Rivers Change the Land
Terms
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- Groundwater
- The water beneath the Earth's surface
- Source
- Place where a river begins
- Channel
- The deepest part of a river or other body of water
- Mouth
- Place where a river empties into some larger body of water
- What are the three main parts of a river>
- Source, channel, mouth
- Tributaries
- A stream or river that flows into a larger stream or river
- River system
- A river and its tributaries
- Drainage basin
- Land drained by a river system
- Erosion
- Wearing away of the Earth's surface
- Floodplain
- Low flat land along a river
- Delta
- Triangle-shaped land at a river's mouth.
- How are the rivers in the Great Basin different from most other rivers in the United States?
- They flow into the low-lying land and have nowhere to go. Some rivers dry up; others flow into shallow muddy pools.
- How does a river erode the land?
- A river's current sweeps rocks and sand and soil down the river. It scrapes along the river bed and banks and carves a deep and wide path.
- Levee
- High wall made of earth
- Dam
- A wall built across a river to hold back water
- How does the river build up the land?
- It drops silt (fine sand and soil) at the mouth and if there is no strong current to carry it away, it builds up.
- What have people done to control flooding on rivers?
- Built levees and dams
- Why did levees fail to protect some areas against flooding?
- The levees broke