Abstract
Rivers are channelized flows of water which drain from the continents the precipitation falling as rain or snow, together with the dissolved and entrained particulate products of rock weathering. Today rivers carry annually to the oceans and seas approximately 14 km3 of weathered material, a substantial proportion of it in solution. Many rivers reach the sea or ocean only after traversing tidal mud-flats and estuaries, where further channels shaped by the mixed fresh and salt waters can be found. Indeed, by their ebbing and flooding, tidal waters can themselves create impressive channel systems in areas of saltmarsh and mud-flat. Confinement within laterally restricted channels seems to be an inevitable and universal feature of virtually all surface waters. River and tidal channels are unstable, however, and bend and shift over time, with the result that structured bodies of fluvial or tidal sediment arise to match the losses due to erosion. Why do river and tidal flows occupy channels? Why are those channels of a particular shape and size? What processes occur in channels, and how do they shape the sediment accumulations there?
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© 1985 J.R.L. Allen
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Allen, J.R.L. (1985). Winding down to the sea. In: Principles of Physical Sedimentology. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-9683-6_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-9683-6_5
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