Where did the change begin?
Labs / Geography
Meanders & Oxbow Lakes
A river never runs straight for long. On the outside of every bend the current cuts away the bank, while sand settles on the sheltered inside as a point bar — so the loops slowly swing wider until a narrow neck breaks through and strands an oxbow lake. Drag the channel to sculpt a bend, then change the discharge, sediment, and floodplain slope and watch it evolve.
Labs / Geography / Meanders & Oxbow Lakes
Meanders & Oxbow Lakes
A river never runs straight for long. On the outside of every bend the current cuts away the bank, while sand settles on the sheltered inside as a point bar — so the loops slowly swing wider until a narrow neck breaks through and strands an oxbow lake. Drag the channel to sculpt a bend, then change the discharge, sediment, and floodplain slope and watch it evolve.
Why it matters
Why explore this?
Geography explains how places, people, and Earth systems affect one another. This model lets you change one factor and watch its effects spread across space.
Explore
Try the model
Sinuosity 1.00Erosion 0.0 m/yrDeposition 0.0 m/yrMeanders 0Cutoffs 0
Investigate
Questions to test
Predict first, try it in the model, then use what you observe to answer.
What to try
- Crank the discharge up. Do the bends grow and cut off faster, or slower?
- Flatten the slope toward a lazy lowland gradient — does the river wander more or less?
- Load the water with sediment. Where does all that sand end up, and what happens to old oxbows?
- Drag one gentle bend far to the side. Can you force a cutoff by hand before the river does it on its own?
- Watch the sinuosity readout climb, then drop the instant a loop pinches off — why does one cutoff undo so much wandering?
Explain
Make sense of what happened
Connect the pattern to place: identify where the change begins, where its effects appear, and which process links those locations.
Check
Before you leave
What spatial pattern appeared?
Which process connects the cause and effect?
If you can answer all three using evidence from the model, you understand the main idea. If not, return to Explore and change one setting at a time.