Question

Describe the landforms formed by a river in the plains.

Answer 1

Major landforms formed by a river in plains are as follows:

1. Meanders: When the river enters the plain, it losses it swiftness and the valley widens due to the continuos erosion of banks of the river. The river makes several bends along its flow and these bends and loops are termed as meanders.

2. Ox-bow lakes: As a result of continuos flow of the river, in the long run, the bends and loops come closer and with time, the river cuts across the loops separating them from the mainstream. These circular loops that get separated from the mainstream are termed as ox-bow lakes.

3. Flood plains: During floods, rivers bring with them a huge amount of silt and alluvium that gets deposited along the bank of rivers raising their height and forming fertile flood plains.

4. Natural levees​: Long ridges with relatively lesser height formed at the bank of rivers are termed as natural levees due to the coarse material deposited by the river.

5. Sand bars: These are the landforms formed inside the river at the mouth by deposition of large volume of sand, pebbles, alluvium and water.

6. Distributaries: Due to excessive load of water and silt at the mouth of river, the mainstream gets divided into several small channels of water known as distributaries.

7. Deltas: When soil gets deposited between the distributaries in a triangular form, it is referred to as Delta. Deltas are very fertile lands found at the mouth of the river. For example, the Ganga-Brahmaputra delta is a very fertile delta found in West Bengal.