Back to Erosion Project

River Basin

1. We have measured the erosion in a 100 yd. sample river. The above sketch is a cross-section of the river basin. The solid line represents the "before" and the dotted line represents the "after" erosion. How much soil has been displaced?
2. How do you figure the volume of soil displaced in this river sample?

Related Questions

1. How do scientists determine the depth of the bed?
2. How do you determine the width of the bed?
3. How do you determine the slope of the beds?
4. What is another way you could display changes in the river beds? (ie. not a cross-section of the bed)
5. How would you expand this simple problem to a real-life situation?
   • What length of river bed will you sample?
   • How will you handle irregularity of path? (ie. bends, etc.)
   • How will you estimate changes in the river bed?
   • If the real-life problem will not fit a formula you know, how can you model the river bed and its changes?

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