alluvial plain

An alluvial plain is a relatively flat and gently sloping landform found at the base of a range of hills. As the hills erode due to weathering and water flow the sediment from the hills is transported to the lower plain. Various creeks will carry the water further to a river, lake, bay, or ocean. As the sediments are deposited during flood conditions in the floodplain of the creek, the elevation of the floodplain will be raised. As this reduces the channel floodwater capacity, the creek will over time seek new, lower paths, forming meanders (a curving sinuous path). The leftover higher locations, typically natural levees at the margins of the flood channel, will themselves be eroded by lateral stream erosion and from local rainfall and possibly wind transport if the climate is arid and does not support soil-holding grasses. These processes over geologic time will form the plain - a region with little relief (local changes in elevation), yet with a constant but small slope.

Alluvial Plain

See also