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What is a River System ?

What is a River System ? . A river and all of its tributaries Tributary: streams and smaller rivers that feed into a main river . How do river systems start? . Start from precipitation (rain) that is not absorbed into the ground Precipitation turns into surface runoff. Key Terms.

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What is a River System ?

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  1. What is a River System? • A river and all of its tributaries • Tributary: streams and smaller rivers that feed into a main river

  2. How do river systems start? • Start from precipitation (rain) that is not absorbed into the ground • Precipitation turns into surface runoff

  3. Key Terms • Tributary • Watershed • Divide • Reservoir • Nutrient • Eutrophication

  4. River Systems are caused by Surface Water • Surface Water- the water that the ground does not absorb. Examples: • Rivers • Lakes • Ponds

  5. Head Water • River source • Beginning of the river • Often located in the mountains (elevated) • Water can come from rain runoff, glacial melt, snowmelt, or an underground spring

  6. Where is the Headwater?

  7. Tributaries • Are the streams and smaller rivers that feed into a main river

  8. Meanders • Looping curves in a river

  9. Flood Plain – the broad, flat valley through which a river flows

  10. Mouth –at a river’s mouth, the river flows into another body of water (often the ocean)

  11. Delta: a landform at the mouth of a river that is formed by sediment carried by the river and left there as the water leaves the mouth

  12. Oxbow Lake – when a meander curves back on itself and the river cuts a new, straight course, eventually leading to an oxbow lake

  13. Oxbow Lake • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qKS_Nk7UmY

  14. Watershed • The land area that supplies water to a river system • (sometimes called a drainage basin)

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