Forced pool

Position: In-channel

 

Form

These deeper areas along longitudinal profiles are scour features associated with irregularly spaced bedrock outcrops, wood, and forced riffles. A backwater pool may form immediately upstream of a bedrock step.

 

Process description

These areas of tranquil flow within high energy settings may accumulate finer-grained materials at low-moderate flow stage, but they are flushed and possibly scoured during extreme events. At the lower end of the energy spectrum, riffle-pool spacing in bedrock-confined settings may reflect purely rhythmic hydraulic processes of sediment transport.