river meanders

Bill Hamilton (whamilto@mich.com)
Tue, 16 Apr 1996 11:35:14 -0400

Paul Arveson wrote

>The appearance of meanders and ox-bow lakes in flood
> plains is evidence of the vast age of such flood plains
>and of countless past floods. This evidence, from
>the field of hydraulics, should be of interest to Henry
>Morris. I wonder if anyone has ever undertaken to
>estimate the age of such flood plains. After all,
>the slow flow of a river causes the meanders; it can't
>be accelerated or the meanders disappear and you get
>canyons. It is a slow, nonlinear process. When
>I travel over the US in an airplane, I marvel at the
>complexity of sedimentary structure in these flood
>plains.

The nonlinear dynamicist in me can't help asking whether the specific
geometric form of the meanders might not give some insight into flow rates,
deposition rates, and how old the formations are.

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William E. Hamilton, Jr., Ph.D.
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Rochester, MI 48306
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