The Fluvial

Geomorphic
System
Streams 85% sediment transport,
glaciers 7%, waves 1.5%, wind 1%

Lab Hose, sand in beaker

Fluvial (Latin fluvius: river)

Conversion Potential energy (elevation) to Kinetic Energy
(motion). Most energy lost to friction, but 2-4% of total
potential energy converted to work of erosion and
transportation
Drainage Divide
Tributaries

Gradient decreases downstream

Factors that increase downstream:
Velocity
Discharge
Channel size

Distributaries
Trunk Stream And Delta
 Infiltration
• Infiltration is controlled by
–Intensity and duration of rainfall
–Prior wetted condition of the soil
–Soil texture
–Slope of the land
–Nature of the vegetative cover

http://plantandsoil.unl.edu/croptechnology2005/soil_sci
 Stream water feeds

• Infiltration (rain and snowmelt soak into soil)

– water moving in pore spaces

• Throughflow water moving through voids in soil

– In cracks, burrows, root casts, etc.

•Runoff
• Sheetflow = overland flow
thin slow surface layer

• transitions into rill erosion Sheetflow

 Rill Erosion, Gully formation
Rill: a trickle of water, a very
small stream

Gully: a small watercourse with

steep sides, usually cut into
soil
Source: Ramesh Venkatakrishnan

Gully. Larger
channels,
Rill Erosion. Individual they persist, grow
Channels do not persist headward and widen.
 Discharge
• The amount of water passing through a
channel cross-section in unit time

• Q=v *A where v is the average flow

velocity [meters / second] through a cross
section A [meters2]

Thus Q has units meters3/second

Photo by Natalie Romanoff
Used with Permission
Bedrock Channels
Cut down by:
• Solution Weathering - Limestone
• Plucking (= quarrying) esp. jointed rocks
– Fast moving water gets in cracks and pushes
blocks free. Cycles of wetting and drying, or
freezing and thawing, loosen blocks
• Abrasion
– the impact of rolling and bouncing detritus.

Notice I skipped page 200 lower right beginning "Soil Erosion" and resumed page 203 right "Bedrock Channels"
 Waterfalls
• p 205 right "In stratified rocks of contrasting
lithology … each resistant layer forms a
waterfall in a bedrock channel, usually with a
plunge pool" that scours the underlying beds.
• p206 left (paraphrased for clarity) As the
waterfalls migrate headward, if the resistant
layer dips headward, waterfalls will [become
smaller]; if layers dip seaward, the waterfall
may grow in height.
Local change in base level affects river profiles: nickpoints

Resistant layer dips headward

 Alluvial Channels

• Channels usually lined with

alluvium
• Removed and carried further
downstream during flood
• Re-deposited during wane
 Width, Depth, Current Velocity and Longitudinal Profile
p 207 r para 1
"As mean discharge of a river increases downstream, channel
width, channel depth, and mean current velocity all increase."
Drainage Divide
Tributaries

Gradient decreases downstream

Factors that increase downstream:
Velocity
Discharge
Channel size
Water flows with less friction in larger channels Distributaries
Trunk Stream maintains velocity with less slope p209 l And Delta
 Ultimate Base Level Control
• At sea level, no further conversion of potential energy to
stream work is possible.

• Sea level lowered at least 100 m during peaks of

glaciation. Headwaters were higher, stream water had
more potential energy, faster streams cut deep canyons

• All rivers now enter the sea via estuaries (drowned lower
valleys) or deltas (sediment filling lower valleys).
 Overbank deposition during flooding

Flood over banks into wider area, lower velocity, sand drops .(Muddy water over floodplain)
We can recognize past floods Floods change the local
conditions
6_6
Fine-grained sediment
on floodplain
Older sediment
1 Pre-flood Bounders on
bottom, sands and
muds suspended
Flood water

Erosion of uppermost
fine-grained sediment

2 Flood stage

Flood: One source of

Graded Bedding
Fining-upward
flood deposit
Bedding plane is an
erosional surface
3 Post-flood
skip 211r, 212, 213
Important definitions

Load, Competence
• Streams transport sediment
• Transported material is called load
• Types of load
– Dissolved load – ions in solution from weathering
– Suspended load – fine particles*
– Bed load Moves during high velocity events
Sandy Portion – Saltation (bouncing)
Cobbles – Traction (rolling)
• Competence – Largest particles it can move
Proportional to velocity squared KE = 1/2 mV2
*Our Buckingham Pi studies of grain in fluid
• Deposition of sediment by a stream
• Caused by a decrease in
velocity
–Competence is reduced
–Sediment begins to drop
out
http://www.geo.cornell.edu/geology/classes/Geo101/graphics/AKbraid_stream.gif
 Page 215
Similitude
• For model studies that teach us about the
real world, Similitude (similarity) is needed
• Dimensionless numbers such as the
Reynolds Number Re = vR/
must be the same in model and real world
• R is the channel cross sectional area
divided by the length of the wetted
perimeter
skip 216, 217, 281 left
 Dimensionless Numbers for Streams

• Froude Number Fr = v type of turbulence

(gd)1/2
• Tranquil, or supercritical flow. Latter standing wave, resistance to flow
• Supercritical mostly in narrow bedrock channels in flood

• Reynolds Number Re = vR/laminar or turbulent

• Drag Coefficient CD = F grain suspension

 V 2D 2

These are related to competence and erosion

 Capacity
• Maximum mass of sediment a
stream can transport.

• Measured by amount of
suspended load.

skip 219 220 left

 Channel Shape, Habit, Solid Load
• Q determines cross-sectional
channel shape and
• HABIT (shape from space) measured using thalweg
• Straight: Suspended load channels (<3% bedload)
• Meandering: single sinuous channel, carries mostly
suspended load, with point bars,
loops
• Braided: bedload > 11% total, high channel width to
depth, mid-channel bars
Background: Figure 10-15 from text, p.221, after Schumm, 1981
Braided Stream
 Erosion and deposition along
a meandering stream

Meanders get more extreme with time. Note the THALWEG (blue arrows)
 Channel moves in direction of cutbank
Pointbar advances as crossbed drapes

Meandering
Stream

Oxbow

Floodplain
http://hays.outcrop.org/gallery/rivers/arid_meander?full=1
Reminder: Point Bar Sequence
Fines of Floodplain

Crossbeds of Bar

Gravel of bed

Erosion
 Braided Streams

• Braided: high total load; bedload > 11% total, high

channel width to depth; mid-channel bars

Braided Stream
 Graded Streams
• Grade: natural tendency toward self
regulation
• Changing conditions cause adjustment
– Sudden extra sediment narrows channel:
so faster flow and much more erosion during flood,
so blockage removed and previous channel shape
reestablished.
Demo: narrow channel of lab hose

http://www.tweed.nsw.gov.au/Educ
ation/rm_4_bankerosion.htm