An oxbow lake is a U-shaped body of water that forms when a wide loop is cut off from the main flow of a river, creating a free-standing body of water.
Mature rivers meander across flat flood plains. These meandering streams create large loops that develop into oxbow lakes adjacent to the stream. As a mature river begins to curve, it cuts and erodes into the outside of the curve and deposits sediment on the inside of the cure. This is due to the fact that the stream moves more rapidly on the outside of the curve then the inside. Eventually, the river begins to cut the loop off by eroding the neck of the loop. The river breaks through at a cutoff and forms a new stream bed.
Sediment is then deposited on the edges of the river, cutting off the loop from the stream entirely. This results in a crescent-shaped lake that is the abandoned river meander. Such lakes are called oxbow lakes because they look like the bow part of the yoke used with teams of oxen.
The posted coordinates will bring you to a spot where several loops have eroded to the point where the river broke through but has not totally filled in the connecting points. Historic images show that the river had not broken through in 1939, and had broken through at two of the three points by 1969.
Message me the answers to the following questions:
1. There are several sets of additional coords. Visit "A","B","C" and measure the depth.
You can use a weight on a rope or your paddle. This is a tidal river so the depth will change. Subtract the smallest number from all three to get the difference. Measure near the center of the river channel at each point.
What is the difference in depth between the points?
2. At point "A", something interesting happened to the flow of the river in the past 50 years.
What happened? Hint: Trace the original flow of the river.
3. There is another oxbow lake forming. Take the same measurements at "X","Y","Z".
4. Do you think the tidal flow has interfered with the oxbow lakes separating from the river? How/Why?
5. At coordinates "D" there is a small Oxbow Lake. Can you see it from the river? Can you see any sign of where the river used to flow?
