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Known as an ox-bow bend or a horseshoe bend. The river will naturally have more water in one side than the other. Caused by bed shape or bed friction. Now, the water close to the bed is travelling slowest, because of turbulence due to bed roughness. Water above this is travelling faster for it is sitting on moving water, and water above this is travelling even faster again. Thus the erosion power of the water will erode this bank, and typically, the other bank will be a gently shelving beach.

This process continues, creating a bend in the river. This bend will become more and more exaggerated until it forms an ox-bow. Eventually the ox-bow will cut through the river bank, to leave a stranded shape behind. Depends upon the gradient (low is better) and the aggregate size (small is better).

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15y ago

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