GEOL 100 Chapter Notes - Chapter 16.1: Drainage Divide, Strahler Number, Hydrograph
22 Apr 2019
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Document Summary
Potomac river has streams flowing into it, forming a drainage network. Water flowing in streams can move rock fragments and dissolved minerals from high elevations to low elevations. Discharge: the amount of water flowing in a given amount of time. Hydrograph: a graph showing the change in the amount of discharge over time. Drainage basin: a naturally defined area that flows from higher areas where the stream begins, to lower areas where the stream will flow. Runoff from rainfall, snowmelt, springs, or the water leaving a lake will flow out of the drainage basin at its low point. Drainage divide: the ridge between the two drainage basins and the boundary between water flowing into different drainage basins. Basin slow: helps determine how fast water in the basin empties after a heavy rain or after snowmelt. Ruoff from a steep basin is fast, and since water arrives downstream at the same time, there are higher discharge values.
