What's covered
Key facts
Drainage Basin
A confluence is where two rivers meet: it is not where a river meets the sea (that point is called the mouth).
River Landforms
A delta forms at a river's mouth as it enters a sea or lake and loses energy.
River Processes
Abrasion in a river is the scraping action of rocks and sediment along the riverbed and banks.
Drainage Basin
A confluence is the location where two rivers (or streams) meet.
River Landforms
A delta is a fan-shaped landform of sediment deposited where a river meets the sea or a lake.
River Processes
Deposition is the dropping of sediment by a river as it loses energy and can no longer carry its load.
Drainage Basin
A drainage basin is the area of land drained by a river and all its tributaries.
River Landforms
A floodplain is the flat land alongside a river that is periodically flooded.
River Processes
Rivers deposit sediment when their velocity decreases, not increases; faster flow keeps material in transport.
Drainage Basin
The mouth of a river is where it meets the sea or a lake.
Practice questions with answers
A taste of the 30 questions in this topic, answers marked. Sign up to practise the full set with spaced repetition.
What is a tributary?
- •Boundary between two basins
- •Lake at the river's mouth
- •Place where the river starts
- ✓Smaller river joining a larger one
Why do meanders form in the middle course of a river?
- •Flooding pushes the river sideways, creating a curved channel
- •Large boulders force the river to wind around obstacles
- ✓Outer bank erosion and inner bank deposition gradually exaggerate bends
- •The river follows curves in the valley floor left by glaciation
Which of the three main river processes involves the wearing away of the riverbed and banks?
- •Deposition
- ✓Erosion
- •Transportation
- •Weathering
What is the 'confluence' of a river?
- •Side of a meander
- •Top edge of a waterfall
- •Where a river meets the sea
- ✓Where two rivers meet
Where is a meander typically found?
- ✓Middle course of a river
- •On the watershed
- •Right at the mouth
- •Source of the river
Where does a river's steep gradient give it the most energy for vertical erosion?
- •At the mouth where the river is widest and deepest
- •At the source where the water is fresh and clean
- •In the lower course where discharge is greatest
- ✓The upper course, where the gradient is steepest
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