7.

STREAMS
7.1 Definition

Stream is a flowing water with in a channel of any size. Most streams begin on
high ground, among hills or mountains.
•The sources of a stream usually consist of melting snow/ice or an overflowing lake
and precipitation.
• At the end of a stream is the mouth which empties into another body of water.
• Streams can be as small as a shallow brook or as large as a river, the largest and
most important streams.
• Streams can be intermittent or perennial.
• Most rivers form from many smaller streams coming together, these are called
tributaries.
• Tributaries – are streams or rivers that flow into a larger stream or river.
• The more tributaries that empty into a river the larger the river grows.
• Together the river and its tributaries are called a river system (Fig. 1).
The total area that contributes water to a stream system is called drainage basin. It
is the spatial geomorphic area occupied by a river system.
The drainage basin includes both the tributaries and rivers that convey the water as
well as the land surfaces from which water drains into those channels, and is
separated from adjacent basins by a drainage divide.
The drainage basin acts as a funnel by collecting all the water within the area
covered by the basin and channeling it to a single point. Each drainage basin is
separated topographically from adjacent basins by a geographical barrier such as
a ridge, hill or mountain.
Other terms that are used to

describe a drainage basin are catchment,

catchment area, catchment basin,

drainage area, river basin and water basin.

Figure 1. Drainage basin.

7.2 Genesis
In any drainage basin, water initially moves down slope in a thin film called sheet
flow, or overland flow. This surface runoff concentrates in rills, or small-scale
downhill grooves, which may develop into deeper gullies and a stream course in a
valley.
Sheet flow → Rills → Gullies → Stream/River

Figure 2. Evolution streams (Stream development).

7.3 Drainage Pattern

Viewed from the air, streams and their tributaries etch characteristic
drainage patterns into the landscapes that they drain.

Drainage pattern refers to the arrangement of channels in an area as

determined by the steepness, variable rock resistance, variable climate,
hydrology, relief of the land, and structural controls imposed by the
landscape.
Common drainage patterns in fractured, jointed and faulted soft and hard rock formations
and their geological significance

Type Description Geological Control

Dendritic Irregular, branching of streams, resembling a Homogeneous materials and crystalline
tree rocks; horizontal beds; gentle regional
slope
Rectangular Streams having right angled bands Jointed/faulted rocks, e.g. sandstones,
quartzites etc.
Rectilinear Straight line pattern Strong linear structural control
Angulate Streams joining at acute angles Joints/fractures at acute angles to each
other
Parallel Channels running nearly parallel to each other Steep slopes; also in areas of parallel
elongate landforms
Trellis Main streams running parallel, and minor Dipping or folded sedimentary or low-
tributaries joining the main streams nearly at grade meta-sedimentary rocks; areas of
right angles parallel fractures
Radial Streams originating from a central point or Volcanic cones, domes and residual
region erosional features
Annular Ring-like pattern Structural domes
Figure 3.
Different
drainage
patterns.
7.4 Channel Geomorphology
Characteristics Features of the Upper Course of River Valleys

In their upper courses the cross profiles of most river valleys are
narrow and V-shaped while the gradient of the valley is usually steep
and interrupted by waterfalls and rapids. In this position erosion is
more active than deposition. Streams tend to follow a winding
course, avoiding resistant outcrops where possible so causing valley
spurs to overlap or interlock. The river fills the whole of the valley
floor which is constantly deepened by vertical erosion, while the
sides are worn back by weathering , mass wasting and downwash. In
this way the valley attains its V-shape.
Figure 4. Upper stream valley characteristics.
Landforms Characteristics of the Lower Course of River Valleys
In the lower course the cross profile of river valleys is usually broad and flat-
floored, while the gradient of the valley is gentle. The valley floor is much wider
than the river channel, and the major landform of the lower course is an extensive
flood plain, across which the river winds in constantly shifting loops or meanders.

Figure 5. Downstream valley characteristics.

7.5 Two contrasting Stream types

Meandering stream
Meanders are the curved bends of a river channel. Straight channels are most
apparent in small streams on very steep slopes or where the channel is controlled
by joints or faults.

A meandering stream has a large suspended load but adequate discharge to carry it.

Figure 6. Meandering stream.

As the streams meanders, the river current develops a corkscrew action.
The fast-moving water with the greatest energy is directed towards the
downstream side of the outer bank causing undercutting, while a return
flow of water a cross the bottom of the channel deposits some of the load
against the inner banks. The constant erosion of the concave bank produces
a river cliff and the deposition on the convex bank forms a slip-off slope.

Braided stream
A braided stream is an extremely wide, shallow stream in which the stream
divides and subdivides in a series of interconnecting minor channels
separated by sandbank and islands of alluvium. The sandbars and minor
channels are generally unstable and during floods may all be submerged.
Braided most is common in heavily loaded streams flowing between
banks of easily eroded material. It develops with the deposition of
shoals of coarse material, such as sands and gravels, on the river
beds. These gradually increase in size and form islands.

