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Article: Alluvial System
- Article from:
- World of Earth Science
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Alluvial system
An alluvial system is a landform produced when a stream or river, that is, some channelized flow (geologists call them all streams no matter what their scale) slows down and deposits sediment that was transported either as bedload or in suspension. The basic principle underlying alluvial deposits is that the more rapidly
water
is moving, the larger the particles it can hold in suspension and the farther it can transport those particles.
For example, suppose that a river is flowing across a mountainous region, eroding
rock
,
sand
, gravel, silt, and other materials from the stream bed. As long as the stream is flowing rapidly, a considerable quantity of materials such ...