There are 3 main features you could draw: waterfall, meander of delta. We recommend you do a waterfall for this type of question. You can find pictures of all of these in a Geography text book or good encyclopedia. Here are the main facts and labels you need to know:
Waterfall:
- The rock on the top of the waterfall is a hard rock, it is good to give an example such as Limestone
- The rock underneath and behind the waterfall is a soft rock which can be easily worn away. Again, a good example of this is shale
HOW THE WATERFALL FORMS:
- A step is present in the soft rock which forces the water downwards
- The water starts to erode as it is pushed down and creates a plunge pool
- The water keeps eroding and the waterfall gets bigger
- At this point the water starts undercutting the soft rock behind the waterfall
- This process continues and hard rock is broken off as the waterfall retreats
- Spray from the waterfall undercuts more
- A good example is Niagra Falls.
Meander:
- Meanders may seem very simple but it is important you can label them and get all the facts in for maximum marks
- If something is in the way of a stream or river it has to go round it for example a tree or a rock
- After this first bend, the river hits the outside of the bend with more and more force to erode the river bank and enlarge the meander
- The eroded material is deposited on the inside of the bend >>> label this as the river beach
- This process continues >> The meander gets bigger and bigger until finally the river cuts through and meets at the other side.
- This is an oxbow lake.
Delta:
- Deltas are formed at the end of rivers (river mouth) as it flows into the sea
- Rivers carry a lot of sediment (mud)
- The river flows into a calm sea
- This slows the river down
- Which makes the river drop its sediment
- This deposited sediment builds up over years creating a delta
- The river is forced to split up
- The smaller rivers made by deltas are called distributaries
- Examples of Deltas are Nile Delta, Ganges Delta
