Sunday, November 05, 2006

S4 Meanders and Ox Bows

Indecision River

Can you work out where the river is?
What is the main land use? Why?


This is classic lower course drainage, wit a river meandering across a very broad, low-lying flood plain.

You need to be able to

Identify a flood plain on a map and on an aerial photograph (see photo above)
Identify an Ox Bow lake on a map and on an aerial photograph
Describe how an Ox Bow lake is formed
Describe the human geography (ie ways in which people use this kind of landscape


Identifying a flood plain on a map:

Click here for link to multimap image-the flat land on either side of the River Clyde is the flood plain

Identifying an Ox Bow Lake

Click here for photograph of a potential Ox Bow Lake (why does the photographer call this is potential Ox Bow lake)
Suggest what might happen during a flood, when the river has more power and erosion
Use your textbook or GeoWiki to draw out a labelled diagram to show how an Ox Bow lake is formed.

The human geography of meanders and Ox Bow lakes

Click here for map of Durham. The River Wear cuts into the surrounding land, creating an incised meander that provides a defensive site for the city. Compare this to the aerial photograph here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yes Jonathan it does indeed there are also many oxbow lakes formed by erosion

Anonymous said...

ur both rite