Why Rivers Don't Flow in Straight Lines
If a river has a chance, it will meander, winding over the land in a series of loops. Geologists even call these loops "meanders."
You can see meanders on a map--along the lower Mississippi, the Alabama River near Selma, The Arkansas near Tulsa, the Ohio near Evansville, and on thousands of smaller streams--wherever there's a steady flow of water over nearly flat land of fine-textured soils.
Rivers meander because any small bend in a river tends to grow.
Water flowing around a bend in a river is a little like a car speeding around a bend in a road. The water is thrown toward the outside of…
The skinny
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