Information AboutMeander |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT MEANDER | |
| rivers | |
| fluvial landforms | |
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A meander is a bend in a river, also known as an '''oxbow loop'''. A stream or river flowing through a wide valley or flat plain will tend to form a ''meandering'' stream course as it alternatively erodes and deposits Sediment s along its course. The result is a ''snaking'' pattern as the stream meanders back and forth across its Floodplain . When a meander gets cut off from the main stream body, an Oxbow Lake is formed. Due to the way a meander is formed, the river flows faster on the outside edges of the meander and slower along the inside edge. Deposition of Sediment occurs on the inner edge because the river, now moving slowly, cannot carry its sediment load. The faster moving current on the ''outside'' bend has more erosive ability and the meander tends to grow in the direction of the outside bend. in the Meuse in the French Ardennes ]] If the region later undergoes tectonic uplift, the meandering stream will again resume downward erosion. The meandering pattern will remain as a deep valley known as an ''incised meander''. Rivers in the Colorado Plateau and streams in the Ozark Plateau are noted for these incised meanders. Sometimes an incised, also known as entrenched, meander is cut off. When it is, the resulting landform is called a rincon. They are created when a river erodes through the narrow neck of land between the ends of a loop, leaving the loop without an active cutting stream. One dramatic rincon on Lake Powell is called "The Rincon." ORIGIN OF TERM The term derives from the Maeander River river in Turkey, characterised by a very convoluted path. As such, early usage of the term, from the late 1500s, referred to convoluted and windy speech and ideas, as well as the Geomorphological feature. MEANDER RATIO Meander ratio is a means of quantifying how much a River or Stream meanders (how much its course deviates from the shortest possible path). It is calculated as the Length of the stream divided by the length of the Valley . A perfectly straight river would have a meander ratio of 1 (it would be the same length as its valley), while the higher this Ratio is above 1, the more the river meanders. REFERENCE Lewis C. Shaw, ''Pennsylvania Gazetteer of Streams Part II'', Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Department of Environmental Resources, Bulletin No. 16, 1984, page 8. |
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