page_title: Side valley
section_title: Shape
hierarchical_section_title: Side valley / Shape
caption_attribution_description: English: Rocamadour, Lot, FRANCE Français&#160;: Rocamadour, Lot, FRANCE
context_page_description: Side valleys and tributary valleys are valleys whose brooks or rivers flow into greater ones.
  Upstream, the valleys can be classified in an increasing order which is equivalent to the usual orographic order: the tributaries are ordered from those nearest to the source of the river to those nearest to the mouth of the river. A confluence is where two or more tributaries or rivers flow together.
context_section_description: Whereas the valleys near river flats don't have special forms, the shape of alpine valleys depends much more from the former glaciology and of the rock type.
  Side- or secondary valleys can be V-shaped or U-shaped. Valley floors vary - from just a few meters up to some 100 m (e.g. Bad Gastein or St. Moritz, where small towns have been developed instead of 1000 or 1500 m altitude).
  Some valleys are stepped in longitudinal direction (German "Talstufe") which means that these zones show a quicker current than average. The brook digs its own canal and the eroded sediments are deposed at the end of each clammy, forming a series of local plains. They are an excellent sites for alpine agriculture or pastures.
caption: At Rocamadour (Lot, France) the traditional village clings to the slope, leaving the valley floor for agriculture
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