River Processes
This process wears away the river bed and banks.
What is erosion?
This is a bend in a river.
What is a meander?
This steep vertical drop in a river is often found in the upper course.
What is a waterfall?
This is a piece of land that sticks out into the sea.
What is a headland?
This is the movement of sediment along the coast by waves approaching at an angle.
What is longshore drift?
This process is when a river drops the material it is carrying.
What is deposition?
This horseshoe-shaped lake is formed when a meander is cut off.
What is an oxbow lake?
This narrow, steep-sided valley is often left behind after a waterfall retreats.
What is a gorge?
This curved inlet of the sea between two headlands is called this.
What is a bay?
This is a narrow ridge of sand or shingle attached to the coast at one end.
What is a spit?
This process happens when rocks carried by the river scrape against the channel.
What is abrasion?
This wide, flat area beside a river often floods after heavy rain.
What is a floodplain?
These are steep ridges of land in a V-shaped valley that a river winds around.
What are interlocking spurs?
This opening in a headland is formed when waves erode through it.
What is an arch?
This is a ridge of sand or shingle that stretches across a bay.
What is a bar?
This type of erosion happens when the force of water breaks air into cracks in the rock.
What is hydraulic action?
These raised river banks are built up by repeated flooding and deposition.
What are levees?
This fast-flowing, turbulent stretch of shallow river water is called this.
What are rapids?
This isolated pillar of rock in the sea is left after an arch collapses.
What is a stack?
These are wooden or rock barriers built at right angles to the coast to trap sediment.
What are groynes?
This process makes river load smaller and rounder as rocks hit each other during transport.
What is attrition?
This triangular landform forms where a river meets the sea and deposits sediment.
What is a delta?
This is the name for a smaller river or stream that joins a larger river.
What is a tributary?
This low remnant of a stack, often worn down by wave erosion, is called this.
What is a stump?
This hard engineering structure is built parallel to the shore to protect the coast from erosion.
What is a seawall?