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Large boulders and smaller rocks can be carried by a river. When rocks and sediment are displaced, it's called erosion.
Clay particles are very fine grained and light weight, so easily carried along by flowing water.
Large boulders and smaller rocks can be carried by a river. When rocks and sediment are displaced, it's called erosion.
Traction : Larger objects (eg. boulders, rocks) roll along the river bed. Suspension : Minerals like clay or sand are carried alone the river without any contact with the river bed. Solution : Rocks and gravel bounce along the river bed Saltation : The water dissolves minerals like calcium in the water which become invisible to the naked eye.
Rocks and boulders carried by the water scour the land (in the same way as wire wool scratches metal) and the debris is carried to the river mouth.
sediment
Mature rivers carry large amounts of sediment along their lengths. This helps to shape the land and produce fertile farm lands.
Zambezi river
The load in a river can be transported in 4 ways. The first is Traction. It is when rocks and boulders are rolled along the river bed by the force of the water. The second is Saltation this is when stones and pebbles are bounced along the river bed. The third is Suspension this is when fine particles like silt floot along in the water. The last is Solution which is when the material dissolves in the water. These different methods are used depending on the size of the load to be transported and the energy of the river. A river needs little energy to transport a small mineral by solution but lots of energy to transport heavy boulders it by traction.
A stream can bounce large pebbles and boulders, along the stream bed. These rocks are called bed load. A stream can carry sand in suspension. These materials, called suspended load, make the river look muddy. The dissolved load is material carried in a solution, which means that the material is dissolved in the water. Sodium and calcium are some of the materials in the dissolved load.
Zambezi river
Suspended load