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Rapids

Waterfalls and Cataracts

A stretch of a river where the water flows swiftly and turbulently over a steepened, rocky or uneven streambed, without dropping in a single vertical fall the way a waterfall does. Rapids commonly form where a river crosses a band of especially resistant or irregularly broken rock that disrupts the smooth flow of the channel.

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Source Rapids (Wikipedia)
Sources
Rapids (Wikipedia)
Shaped By: Erosion, Article text
Quote, Shaped By: Erosion, Article text
Rapids typically form due to differential erosion in the sloping strata forming the streambed in the presence of a gradient, the softer rocks erode away faster whereas the harder rocks persist resulting in an uneven streambed.
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