Meander
A meander is a bend in a river, also known as an oxbow loop. A stream or river flowing through a wide valley or flat plain will tend to form a meandering stream course as it alternatively erodes and deposites sediments along its course. The result is a snaking pattern as the stream meanders back and forth across its floodplain. When a meander gets cut off from the main stream body, an oxbow lake is formed.
Due to the way a meander is formed, the river flows faster on the outside edges of the meander and slower along the inside edge.We see deposition on the inner edge because the river, now moving slowly, cannot hold the weight of the sediment it is carrying.
If the region later undergoes tectonic uplift, the meandering stream will again resume downward erosion. The meandering pattern will remain as a deep valley known as an incised meander. Rivers in the Colorado Plateau and streams in the Ozark Plateau are noted for these incised meanders.
Sometimes an incised, also known as entrenched, meander is cut off. When it is, the resulting landform is called a rincon. They are created when a river erodes through the narrow neck of land between the ends of a loop, leaving the loop without an active cutting stream. One dramatic rincon on Lake Powell is called "The Rincon."
Origin of term
The term derives from the Maeander River river in Turkey, characterised by a very convoluted path. As such, early usage of the term, from the late 1500s, refered to convouted and windy speech, ideas, as well as the geomorphological feature.