In GCSE Geography students will look in depth at rivers. This is one of several quizzes on that subject and it looks at river profiles and the features found in each stage of their course.
The course of a river is split into three areas - the upper stage, the middle stage and the lower stage. In the upper course the river is close to its source and is commonly in the hills or valleys travelling down a step gradient. At this stage the rocks it is carrying are large and angular. In the middle course the river is eroding its banks and starting to create the meanders that will carve out a floodplain. In the lower course the river is now close to the mouth, it can’t erode down into the land anymore and now it starts to deposit some of the load that was eroded from high above and that the river has been carrying. The rocks deposited here are smaller and smoother than those in the earlier parts of the river's course.