OXBOWS FROM AN AIRLINER
I wish that I could tell you which river produced this dramatic oxbow, but I can't. I snapped the shot through the window on a flight from Albany to Las Vegas. The airplane was much higher than it appears here; for I have enlarged a small portion of the picture.
By definition, this is a "mature" river (or at least a "mature" section of a river): for these oxbows form only in fairly wide valleys where the sediments deposited have created a nearly level environment. The river may carry a lot of water and even flow rapidly depending upon its sources, but the river bed does not offer much of an inclination in this area; so the river is not cutting down very much (if at all) into the bottom of the riverbed.
The river is depositing just about as much sediment as it may be eroding. The erosion is more into the outer bank of a bend, and the deposition is more onto the inner bank of a bend. Consequently, the bends "walk" over time, and sometimes (as here) you can see the future.
The narrow section between the two bends will be breached someday, and the river will run where there is now dry land.
Although this spot might be a good place for the farmer's fields that appear to occupy it now, or a nice location for a cabin in the future when it is even more narrow (you would see boat traffic from both your front and your back yards), the long term real estate values don't look good.
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