Fluvial Landforms: Definition and Process

Definition

  • Fluvial landforms are those generated by running water, mainly rivers.

Process Involved

  • Hydration: The force of running water wearing down rocks.
  • Corrosion/Solution: Chemical action that leads to weathering.
  • Attrition: It involves wear & tear of transported material among them when they roll and collide with one another.
  • Corrosion or Abrasion: Solid river load striking against rocks and wearing them down.
  • Downcutting (Vertical Erosion): The erosion of the base of a stream. Downcutting leads to valley deepening.
  • Lateral Erosion: The erosion of the walls of a stream. Leads to valley widening.
  • Headward Erosion: Erosion at the origin of a stream channel, which causes the origin to move back away from the direction of the stream flow, and so causes the stream channel to lengthen.
  • Hydraulic Action: It involves Mechanical loosening & sweeping away of materials by river water. It occurs mainly by surging into the crevices & cracks of rocks & disintegrating them.

  • Braiding: The main water channel splits into multiple, narrower channels.
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