Vocabulary Chapter 13 – Surface Water
Write the definition in YOUR OWN WORDS and then draw a picture to illustrate the word.
Base level - The level of the body of water into which a stream flows.
Bed load – Sand, pebbles, and boulders that are moved along the bed of a stream and that are
too heavy to be carried in suspension.
Capacity – A measure of the total amount of sediment a stream can carry.
Competence – A measure that describes the maximum size of the particles a stream can carry.\
Delta – A fan-shaped deposit that forms when a river flows into a quiet or large body of water,
such as a lake, an ocean or an inland sea.
Deposition – The process by which materials are dropped, such as sand or silt by a stream; also,
the process by which frost forms when water vapor condenses as a solid.
Discharge – The volume of water that passes a certain point in a stream or river in a given
amount of time.
Divide – The higher land that separates one drainage basin from another.
Drainage basin – All the land that drains into the river either directly or through its tributaries;
a watershed.
Flash flood – A sudden flood, usually caused by intense, heavy rainfall.
Flood – The phenomenon whereby a river overflows its banks.
Flood plain – A wide, level area that borders a river and is covered by its water during flooding.
Gradient – The slope or incline of an area of land or of a stream.
Headward erosion – The process by which land is worn away at the head of gully or stream
valley.
Load – The eroded rock and soil materials that are transported downstream by a river.
Meanders – Broad, looping bends in a river.
Natural levees – Elevated ridges along a river’s bank that are formed by the deposition of the
river’s sediment load.
Oxbow lake – A crescent-shaped body of water formed when sediments deposited by a river
cut off a meander from the river.
Pothole – Deep oval or circular basins cut into a stream or river bed by abrasion from swirling
sand, pebbles, and small boulders.
River system – A river and all of its tributaries.
Stream piracy – The diversion of the upper part of one stream by the headward growth of
another stream.
Suspension – A state in which rock materials carried by a river are stirred up and kept from
sinking by the turbulence of stream flow.
Tributary – A stream that runs into another stream or river.
Watershed – All the land that drains into the river either directly or through its tributaries; a
drainage basin.