Why Do Rivers Curve?
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Compared to the whitewater streams that tumble down mountainsides, the meandering riversof the plains may seem tame and lazy. But mountain streams are corralled by the steep-walledvalleys they carve – their courses are literally set in stone. Out on the open plains, thosestony walls give way to soft soil, allowing rivers much more freedom to shift their banksand set their own ever-changing courses to the sea: courses that almost never run straight.At least not for long, because all it takes to turn a straight stretch of river into abendy one is a little disturbance and a lot of time – and in nature, there’s plentyof both. Say, for example, that a muskrat burrows herself a den in one bank of a stream. Hertunnels make for a cozy home, but they also we...
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Compared to the whitewater streams that tumble down mountainsides, the meandering riversof the plains may seem tame and lazy. But mountain streams are corralled by the steep-walledvalleys they carve – their courses are literally set in stone. Out on the open plains, thosestony walls give way to soft soil, allowing rivers much more freedom to shift their banksand set their own ever-changing courses to the sea: courses that almost never run straight.At least not for long, because all it takes to turn a straight stretch of river into abendy one is a little disturbance and a lot of time – and in nature, there’s plentyof both. Say, for example, that a muskrat burrows herself a den in one bank of a stream. Hertunnels make for a cozy home, but they also we...
