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Original poster

AIBU to think that ox-bow lakes are a hoax?

118 replies

BestZebbie · 15/05/2023 01:23

As my son is studying rivers, he has been learning about the processes of erosion and deposition creating horseshoe shaped ox-bow lakes from meanders.

He wanted to know if there were any near us and following this I have fallen down a rabbit hole of trying to locate natural ox-bow lakes in England. There seem to be a handful where there is a man made cutting straightening the river, and millions of big loops that are very ripe for breaking through, but if this is such an inevitable natural process, why aren’t they everywhere along all the major rivers in the country?
Do they fill back in after they form?

I realise that it takes a long time to erode one, but there has been enough time to create lots of other geological features (water-cut gorges, stalactites, mountains with sea fossils near the top etc) including the rivers themselves - and the UK is famously rainy, so it’s not like there is a lack of water to flow through the system!

Please advise, geography experts….

OP posts:
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19
LakieLady · 15/05/2023 08:40

GoldenGorilla · 15/05/2023 01:30

There’s some in Sussex - cuckmere haven - so they do exist I think

I was going to suggest Cuckmere Haven. I live not far from there, and have gone walking there fairly often for 3 decades.

The shape of the meanders has definitely changed over that time. I was up at Seaford Head a couple of weekends ago and there's one big meander that isn't far from becoming an oxbow lake. .

SquirrelSoShiny · 15/05/2023 08:40

I feel cheated that I have no memory of learning anything about Oxbow lakes but then our geography teacher was a bit of an odd one. Thanks to all of you every day's a school day 😁

Mochudubh · 15/05/2023 08:44

Onetreelake · 15/05/2023 06:10

Did anyone in Scotland learn about these? It seems like all anyone remembers from Geography in England but I swear we never did it at all over the border! Are ox-bow lakes more common in England, geographers?

We definitely covered ox-bow lakes in Geography in Scotland in the 80s. Must have been S1 or S2 as I didn't do O Grade as there was a timetable clash with O History.

Sunnycornwallanddevon · 15/05/2023 08:44

5YearsLeft · 15/05/2023 08:05

@Sunnycornwallanddevon Cross posted with you! You’ll love the video then. Uses satellite images to “show” one forming in the Amazon. It wasn’t finished until 2013.

Oh that's wonderful thank you! Our honeymoon was in the Amazon! Just incredible to see it in real life (and no OP, not a hoax!)

Pluvia · 15/05/2023 08:46

I've lived here for 20 years and have been watching one slowly form in the valley a 20-minute walk away. It's a very sandy area and I can see how, once it's cut off from the river, it will quickly revert to sand and scrub.

Everanewbie · 15/05/2023 08:46

I've had similar thoughts. It was a while ago now, but it did seem like a disproportionately large part of the GCSE Geography syllabus.

I have a friend who was adamant that Stonehenge and Avebury were massive hoaxes, built in the last 50 years purely for the purpose of giving school kids something to write about for their History coursework.

borntobequiet · 15/05/2023 08:50

Hedonism · 15/05/2023 07:32

I am still miffed that I didn't get a mark in my year 9 geography exam, when it asked for an example of oxbow lakes. Our teacher had not taught us any names but I had recently spotted (what looked like a small) one from a train window so I said there was one near the train track on a particular route. I thought I deserved a mark for applying my knowledge to the real world, but apparently not 😅... So I dropped geography in revenge.

Was it what is now called the Cotswold line? The River Evenlode has some lovely meanders between Kingham and Charlbury, though I haven’t seen an actual oxbow (need to look harder).
What a shame you weren’t given some credit for your answer.

LakieLady · 15/05/2023 08:51

SmartHome · 15/05/2023 06:22

My son had a geography GCSE field trip to Seafood Cuckmere Haven last week and comfirmed there were oxbow lakes on whatever river that is. He bumped into friends from a different school doing same thing so maybe that's the only place in the south of the country!

Does the Thames have any?

The river at Cuckmere Haven is the River Cuckmere!

There are also ox-bows on the Sussex Ouse, between the villages of Barcombe and Hamsey.

JaceLancs · 15/05/2023 08:55

I remember geography field trips not just ox bow lakes but glaciation and formation of islands in rivers
we found examples in Lancashire and obviously the Lake District

LakieLady · 15/05/2023 08:58

If you google "Barcombe Mills" and look at the google maps, zoom in, then follow the the river south and west, there are 4 very clear ox bow lakes shown.