Figure 7 . Braided stream

Oxbow / Oxbow lake

An oxbow is the horseshoe-shaped final section of a once very pronounced

meanders, now separated from the main stream. Those that still contain
water are called oxbow lakes. In other words, an oxbow lake is a curved
lake produced when a stream cuts off a meander. Oxbows are formed along
parts of the floodplain where meanders are so sharp that only a narrow neck
of land remains between two meander loops. The narrow neck develops at
times of high discharge when maximum erosion of the outer bank is
displaced and shifts to the downstream side of the meander curve.
Eventually during flood the neck may be broken through, and the river may
bypass the meander, cutting it off by deposition at the old meander neck.
Figure 8. Oxbow lake. A crescent-shaped, abandoned
meander channel isolated from the stream channel by a
meander cutoff and sedimentation.
7.6 Flood Plain

The flood plain is a wide flat plain of alluvium on the floor of a river
valley across which the river flows in a meandering or braided
channels. During floods the river may spread over the entire width of
the plain. Most flood plains are marshy, with several swamps and
small lakes. A flood plain develops through the meandering of a river.
As the river swings back and forth across the valley, it widens the
valley floor.

Figure 9 . Flood plain.

7.7 Alluvial fans

An alluvial fans is a fan-shaped deposit of fairly coarse material laid down by a

stream with a large load as it emerges from a steep, narrow valley, such as a ravine
or gully, onto a wide gentle plain. A sharp increase in channel width and decrease
in gradient causes a marked reduction in stream energy resulting in sudden
deposition. Fans ranges in size from a few meters to several kilometers . They are
similar to deltas, except that they are formed on land and are therefore sometimes
called “dry deltas’. They tend to have a steeper gradient than deltas, sloping up
towards the apex.

Figure 10. Alluvial fan.

7.8 Deltas

A delta is a large, flat, low-lying plain of river deposits laid down where a
river flows into the sea or a lake. Most have a triangular shape and project
beyond the shoreline. The delta surface is near sea level and is swampy
with several small lakes and lagoons formed by river and marine
deposition. Many deltas are covered by swamp vegetation and, in the
tropics, mangroves.

Delta formation depends on the amount of sediment deposited relative to

the amount removed by waves and tidal currents.

The shape and size of a delta is determined by the nature and quantity of
sediment, together with the strength of waves and tidal currents.
There are 3 main types of delta:

1. Arcuate – built by rivers with many distributaries carrying both

fine and coarse materials, where offshore currents are strong
enough to round the delta’s seaward edge.

2. Estuarine - built by rivers depositing materials in a submerged

river mouth forming sand banks and islands, a round which wind
several distributaries.

3. Birdfoot – formed by rivers carrying large loads of mainly fine

material into water where wave energy is low. A few very long
distributaries, bordered by levees, just out from the shore.
 Figure 1 Arcuate Figure 12. Estuarine

Figure 13 . Bird foot.

7.9 Stream Flow
Two types flow determined primarily by velocity of the stream. These are:
laminar flow and turbulent flow.
Laminar flow - A type of flow in which water moves in straight paths
parallel to the channel.
Turbulent flow - A type of flow in which irregular, chaotic motions are
superimposed on the general current direction. Water flows as
discrete eddies and vortices.
Factors that determine velocity are:
Gradient, or slope of the stream: the steepness or slope over a specific
length of a stream channel.
Channel characteristics: including shape, size, and roughness of the stream
channel.
7.10 Stream Discharge
Stream discharge is the volume of water moving past a particular point in a
stream over a given time interval (usually 1 second). It, measured in cubic meters
per second, is the product of the cross-sectional area of the channel and the stream
velocity.
At a given locality, stream velocity, channel width, and channel depth vary along
with discharge, which is commonly controlled by seasonal rainfall patterns and
snow melt. Because the main trunk of a stream system must transmit all the water
funneled into it by its tributaries, discharge tend to increase in the down stream
direction.

Figure 14. Stream discharge measurement.

7.11 Transport

Geologists refer to all of the materials transported by a stream as its load. Materials
are transported by streams in three ways: dissolved ions in dissolved load, fine
particles in suspended load, and larger particles in bed load.

Larger, heavier particles are dragged and skipped along the bottom as bed load. Fine
particles carried within the mass of the stream make up the suspended load, and ions
carried in solution are the dissolved load. Most dissolved load is brought to streams
by groundwater seepage into the channel. The ions in solution are derived from
chemical weathering of rock and soil.

Most of the solid load of a stream is probably transported in suspension. This load
frequently colors the stream or makes it opaque.

In humid regions where chemical weathering is high, streams have grater dissolved
loads. In arid regions, streams have low dissolved loads and high suspended loads.