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Oxbow Lakes By Cara
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What is an Oxbow Lake? An oxbow lake is a crescent shaped lake lying beside the middle course of a river. It is formed when a bend in the river is cut off from the main channel by forces of erosion.
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Due to greater volumes of water carried by the river in low land areas , lateral erosion becomes more dominant than vertical erosion. This causing the channel to cut into the banks forming meanders.
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A river moves fastest on the outside banks.
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Meanwhile, on the inside bank of the river, the water flows more slowly, leading to the deposit of sediment.
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Gradually the inside banks are filled in with accumulated deposits and the outside bends extend further and further, forming a wide loop in the river.
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. As the outer banks of a meander continue to be eroded through processes such as hydraulic action the neck of the meander becomes narrow and narrower.
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Eventually the two outer bends meet and the river cuts through the neck of the meander . The water now takes its shortest route rather than flowing round the bend.
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Deposits gradually seals of the old meander bend forming a new straighter river channel. Leaving the old meander bend is isolated from the main channel as an oxbow lake.
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