Meander cutoff

The steeper drop in gradient (slope) causes the river flow gradually to abandon the meander which will silt up with sediment from deposition.

On the inside bend of a river, the level is lower, secondary flow moves sand and gravel across the river bed creating shallows and point bars, and friction of air and perturbances of the bed act against a higher proportion of the column of water, being shorter, slowing the water to varying degrees.

The term is equally used to describe the actual incidence of and potential tendency of a river to curve or meander over its length.

A chute cutoff channel can form during a flood resulting in an overbank flow where water goes over the banks of the river, creating erosion of the surrounding landscape.

[6] Neck cutoff channels are commonly formed the same way when an overbank flow occurs during a flood and the narrow piece of land between a bend in a meander is eroded away; this is known as rush-cutting.

[5] A meander can also be cutoff by a channel due to excess sediment upstream as a result of high erosion rates.

[7] A cutoff channel can be engineered for the purpose of navigation, traditionally for water mill leats and for controlling the possibility of any future flood were done on the lower reaches away from the tide.

[6] When either of these meander cutoff processes takes place a bend of the river is left behind forming, in many instances, an oxbow lake.