Investigating

Topic

Where river begins.

What is a river? A river is freshwater flowing across the surface of the land, usually to the sea.
The River Channel Rivers flow in channels. The bottom of the channel is called the bed and the sides of the channel are called the banks.

Springs Some rivers begin where a natural spring releases water from underground. Rainfall and melting snow Some rivers begin in mountains or hills, where rain water or snowmelt collects and forms small channels, As more water enters the channels they grow big enough to form a river.

Lakes The source of some rivers is a lake. The source of the River Nile is Lake Victoria, in Burundi.

The water passes through or between permeable rocks until it eventually meets a layer of impermeable rock which will not let the water pass through it.

When this happens, the water trickles out of the ground as a spring.

 a. b.

Important functions of the rivers are

Erosion
Transportation

The moving water and the rocky material it carries bump, rub and scrape the bottom and sides of the streams, slowly wearing them away. This is called erosion

Larger and heavier rocks are dragged or rolled along the bed. Smaller and lighter rocks hop and bounce along the river bed.

Gorges and Valleys

A gorge is a steep sided river valley. They are all very narrow and deep.

V shaped valleys caused by erosion.

are

Rocks and stones move in the water and wear away the ground..

The river and the streams that join the main river are called tributaries. The land which supplies a river with its water is called the river basin. The more the water the river has, and the faster the water flows, the deeper the valley it carves.

The stones and lumps of rock in the river carve away its bottom and sides, they also bump into each other. Pieces break off them and form smaller pieces of gravel, sand and mud that are swept along by the current. If a pebble gets caught in a small hollow on the river bed, it swirls around under the water, carving out o hole in the rock called a pot-hole

Source

Waterfall

Gorge Tributary Oxbow lake Meanders

Deltas and estuaries