Mountain Rivers and Incised Channels - River Dynamics and Integrated River Management - page 134

in substantial channel incision via abrasion, flaking, or plucking of bedrock. An example of bedrock
channel incision is the middle reaches of the Yellow River, as shown in Figure 3.14(a). The channel bed
is composed of thin-layered limestone. The heavy sediment load carried by the flow makes the flow
more abrasive and the flow has cut an inner channel up to 40 m deep. Figure 3.14 (b) shows the bare
bedrock bed of the Jinghe River, a tributary of the Weihe River in China. The bed cross section exhibits a
V-shape, which is similar to the second type in Fig. 3.13.
Fig. 3.13 Schematic illustration of U-shape and V-shape channels of low-flow and high-flow morphologies present
along bedrock channels (after Wohl, 1992)
(a)
(b)
Fig. 3.14 (a) Bed rock channel in the middle reaches of the Yellow River; (b) Bed rock channel of the Jinghe River
with a V-shaped cross sections (See color figure at the end of this topic)