1 Hamartia: Many people who discuss tragedy often mention the hero's 'fatal' or 'tragic flaw.' However, Aristotle would never accuse a hero of such a personal defect. 2  Instead, he asserted that they were guilty of hamartia, or missing the mark.
Floodplains are landscapes shaped by running water. As streams and their larger forms, rivers, flow across the surface of land, they transport eroded rock and other material. (Erosion is the gradual wearing away of Earth surfaces through the action of wind and water.)
An erosional floodplain is created as a stream cuts deeper into its channel and laterally into its banks. A stream with a steep gradient will tend to downcut faster than it causes lateral erosion, resulting in a deep, narrow channel with little or no floodplain at all.