watershed and its divide what’s the situation at points a and b in terms of: a. gradient b. stream...
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Watershed and its divide
What’s the situation at points A and B in terms of: a. gradient b. stream velocity c. erosive power?
Headwaters
What does a stream carry and how?
• Total load (visible and invisible)– Suspended load (~ 90% of total, by weight)– Bed load (~ 10% of total)– Dissolved load (chemical ions)
• Discharge– Volume of water passing a point in a given
amount of time; usually cubic feet (or meters) per second
– Depends on cross sectional area; becomes higher when area is reduced
Note the asymmetry of the channel and the stream bed. Where is the fastest velocity and why?
What size particles are carried in the different locations in the water?
2
31
4
Characteristics of a meandering river
Anatomy of a stream
• Where do velocity lines lie in the stream?
• Where do erosion and deposition take place?
Depositional feature – alluvial fan
Depositional feature - delta
Changes in sinuosity (curvedness)
Entrenched stream
Meandering stream
What differences do you notice in these two rivers?
D Best
Braided streams
High sediment load
Floodplains
Floodplains
Erosion and deposition along meanders
floodplain
Formation of a cutoff
Note how increased sinuosity causes an eventual cutoff due to the stream taking the shortest course
Natural levees
Levees- natural and artificial
Types of drainage patterns
Types of floods• Flash
– Localized areas, usually thunderstorms; common in deserts
– Examples:• Antelope Canyon, AZ August 1997 11 died• Big Thompson Canyon, CO July 1976 145 died• Need to consider where storms are—seldom directly
overhead but up drainage area
• Regional, downstream– Prolonged rain which saturates ground or delayed
snowmelt– Floodplain covered
Flash flood vs downstream flood
Typically a narrowChannel; water risesFast; usually flash type
Wider area, oftenfarmland that getsflooded; generallyregional type
Flood frequency
• Recurrence interval– Length of time in years separating floods of a similar
size [measured as volume of flow of stream]– Larger floods have a longer time interval – We speak of the 100-yr flood, one that has a 1%
probability of occurring once in a given year– 20-yr flood would have a 5% likelihood of occurring in
a given year– Oak Creek to the south of Flagstaff experienced three
100-yr floods in a decade due to combinations of rare conditions
Flood activity in the U. S.
Large rivers in conterminous U.S.
Mississippi River basin facts• Mississippi River drains 42% of the U. S.• Greatest inundation floods in US occur here• 3rd largest river basin in world• 11 of 28 largest rivers in US are part of the
Mississippi River system• Avg flow 645,000 cu ft/sec• 1 cu ft = ~7.5 gal, so this is 4.83 million gals/sec
or 100+ swimming pools PER SEC
Drainage of Mississippi River
Mississippi River flooding 1992-93
Effects of flooding
Major flooding between 1993 and 1997
Missouri River in 1993
Our response to flooding• Dams
– Only provide some flood protection—not control; if full, lakes must be drained; failure of dam is major problem
• Levees– Create false sense of security; if water breeches levee, it doesn’t
drain well• Sandbagging
– Very short term solution• Zoning and insurance
– Can’t build in 100-yr floodplain; most people don’t buy floodplain insurance knowing fed govt will bail them out
• Channelization– Clear, deeper, wider, straighter paths for water – everything goes
against idea of graded stream [one seeking equilibrium]