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CAUSES OF MEANDERING

The latest and widely accepted theory behind meandering is based upon the
extra turbulence generated by the excess of river sediment during floods.

During floods, the river carries tremendous amount of silt charge. It has been
established that when the silt charge is in excess of the quantity required fop-
stability, the river astarts building up its slope by depositing the silt on its bed.

The increase in river slope tends to increase the width of the channel, if the
banks are not resistant.

The banks are, thus, attacked by water, and in the process, one bank is likely
to be attacked slightly more than the other, causing a slight deviation of flow.

This slight deviation from uniform axial flow, helps in moving more and more
flow towards one bank than towards the other.

The process continues with more and more vigour, causing more and more
flow towards the former bank and forming shoals along the latter, thus,
accentuating the curvature Of flow, and finally, producing meanders in its wake.

The concave bank goes on eroding and the convex bank goes on silting.

Further, it has been established that collection of sediment on the convex side
is independent of the concave side happenings, and deposition and formation of
convex shoals will continue, irrespective of what happens on the concave side.

When the concave side is riveted, or pitched, the river gets deepened as the
convex bar continues to progress towards the pitching.

Due to the shift of the convex bar, the width between the banks reduces, which
increases the velocity, and thus provides a current strong enough to prevent
further, extension of convex-bar.

In that case, the extension of shoal towards concave side is stopped, but the
shoal continues to gain in height.

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