often when the river current slows. |
Erosion | The wearing away of the land. |
Estuary | A drowned river valley in a coastal lowland area. Occurs near or at the mouth of a river, where the tide meets the current and the fresh and salt waters mix. |
Flood | Occurs when a river has too much water in its channel and the water breaks over or through the river banks and spreads over the surrounding land. |
Flood Plain | The flat land alongside the river usually found in the lower course of the river. It is a fertile area of land often used for farming. |
Lower Course | The section of river near the sea where there is a lot of deposition and the valley becomes flatter and wider. |
Meander | A bend in the river usually in the lower or middle course of the river. |
Middle Course | The section of river between the highland and the lowland where there is a lot of transportation and the river begins to cut sideways. |
Mouth | The place where the rivers meet the sea. |
River Basin | The area of land that is drained by a river and its tributaries. |
Source | Where the stream begins. |
Transportation | The moving of material from one place to another. |
Tributary | A small river that joins the main river channel. |
Upper Course | The higher stage of a river with steeper gradients and more erosion. |
Valley | A long depression in the land surface usually containing a river. |