Valley

Lecture Topic: Valley
Istiakur Rahman
Assistant Professor
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE)
Islamic University of Technology (IUT)
 Elongated low land between ranges of mountains, hills, or
other uplands, often having a river or stream running along
the bottom is known as a valley
 Valley Development: A valley takes form through the

operation of three simultaneous processes:
 Valley Deepening
 Valley Widening
 Valley Lengthening
 Valley deepening is affected by the following factors:
 Hydraulic action: The impact or pressure of running water,
under certain circumstances, may cause a considerable
amount of erosion even without the aid of other tools. Thus a
stream flowing through relatively loose or soft materials may,
by this process, cut back its bank or push off materials from
the bottom of the channel. The agent is the running water
 Corrosion or abrasion of the floor of the valley: It refers to
the mechanical wearing away of rocks by the rubbing,
grinding and bumping action of rock fragments carried by the
running water
 Pothole drilling along the valley floor and the base of water
falls:
 A pothole is a deep, round hole worn in rock by loose stones
whirling in strong rapids or waterfalls
 Corrosion or Solution: Many rocks and minerals are soluble in
water and their solubility is increased by the presence of
small amounts of carbonic acid gas and oxygen which are
found in all water in nature. Solution of bed rock material
into the stream water deepens the valley
 Valley width is the linear distance between the two sides of
it. This is expressed along with the different locations of the
valley reach.
 Valley widening may be accomplished in the following ways:
 Lateral Erosion: Storm in a valley may remove materials from
the base of the valley side through hydraulic and corrosive
action. This results in the over steepening of the valley floor
which favors slumping of the materials into the stream.
 Rain-wash or Sheet wash: It contributes in an important way
in valley widening. Loose weathered materials are washed
down the valley side by rain
 Gulleyingon Valley Sides: Gullies are mini streams which with
every fresh supply of water become deeper, longer and
wider. After a time, gullies are large enough to be called
valleys.
 Weathering & Mass Wasting: Weathering may loosen material
which moves directly down-slope into the stream channel by
different types of mass wasting
 Incoming Tributaries: Incoming tributaries contribute to the

valley widening even though they are nothing more than the
overgrown gullies
 Valley lengthening may take place in three ways:
 By the process of headword erosion
 Through increase in size of their meanders(bend or curve)
 Valley also may lengthen at their termini. Uplift of the land
or lowering of the lake level will result in extension of the
valley form across the newly exposed land
 Because of the great diversity of morphological features
among rivers, a stream classification system was developed
to stratify and describe various river types.
 A. Classification according to the stages (their
characteristics) in the geomorphic cycle, valleys are
classified into:
 1) Young valley
 2) Mature valley
 3) Old valley
 Young: A young valley is narrower, and steep sided because
down-cutting had greatly been predominant over the process
of valley widening till this age.
 Mature: A mature valley is wider, less steep sided and usually
deeper than a young valley. It generally has numerous,
relatively large, well-developed tributaries.
 Old: An old valley shows gently sloping sides, moderate to
shallow depth and fewer tributaries than the
 Genetic classification:
 Consequent valley: A consequent valley is one whose course was supposedly
determined by the initial slope of the land and natural irregularities of the
surface
 Subsequent valley: Subsequent valleys are those whose courses have been
shifted from the original consequent ones to belts of more rapidly erosive
rocks
 Insequent valley: Insequent valleys are those which show no apparent
adjustment to lithological control
 Obsequent valley: Valleys which presumably drain in the direction opposite to
that of the original consequent valleys are defined as obsequent. Now-a-days
they are defined as streams which flow in a direction opposite to that of the
geological dip of the beds
 Depending on the type of the geologic structures which have controlled their
development, valleys are classified into the:
 1- Homoclinal valleys: They follow weaker rocks along the flanks (limbs) of folds
and homoclinal structures where alternating weak and strong strata having
moderate to high dips.
 2- Anticlinal valleys: They follow the axes of breached anticlines
 3- Synclinal valleys: They follow the axes of breached syncline
 4- Fault valleys: The streams follow depressions consequent upon faulting.
 5- Fault line valleys: They are subsequent valleys following a fault line.
 6- Joint valley: They are minor valley or sections of valleys controlled by major
joint systems.
 7- Transverse valleys: They are valleys whose courses cut across the geological
structures.

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Lecture Topic: Valley

 Valley Development: A valley takes form through the

 Incoming Tributaries: Incoming tributaries contribute to the

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