Meanders are situous bends in a river. In low flow conditions straight channels are seen to have alternating bars of sediment on their beds and the moving water is forced to weave around these bars. This creates alterating shallow sections (riffles) and deeper sections (pools). The swing of the flow that has been induced by the riffles directs the maximam velocity towards one of the banks, and results in erosion by undercutting on that side. An outer concave bank is therefore reated. Deposion takes place on the inside of the river of the bend, the convex bank.

Ox bow lakes are features of both erosion and deposition. An ox bow lake is a horseshoe-shaped lake seperated from an adjacent river. The water is stagnant, and in time the lake gradually silts up, becoming a cresent shaped stretch of marsh called a meander scar. An oxbow lake is formed by the increasining sinuosity of a river meander. Erosion is greatest on the outer bank, and with deposition on the inner bank, the neck of the meander becomes progressively narrower during times of high levels of discahrge, such as floods, the river cuts through this neck, and the new cut eventually becomes the main channel. the former channel is sealed off by deposition.