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USGS CMG InfoBank: Equilibrium

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Comment: 15:41 - 16:28 (00:47)

Source: Annenberg/CPB Resources - Earth Revealed - 19. Running Water I: Rivers, Erosion and Deposition

Keywords: "Douglas D. Rhodes", river, erosion, transportation, deposition, mountain, equilibrium, stream, "bed load", discharge, energy, "flow velocity", bank, bed

Our transcription: The basis of river dynamics is a state of balance between erosion, transportation, and deposition.

This is what every body of running water naturally seeks from its headwaters to its mouth.

Water literally has the power to move mountains in its quest for equilibrium.

The stream will always try to exist in a state of equilibrium between the load it's carrying and the discharge that it has.

If the load decreases, the stream has excess energy which will usually be used to erode the bed and banks.

If the load increases, the stream will not be able to handle it all, and so some of it will be deposited.

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