Ch 15: Running Water: Help and Review
About This Chapter
Who's it for?
Anyone who needs help learning or mastering college earth science material will benefit from taking this course. You will be able to grasp the subject matter faster, retain critical knowledge longer and earn better grades. You're in the right place if you:
- Have fallen behind in understanding running water or working with its formation.
- Need an efficient way to learn about running water.
- Learn best with engaging auditory and visual tools.
- Struggle with learning disabilities or learning differences, including autism and ADHD.
- Experience difficulty understanding your teachers.
- Missed class time and need to catch up.
- Can't access extra science learning resources at school.
How it works:
- Start at the beginning, or identify the topics that you need help with.
- Watch and learn from fun videos, reviewing as needed.
- Refer to the video transcripts to reinforce your learning.
- Test your understanding of each lesson with short quizzes.
- Submit questions to one of our instructors for personalized support if you need extra help.
- Verify you're ready by completing the Running Water chapter exam.
Why it works:
- Study Efficiently: Skip what you know, review what you don't.
- Retain What You Learn: Engaging animations and real-life examples make topics easy to grasp.
- Be Ready on Test Day: Use the Running Water chapter exam to be prepared.
- Get Extra Support: Ask our subject-matter experts any relevant question. They're here to help!
- Study With Flexibility: Watch videos on any web-ready device.
Students will review:
In this chapter, you'll learn the answers to questions including:
- What are the defining features of drainage basins?
- How do laminar and turbulent streamflows differ?
- How do deposition and erosion affect landforms?
- How do stream valleys form?
- What is the base level of a stream, and how does it affect erosion?
- What is the difference between alluvial and bedrock channels?

1. Drainage Basins: Definition & Characteristics
Drainage Basins are the area that precipitation flows to and is collected through runoff or other streams. See how basins are affected by landscape in river systems, and explore examples of the United States' drainage basin characteristics.

2. Laminar & Turbulent Streamflows
Laminar streamflow is distinguished by parallel layers of water particles, with minimal physiological disruptions, whereas turbulent streamflow involves mixed, often erratic, layers. Learn the different features and the application of each streamflow to an ecosystem.

3. Effect of Erosion and Deposition on Landforms
Erosion and deposition affect landforms through the movement of broken-down rock from place to place, and the laying down of broken rock. Explore the process and differences between mechanical and chemical weathering and learn about landforms and how erosion and deposition affect landforms.

4. How a Landform Diagram Describes the Geological Progression of a Landscape
A landform diagram provides a window into the past, present, and future of our shared planet. Using the key ideas of uniformitarianism, the law of original horizontally, the law of superposition, crosscutting relations, and unconformities, learn to deduce the progression of a landscape, just like a geologist.

5. The Formation of Stream Valleys
A stream valley is an elongated depression in the ground with water flowing at the lowest point. Learn what a stream valley is and explore how water, time, and erosion help form them.

6. Base Level of a Stream: Definition & Effect on Erosion
In bodies of water, base level is the lowest level that a water current can move without eroding its basin. Learn about the base level of a stream, including its definition and effect on erosion. Explore ultimate base level, as well as local base level, and review examples of local base levels.

7. Bedrock Channels: Formation & Process
Bedrock channels are paths that are eroded and that cut through bedrock, or foundations of solid rock. Discover more about bedrock channels, including how alluvium differs from them and the two processes that can form these channels.

8. Alluvial Channels: Definition & Types
As a water channel, alluvial channels are composed of loose sediments, or alluvium. Explore more about alluvial channels, the two types, and their characteristics.

9. Yangtze River: Facts, History & Location
In this lesson you will learn some interesting facts about the Yangtze River, a beautiful waterway in China. Discover the importance of this river in Chinese history, and then take a short quiz at the end of this lesson to test what you have learned.
Earning College Credit
Did you know… We have over 220 college courses that prepare you to earn credit by exam that is accepted by over 1,500 colleges and universities. You can test out of the first two years of college and save thousands off your degree. Anyone can earn credit-by-exam regardless of age or education level.
To learn more, visit our Earning Credit Page
Other Chapters
Other chapters within the College Earth Science: Help and Review course
- Earth Science Basics: Help and Review
- GED Science: Earth and Space Science
- Geologic Time: Help and Review
- Properties of Matter: Help and Review
- Earth's Spheres and Internal Structure: Help and Review
- Plate Tectonics: Help and Review
- Minerals and Rocks: Help and Review
- Igneous Rocks: Help and Review
- Volcanoes: Help and Review
- Weathering and Erosion: Help and Review
- Sedimentary Rocks - A Deeper Look: Help and Review
- Metamorphic Rocks - A Deeper Look: Help and Review
- Rock Deformation and Mountain Building: Help and Review
- Water Balance: Help and Review
- Ground Water: Help and Review
- Glaciers: Help and Review
- Oceans: Help and Review
- Coastal Hazards: Help and Review
- The Atmosphere: Help and Review
- Weather and Storms: Help and Review
- Earthquakes: Help and Review
- Earth History: Help and Review
- Energy Resources: Help and Review