13/9/07

The Middle and Lower Course of a River

What are the main processes that operate in the

middle and lower course of a river?
Erosion is still an important process. The river is now flowing over
flatter land and so the dominant direction of erosion is lateral.

The river has a greater discharge and so has more energy to transport
material. Material that is transported by a river is called its load.

Deposition is also an important process and occurs when the velocity

of the river decreases or if the discharge falls due to a dry spell of
weather.

Middle and lower courses of rivers have a higher discharge than the
upper course because water from the rest of the drainage basin has
drained into the river in its middle and lower course.

How is material transported downstream?

- Traction This is where boulders and pebbles are rolled along the
river bed at times of high discharge.
- Saltation Sand sized particles are bounced along the river bed by
the flow of water
- Suspension Fine clay and sand particles are carried along within
the water, even at low discharges
- Solution Some minerals dissolve in water such as calcium
carbonate. This requires very little energy.

What landforms are found in the middle and lower

course of a river?
Landforms found can include:
1. Meanders, created by deposition and erosion
2. Oxbow lakes, created by deposition and erosion
3. Floodplains and Leveés, created by deposition
4. Deltas, created by deposition

How are these landforms created?

Meander
A meander is a bend in a river.
On the outside of a meander bend you get a river cliff. On the inside
you get a slip-off slope.
As the course of a river approaches its middle stages it flows over
flatter land. Lateral erosion dominates as the river swings in large
bends known as meanders. Meanders constantly change their shape
and position.

Water is pushed to the outer bend. This reduces friction with the bed
and banks. So the river has more energy for transporting material
which can erode the outside bank via abrasion.

Fastest flow
 Fastest Flow

Inner Bend
Outer Bend

River Cliff

Slip Off Slope

Undercutting

Area of deposition

Oxbow Lakes
How is an oxbow lake formed?
1. In a meander the water is pushed to the outside bend.
2. Greater velocity means that the river ahs more energy to erode
3. Processes such as corrasion will cause lateral erosion
4. Continual erosion on the outside bend narrows the meander
neck.
5. The river floods and takes a shortest route, cutting through the
neck.
6. The fastest current is now in the centre of the channel.
7. Deposition occurs along the banks of the river.
8. The meander becomes cut off to leave an oxbow lake.
9. The lake will slowly dry up unless rainfall is very high.
 Strongest Current
Sediments deposited
on inside of bend

Rapid Erosion on
outer side of banks

The Gap between

the two arms of the
river has narrowed
by erosion
 River still Flows
around meander

River Breaks through

gap when in flood

Old Path of now dry

river

Abandonded
Meander or Oxbow
Current along lake
straighter path
becomes dominant

Floodplains
Floodplain Formation
Floodplains and levees are formed by deposition in times of river flood.
The river’s load is composed of different sized particles. When a river
floods it deposits the heaviest of these particles first. The larger
particles, often pebble-sized, form the levees. The sands, silts and
clays are similarly sorted with the sands being deposited next, then
the silts and finally the lightest clays. Every time the river floods
deposition builds up the floodplain.

Width of Floodplain

Bluff LIne

Bluff LIne
Coarser Material Levee
Finer Material
Deposited first
Carried further
Layers of silt Channel
deposited by earlier
floods

River

Bedload causes bed

of river to rise

Deltas
Delta Formation
Deltas are found at the mouth of a river, where the river is carrying too
much load for its velocity and so deposition occurs. The top of the
delta is a fairly flat surface. This is where the coarsest river load is
dropped. The finer particles are carried into deeper water. The silt is
dropped to form a steep slope on the edge of the delta while the clay
stays in suspension until it reaches the deeper water.

A delta is usually composed of fine sediment which is deposited when

a river loses energy and competence as it flows into an area of slow-
moving water such as a lake or the sea. When rivers like the
Mississippi or the Nile reach the sea, the meeting of fresh and salt
water produces an electric charge which causes clay particles to
coagulate and to settle on the seabed, a process called flocculation.

Deltas are so called because it was thought that their shape resembled
that of delta, the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet (Δ)/ in fact, deltas
vary greatly in shape but geomorphologist’s have grouped them into
three basic forms:
- arcuate: having a rounded, convex outer margin, e.g. the Nile
- Cuspate: where the material brought down by a river is spread
out evenly on either side of its channel, e.g. The Tiber.
- Bird’s foot: where the river has many tributaries bounded by
sediment and which extend out to sea like the claws of a bird’s
foot, e.g. the Mississippi.
Although deltas provide some of the world’s most fertile land, their
flatness makes them high flood-risk areas, while the shallow and
frequently changing river channels hinder navigation.

Key Ideas
- Processes of erosion, transport and deposition operate to create
the landforms of the middle and lower course of a river
- There are four types of transport: traction, saltation, suspension
and solution
- The main direction of erosion is lateral
- Erosion and deposition contribute to the formation of meanders
and ox-bow lakes
- Deposition is the main process contributing to the formation of
floodplains, leveés and deltas.

Hjulstrom graph shows the relationship between velocity and particle

size being transported. It basically shows that the higher the river
discharge the higher the potential to carry larger parts of load. The
bottom part of the graph shows with what discharge levels the sizes of
particles would not be eroded. The erosion velocity is the velocity at
which the particles would be eroded or transported in suspension. The
middle part of the graph shows just where the particles would be
transported, but possibly not in suspension.