Geology 115/History 150 Name:
Assignment 4: Streams and floods
Due Tuesday, April 26
There are a lot of terms when describing surface water. Compare and contrast the following (in thirty words or less): stream network vs. drainage (watershed, catchment basin)
tributary vs. distributary stream velocity vs. discharge
braided stream vs. meandering stream stream profile vs. stream gradient
cut bank vs. point bar
alluvium vs. floodplain

What is an antecedent stream? How does it help tell the geologic history of an area that has been uplifted? Describe, succinctly, the geologic story of the
Columbia River and the repeated flows of the Columbia River Basalts, told at http://gorgefloods.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/IAFI-CGC-Central-Gorge-
Fieldtrip-Guide.pdf (there’s a nice map on page 3).
Much of the development debate in this country concerns the urbanization of
wetlands areas. What role do wetlands play in the hydrologic cycle? Notice that this is not a biology question (though, of course, wetlands are quite important biologically!).