Where are braided streams likely to be found?
Braided streams tend to occur in rivers with high sediment loads and/or coarse grain sizes, and in rivers with steeper slopes than typical rivers with straight or meandering channel patterns.
What does a braided stream indicate?
Braided streams typically get their start when a central sediment bar begins to form in a channel due to reduced streamflow or an increase in sediment load. The central bar causes water to flow into the two smaller cross sections on either side. The smaller cross section results in a higher velocity flow.
Where do erosion and deposition occur in a braided stream?
The sediment in braided rivers is commonly coarse in the middle, and finer sediment is deposited in the shallow areas. Bars, which block the flow, will erode on the upstream side, and create areas of low flow on the downstream side, allowing for deposition to occur.
What characterizes a braided channel?
A braided channel is one that is divided into smaller channels by temporary islands called eyots. Braided channels tend to form in rivers that have a significant amount of sedimentary load, a steep profile and where discharge regularly fluctuates.
Do braided streams have variable discharge?
However, highly variable discharge is also typical of many braided rivers. These large fluctuations in discharge promote alternating channel degradation and aggradation which can suppress the establishment of vegetation on braided channel bars (Summerfield, 1991).
What is the difference between a meandering river and a braided river?
Meandering in both cases is a means for lowering channel slope relative to valley slope to balance stream power with river load. Braided streams require this compensation less commonly than single-channel rivers as they can also adjust friction by widening and adding anabranches.
How braided streams can form a Delta?
When the river reaches the sea, the meeting of fresh and salt water produces an electric charge which causes clay particles to flocculate together and settle on the sea bed. Over long periods of time, this deposition builds the characteristic geographic pattern of a river delta.
Is the Mississippi river a braided stream?
On March 1, waters on the Mississippi River remain largely confined to braided river channels. By March 20, water has risen substantially, especially south of the Ohio-Mississippi confluence. Water on the Mississippi is high enough to fill the river valley in several places.
Which river has braided channel in India?
The river Brahmaputra
The river Brahmaputra has a braided channel in its entire length in Assam. The north-eastern part of India is a region of high rainfall.
What is the difference between a meandering stream and a braided stream?
How does a braided stream differ from a meandering stream? A braided stream have numerous, subparallel braided channel strands. A meandering stream consists of a single highly sinuous channel. Thus, during normal flow, the sediment settles out and the channel becomes choked with sediment.