Montreal River, showing right angle bends controlled by lava flow layering
Rivers meander. This is a behavior of moving fluids, and which leads to a striking pattern for stream channels. The pattern is continually changing and leads to loops and oxbow lakes. The pattern above is from a geologic map, and the one below from satellite imagery. Meandering is everywhere there are rivers, especially where the flow speeds are moderate.
Small, blocky shapes of towns, fields, and pastures surround the graceful swirls and whorls of the Mississippi River, the largest river system in North America. Countless oxbow lakes and cutoffs accompany the meandering river south of Memphis, Tennessee, on the border between Arkansas and Mississippi.
Ontonagon River Meanders, 3 miles S of town
W Branch, Ontonagon River, E of Victoria Dam
Ontonagon River cut into the Ontonagon Clay
