EVSC 2800 Study Guide - Final Guide: Overbank, Oxbow Lake, Braided River
12 May 2016
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Document Summary
Sandy point bars build up from deposition of coarse-grained sediments at the inside bend of means of meanders. Erosion cuts increasingly outward on the outside bend. Meanders migrate over time and eventually get cut off during floods. The former meander becomes an oxbow lake (looks like a horseshoe) Rivers with large variations in volume of flows plus large sediment loads tend to form many channels in the valley bottom with highly mobile sand bars. A floodplain is an area of low-lying grown adjacent to a river, formed mainly of river sediments, and subject to flooding. In the headwaters of a river, water flows quickly through a narrow channel with a steep gradient (drop of elevation in a stream per unit horizontal distance) as it does it cuts downwards. Vertical erosion dominates, and the plain is very narrow. Further down gradient, the valley is wider and flatter with an extensive floodplain surrounding the channel.
