fluvial

Dictionary: flu·vi·al (flū'vē-əl) pronunciation

adj.

Of, relating to, or inhabiting a river or stream.
Produced by the action of a river or stream.

[Middle English, from Latin fluviālis, from fluvius, river, from fluere, to flow.]

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Geography Dictionary: fluvial

Of, or referring to, a river, including the organisms within a river or the landforms produced by river action. Fluvial deposition comprises material worked or deposited by rivers, fluvial geomorphology is the study of the morphology of river landforms, and fluvial processes include flow processes and sediment and solute transport in rivers. Fluvial erosion consists of: the destruction of bedrock on the sides and bottom of the river; the erosion of channel banks; and the breaking down of rock fragments into smaller fragments.

WordNet: fluvial

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Note: click on a word meaning below to see its connections and related words.

The adjective has one meaning:

Meaning #1: of or relating to or happening in a river
Pertains to noun: river (meaning #1)

Wikipedia: Fluvial

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Fluvial is used in geography and earth science to refer to the processes associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them. When the stream or rivers are associated with glaciers, ice sheets, or ice caps, the term glaciofluvial or fluvioglacial is used.^[1]^[2]

1 Fluvial processes
2 References
3 See also
- 3.1 Fluvial processes
- 3.2 Fluvial landforms
4 See also

Fluvial processes

Erosion by moving water happens in two ways. First, the movement of water across the bed has an effect (This is called hydraulic action). Second, the sediment being transported in the river wears away the bed (Abrasion) and the fragments themselves are ground down becoming smaller and more rounded (Attrition).

The sediment is transported as either bedload (The coarser fragments which move close to the bed) and the suspended load (Finer fragments carried in the water). There is also a component carried as dissolved material.

For each grain size there is a specific velocity at which the grains start to move, called Entrainment velocity. However the grains will continue to be transported even if the velocity falls below the entrainment velocity due to the reduced (or removed) friction between the grains and the river bed. Eventually the velocity will fall low enough for the grains to be deposited. This is shown by the Hjulstrøm curve.

References

^ K.K.E. Neuendorf, J.P. Mehl, Jr., and J.A. Jackson, eds., 2005, Glossary of Geology. American Geological Institute, Alexandria, Virginia. 800 pp.
^ Wilson, W.E. & Moore, J.E. 2003. Glossary of Hydrology, American Geological Institute, Springer, 248pp.

		Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more
		Geography Dictionary. A Dictionary of Geography. Copyright © Susan Mayhew 1992, 1997, 2004. All rights reserved. Read more
		WordNet. WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. Read more
		Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Fluvial". Read more
		Translations. Copyright © 2007, WizCom Technologies Ltd. All rights reserved. Read more

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fluvial

Contents

Fluvial processes

References

See also

Fluvial processes

Fluvial landforms

See also