1001 Space Earth Earth Rocks and Minerals Landscape Sea Weather and Climate Natural Disasters Resources Nature History Human World Science and Technology

Choose a Page:What is the rock cycle?What is weathering?What shapes the cliffs along the s...Do rocks dissolve?Can living things break down rocks?How are caves made?How do sand dunes move?Why do desert rocks have fantastic...*How do rivers form?*What makes waterfalls?What is scree?What is an oxbow lake?Is all erosion slow? How do rivers form? Rain falls in the hills and sinks into the ground. When the rocks and soil cannot hold any more water, the water bubbles to the surface in a spring and runs off downhill, eroding a gorge as it goes. In lower-lying land it runs more slowly, and although it is still eroding the sides of the valleys, it is also depositing the material that it has eroded upstream. Eventually the river becomes so slow that it cannot carry any more debris, and it deposits the sediment in a flood plain, before reaching the sea.   Previous: Back Book: 1001 Section: Earth Chapter: Landscape