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In this lesson we are going to discuss the processes of river transport and the factors influencing it

Answer Text:
River Transportation
- River carrying away materials that its water has eroded from the channel.

Factors Influencing River Transportation
a) Rivers Volume
A river with large volume of water has more energy and therefore greater carrying ability than one with a small volume.
b) Gradient
A river flowing on a steep channel has greater ability to transport than one on a gentle slope because it flows fast due
to gravity.
c) Rivers Load
- Small and light particles are transported over long distances while heavy materials are transported for a short distance.
- Dissolved load is carried all the way to the river’s mouth.
- Small amount of load is transported for a long distance while large amounts of load collide reducing the speed and
therefore rivers ability to transport causing some of the load to be dropped along the way.

Processes/ways of River Transportation
a) Suspension
- River transportation of light and insoluble materials in form of a mixture.
b) Saltation/Hydraulic Lift
- River transportation of large particles through a series of jumps and hops.
- Materials are lifted by force of moving water and pushed for a short distance and land back on the river bed by gravity.
- The process is repeated causing the load to be transported downstream.
c) Traction
- River transportation of heavy materials like boulders by rolling them by the force of water.
d) Solution
- River transportation of load in solution form.
Load transported by suspension, Saltation and traction is called clastic load while that by solution is called dissolved
load.