An alluvial plain is a relatively flat and gently sloping
landform found at the base of a range of
hills or
mountains, formed by the deposition of
alluvial soil over a long period of time by one or more
rivers coming from the mountains.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 a 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.
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