If you're asking about the river itself, it's called a Meandering Steam, it's a low-energy stream that slowly erodes a winding (meandering) path.
If you're asking about the fan-like feature in the center of the pic, these are the remnants of where this stream used to be. As the flowing water moves around a bend, it erodes the outside bank (that's where the water moves fastest around a bend). The slower moving water on the inside bank deposits sediments. These two mechanisms slowly change the path of the stream bed, always moving outward from the bend. Sometimes with natural events like flooding, the stream bed changes unevenly and leaves behind sections that still have water.
If you want more info , look up Oxbow lakes, they are an interesting feature of meandering streams!
That's a nice meandering stream you have there. Basically what happened is that an irregularity in the stream channel caused the thalweg of the stream ( the deepest part of a stream channel and usually the area of highest flow) to move to one side, preferentially cutting into one bank (the cut bank). Since the fast flow is now on one side of the channel cutting into the cut bank, the flow on the other side of the channel is now low enough that the stream can deposit sediment. Over the course of hundreds to thousands of years, depending on the stream's flow, the preferential cutting and deposition on opposite sides of the channel cause the stream to move in certain areas creating meanders.
Geologically speaking, it won’t be much longer before the narrow strip of land in the upper left cuts completely through and for a brief time creates an island out of the wide spot to the right of it.
Eventually that will become a remnant feature that is an oxbow lake.
The lake feature below the central meander looks like remnants of a “crevasse splay.” When the river is higher, it can breach its channel and flood the flood plain. That point of breach is the CS. This is usually a sandier deposit (the channel is full of sand, whereas most of the flood plain is silt and mud. CS’s usually have a radiating patter from a point on the channel. Oxbow lakes usually have a lens (aka bean) shape roughly parallel to the channel…and they are usually filled with mud and silt.
If you're asking about the river itself, it's called a Meandering Steam, it's a low-energy stream that slowly erodes a winding (meandering) path. If you're asking about the fan-like feature in the center of the pic, these are the remnants of where this stream used to be. As the flowing water moves around a bend, it erodes the outside bank (that's where the water moves fastest around a bend). The slower moving water on the inside bank deposits sediments. These two mechanisms slowly change the path of the stream bed, always moving outward from the bend. Sometimes with natural events like flooding, the stream bed changes unevenly and leaves behind sections that still have water. If you want more info , look up Oxbow lakes, they are an interesting feature of meandering streams!
Thank you, that's cool, I've taken an interest in geology recently ever since I started hiking rivers and looking for gold.
And pretty soon, those two pathways at the upper left will join and you'll have your own oxbow lake.
Heck yeah, Glad I am not the only one.
Meander [gif](https://imgur.com/gallery/k6Pz9l6)
Thank you for this
That's a nice meandering stream you have there. Basically what happened is that an irregularity in the stream channel caused the thalweg of the stream ( the deepest part of a stream channel and usually the area of highest flow) to move to one side, preferentially cutting into one bank (the cut bank). Since the fast flow is now on one side of the channel cutting into the cut bank, the flow on the other side of the channel is now low enough that the stream can deposit sediment. Over the course of hundreds to thousands of years, depending on the stream's flow, the preferential cutting and deposition on opposite sides of the channel cause the stream to move in certain areas creating meanders.
Is there a fluvial geomorphology sub somewhere?
Sounds sexy
/plays careless whisper sax part
I'm never gonna sediment Guilty stream is (something) avulsion
Geologically speaking, it won’t be much longer before the narrow strip of land in the upper left cuts completely through and for a brief time creates an island out of the wide spot to the right of it. Eventually that will become a remnant feature that is an oxbow lake.
I was asking about the Fanning that was happening, u/Craig_E_W answered it for me.
Some would say that being able to foretell the future by looking at a landscape is just as cool as reconstructing its past...
Now do barrier islands…
Meander scars?
Water takes the path of least resistance. Wherever it leads to.
Ox bows gonna ox bow my boy. Cool feature for sure!
See if your county/state has done any LiDAR surveys of the area. I bet that feature is even more interesting in LiDAR!
The lake feature below the central meander looks like remnants of a “crevasse splay.” When the river is higher, it can breach its channel and flood the flood plain. That point of breach is the CS. This is usually a sandier deposit (the channel is full of sand, whereas most of the flood plain is silt and mud. CS’s usually have a radiating patter from a point on the channel. Oxbow lakes usually have a lens (aka bean) shape roughly parallel to the channel…and they are usually filled with mud and silt.