Abstract
Water is the most precious element on our planet, and therefore rivers also are called “veins of life”, particularly in arid or semi-arid landscapes. Rivers, however, are the forces which form valleys by cutting linear to oscillating depressions into the landscape. Even if the river is no longer present, we can easily identify the valleys as the result of previously flowing water (e.g., by well-rounded and stratified sediments, and the typical geomorphology of valleys). Evidently, to cut valleys in hard rock requires more than water. Debris of different sizes (from silt to boulders) transported by flowing water are the real tools of erosion and are responsible for the incision of valleys. Valley incision, however, needs some time, and valleys therefore may be rather old forms, up to many million years old. Exceptions are gully-like forms in soft rock, which may start to form within a single strong rainfall event. All in all, valleys of different length, depth, or form and shape are amongst the most frequent features in geomorphology, which gives apparent evidence that our Earth is a “water planet” even on the continents. In this chapter we will present examples of valleys in different climates and topographies, which exhibit different conditions of flowing water and sediment transport. The first part deals with flowing water and the incision of valleys, with additional specific features like meandering or anabranching rivers. The second part shows how rivers accumulate sediments in the forms of debris fans or river terraces. River terraces (also fluvial or alluvial terraces) accompany most rivers of the Earth as elongated and level former floodplains above the present one. These terraces are relicts of fluvial sediment accumulation and/or fluvial erosion and give evidence of the long and complex history of a river’s evolution indicated by periods of cut (fluvial incision) and fill (fluvial accumulation). As such, they indicate past changes of water discharge, stream power and sediment input, which may be triggered by climatic changes. In the temperate regions, generally known as areas influenced by strong climatic fluctuations during the last Ice Age, older valleys are filled by river sediments and the successive incision of the rivers into these sediments has formed a series of terraces along many rivers. In addition to climate, tectonics may influence terrace building by forcing the river to incise or deposit their sediments. Another form of fluvial deposition (except of fluvial deltas along the coasts of the Earth’s oceans and along the shores of lakes) is alluvial fans. They usually have the form of cones, starting at the point where rivers abruptly exit steeper and narrow valley sections and enter lowlands with reduced inclination, distributing their debris to all sides in front of a mountain range.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Further Readings
Bhattacharya JP, Giosan L (2003) Wave-influenced deltas: geomorphologic implications for facies reconstruction. Sedimentology 50:187–210
Brierley GJ, Fryirs KA (2005) Geomorphology and river management. Blackwell, Oxford
Correggiari A, Cattaneo A, Trincardi F (2005) Depositional patterns in the late-Holocene Po delta system. In: Giosan L, Bhattacharya J (eds) River deltas: concepts, models, examples, SEPM Special Publication 83. Tulsa, USA, pp 365–392
Dollar EJ (2000) Fluvial geomorphology. Prog Phys Geogr 24:385–406
Dollar EJ (2002) Fluvial geomorphology. Prog Phys Geogr 26:123–143
Dollar EJ (2004) Fluvial geomorphology. Prog Phys Geogr 28:405–450
Giosan L, Bhattacharya J (eds) (2005) River deltas: concepts, models, examples. SEPM Special Publication 83. Tulsa, Oklahoma (USA), 502 p
Graf GL (1988) Fluvial processes in drylands. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg
Gregory KJ, Benito G (eds) (2003) Palaeohydrology: understanding global change. Wiley, Chichester
Gregory KJ, Macklin MG, Walling DE (2006) Past hydrological events related to understanding global change: an ICSU research project. Catena 66:2–13
Hardy RJ (2005) Fluvial geomorphology. Prog Phys Geogr 29:411–425
Jacobson R, O’Connor JE, Oguchi T (2003) Surficial geologic tools in fluvial geomorphology. In: Kondolf GM, Piegay H (eds) Tools in fluvial geomorphology. Wiley, Chichester, pp 25–57
Juracek KE (2014) Geomorphic changes caused by the 2011 flood at selected sites along the lower Missouri River and comparison to historical floods. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1798-H. Reston, Virginia (USA), 15 p
Knighton D (1998) Fluvial forms and processes – a new perspective. Wiley, New York
Kondolf GM, Piégay H (eds) (2003) Tools in fluvial geomorphology. Wiley, Chichester
Macklin MG, Benito G, Gregory HJ et al (2006) Past hydrological events reflected in the Holocene fluvial history of Europe. Catena 66:145–154
Meade RH (1996) River-sediment inputs to major deltas. In: Milliman JD, Haq BU (eds) Sea level rise and coastal subsidence. Kluwer, Dordrecht, pp 63–85
Newson MD (2006) ‘Natural’ rivers, ‘hydrogeomorphological quality’ and river restoration: a challenging new agenda for applied fluvial geomorphology. Earth Surf Process Landf 31:1606–1624
Newson MD, Pitlick J, Sear DA (2002) Running water: fluvial geomorphology and restoration. In: Perrow MR, Davy AJ (eds) Handbook of ecological restoration, vol 1. University Press, Cambridge, pp 133–152
Nezu I, Nakagawa H (1993) Turbulence in open channel flows. Balkema, Rotterdam
Oti MN, Postma G (1995) Geology of deltas. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam
Piégay H, Grant G, Nakamura F, Trustrum N (2006) Braided river management: from assessment of river behaviour to improved sustainable development. In: Sambrook-Smith GH, Best JL, Bristow CS, Petts GE (eds) Braided rivers: process, deposits, ecology and management, International Association of Sedimentologists Special Publication 36. Blackwell Publishing, Malden, Massachusetts (USA), pp 257–275
Roberts HH (1997) Dynamic changes of the Holocene Mississippi River delta plain: the delta cycle. Journal of Coastal Research 13:605–627
Roy A, Lane S (2003) Putting the morphology back into fluvial geomorphology: the case of river meanders and tributary junctions. In: Trudgill S, Roy A (eds) Contemporary meanings in physical geography. From what to why? Arnold, London, pp 103–125
Thorndycraft VR, Benito G (2006) The Holocene fluvial chronology of Spain: evidence from a newly compiled radiocarbon database. Quat Sci Rev 25:223–234
Thorndycraft VR, Benito G, Gregory KJ (2008) Fluvial geomorphology: a perspective on current status and methods. Geomorphology 98:2–12
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Scheffers, A.M., May, S.M., Kelletat, D.H. (2015). Forms by Flowing Water (Fluvial Features). In: Landforms of the World with Google Earth. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9713-9_9
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-9713-9_9
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-017-9712-2
Online ISBN: 978-94-017-9713-9
eBook Packages: Earth and Environmental ScienceEarth and Environmental Science (R0)