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Load
The material carried by a stream
Largest drainage basin in the United States
Mississippi River drainage basin
Chemical weathering
When minerals and rock react chemically in the air or water the mineral may weaken or dissolve away causing the rock to crumble
Drainage divide
Two jointing drainage basins are separated by a raised land area
Sheet erosion
A runoff pulls up on the ground and runs downhill stripping away the offense sheet of topsoil from the surface of the land
Floodplain
The level or nearly level land that borders a river is covered by water in flood time
Deposition
The eroded rock fragments are eventually set down deposited in a new location p
Caverns
Limestone is particularly suspectable to underground erosion as a result many limestone formations become filled with various passageways and large caves
Caves
Occurs beneath the earth's surface producing networks of underground cavities
Drainage basin
The region of land drained by a drainage system
Delta
When a large river reaches the ocean it deposites load of sediment and is a fan-shaped or triangular deposit extending from the mouth of a river into the sea
Oxbow lake
When a mender is bypassed it becomes cut off from the rest of the river for me a crescent shake body of water
Gullying
Running water may eventually carve a channel or gully into the ground that cannot be repaired by ordinary cultivation
Meanders
Winding looping curves of river
Ice wedging
Occurs when rainwater or melted ice soaks into tiny cracks in a rock in freezes
Erosion
Once a rock has undergone weathering physical processes like wind or running water may carry the rock fragments
Alluvial fan
The sediments are left on the plane in a Delta like deposit
Exfoliation
Involves the breaking or peeling away of rock in layers
drainage system
Consist of relatively large stream and any smaller streams that flow into it
Tributaries
Numerous streams that feed into the river at various points along the course increasing amount of water that it carries
Stalactite
Water dripping from the ceiling
Headwaters
In mountainous or North early areas these Brooks and streams
Levees
Difference in water flow causes the river to drop some of its sediments along the edges of the river's channel forming natural ridges
Rivers
Large streams that can carry water from mountains to the Sea
Runoff
During heavy rain more rain water may fall than can seep into the ground or evaporate the excess water