I was hoping I could paste a screen grab into my post, but it didn't seem to work.

CurlewKate · 15/05/2023 09:04

Ooh-talk to me about deltas. And conglomerate pebbles.....

AdaColeman · 15/05/2023 09:07

I remember the geography field trip to Seaford. We went to Ashdown Forest on the same trip, highlight of the school year!

Other features that I always look out for are scarp and dip slopes.

Unexpecteddrivinginstructor · 15/05/2023 09:08

Next time you are at a sandy beach with a stream going through you can make your own oxbow lake.

Find a little stream of water, route it through a meander and then over the course of a few hours, you can see the sand being deposited and an oxbow lake form.

WolfFoxHare · 15/05/2023 09:09

5YearsLeft · 15/05/2023 08:03

Aye. All the billabongs in Australia, hoax. All the resacas along the Rio Grande in the US, hoax. And this pretty nifty video using satellite images to actually show an oxbow lake forming in Peru, absolute hoax, the dirty bastards.

That is one of the most hypnotic and interesting things I've seen on youtube for a long while, thanks. Geology/geography in action.

WolfFoxHare · 15/05/2023 09:11

Unexpecteddrivinginstructor · 15/05/2023 09:08

Next time you are at a sandy beach with a stream going through you can make your own oxbow lake.

Find a little stream of water, route it through a meander and then over the course of a few hours, you can see the sand being deposited and an oxbow lake form.

We're going to the beach with a stream at half-term - please say more about how to "route it through a meander"?

APMom6 · 15/05/2023 09:13

Here’s one in the US. Saw it flying to Washington DC in February, of course I had to show my teen son and as always rolled his eyes at me showing yet another geographical thing. Last year driving in Alberta we saw Drumlins which surprised me as I’m used to only see them in Ireland.

AIBU to think that ox-bow lakes are a hoax?
CurlewKate · 15/05/2023 09:18

@WolfFoxHare You mean you don't own your own meander? I never knew such poverty existed! Do you actually make your billabongs by hand?

Bargellobitch · 15/05/2023 09:20

I think the tend to dry up though? Do they don't last for that long once they don't have a water flow.

Drowninginoptions · 15/05/2023 09:22

GoldenGorilla · 15/05/2023 01:30

There’s some in Sussex - cuckmere haven - so they do exist I think

The Cuckmere has the manmade channel alongside. Although Ox-bow lakes do form naturally, on most rivers in the UK, a manmade channel has been dug to combat flooding upstream. I agree that there are not many natural rivers left in the UK. It doesn't make the Cuckmere any less stunning!

Ariela · 15/05/2023 10:05

Letton Court near Hereford, now a fishery at the lake

Unexpecteddrivinginstructor · 15/05/2023 10:39

WolfFoxHare · 15/05/2023 09:11

We're going to the beach with a stream at half-term - please say more about how to "route it through a meander"?

Show quote history

If you look at the tutorial posted earlier in the thread we essentially created a really exaggerated meander so it looked like the pictures of a meandering river - just using a hand width channel or so. I think we also helped it just a little to find a more direct route at one point to speed it up. It was at low tide and not right on the shore line. Just one of the little routes the water makes to the sea, we didn't redirect the whole stream!

You see all the little grains of sand being deposited. It did take an hour or so from memory to form the oxbow lake and the occasional intervention but the general processes were evident. Maybe not the best use of time if in yr11 and revising now, but definitely fun if in younger years.

WolfFoxHare · 15/05/2023 11:50

@CurlewKate 😂😂😂

@Unexpecteddrivinginstructor ah ok, I'll watch that video too. We dammed the beach stream last year - started out with just DS and DH and me working on it, and then more and more children and their parents came over to help (we did add overflow channels at the sides so no flooding upstream!) - it was great fun designing the best ways to do it and to re-direct the channels into moats around sandcastles etc, but I didn't think of doing a meander and oxbows!

ErrolTheDragon · 15/05/2023 12:35

I reckon oxbow lakes are beloved of geography teachers because they're a very obvious geographical phenomenon which happens on a human rather than 'geological' timescale.