There are more than 2.5 million rivers, streams and rivulets in Russia. The longest river is the Ob (with the Irtysh), its length is 5410 kilometers. Then comes the Amur with Argun - 4444, and, in fact, the beautiful Lena, which stretches for 4400 kilometers without tributaries. These rivers are not only the largest rivers in our country, they are among the ten longest rivers in the world, ranking 5th, 9th and 10th respectively.
Causes of occurrence
Natural water arteries never flow straight, because on the path of the flow, tending under gravity from a higher point to a lower one, there are always many insurmountable obstacles in the form of indelible soil (rocks or uplift of tectonic layers) and so on.
Stumbling, the stream washes away the shore, resulting in a bend in the river. If the river does not meander for a long distance, it is safe to say that this is a channel, the bed of which must be well fortified, because otherwise the flow of water will wash it away, and again there will bebends and loops form.
Scientific explanations
For the first time, Einstein explained the pattern of formation of meanders and bends, oddly enough. This is a complex mandatory process that superficially resembles stirring tea leaves in a glass of water with a spoon. There are detailed scientific theories about how the river bend is formed. Popularly, this can be explained approximately as follows. Be sure to get in the way of the flow, even the smallest obstacle (deviation from the mean is called a fluctuation), into which the water will begin to beat with great force, washing everything out and transferring the rock in the opposite direction. On the bend of the rivers, one bank is always steep and steep, the opposite one is gentle, as a rule, with reclaimed sand. The water stream hits a cliff and, starting from it, tends obliquely, bypassing the formed, usually very beautiful, natural beach, to the opposite shore. It all starts from the beginning - the water washes away the already opposite border of the land and the stream. The process of formation of bends lasts a very long time - centuries. The most natural natural channel laid by a river (or rather, its segment) is what a river bend is.
Meaning of the word
The word itself has several synonyms - zigzag, turn, bend, meander. Most often, the term is used in relation to the river, and here there are two more unambiguous words - meander and bend. The sound of the term leaves no doubt as to where the name came from. The bend, or bend of the river, resembles the shape of an ancient formidable weapon - a bow.
Meander samegot its name from the ancient unusually winding river flowing in the territory of modern Turkey. Actually, this term refers to the smooth bends of lowland rivers.
Similarities and differences between meanders and meanders
Meanders are wandering, that is, smoothly flowing water streams quite often change their course, the former sections of which, when dry, are called oxbow lakes. But not always the meaning of the word "bend" is identical to the concept of "meander". They coincide only on flat rivers with a smooth flow of the watercourse.
The bend itself, formed on the path of the watercourse, has the names of its outlines inherent only to it. When the loop is fairly deep, the land enclosed in a peninsula is called a spur, and the distance between the start and end points of the bend is called the neck of the bend. The shallow peninsula is called the knee.
The charm of the phrase itself
An endless number of paintings by various artists of the world is dedicated to such a bewitching landscape as the bend of the river. Not the prettiest, but remarkably accurate in showing the kind of loop a river can make, is Thomas Cole's (1801-1848) Bend of the Connecticut River. The name of this picturesque stretch of water is the title of an American film popular in the 50s, starring the handsome James Stewart.
You can immediately think of two novels en titled "The Bend of the River", one of which was written by American Norma Newcomb (they are very fond of beautiful names).
About the romance enclosedliterature, including poetry, bears witness to these words. Very often, a story about mermaids resting on the gently sloping bank of a meander is discussed. The picturesque, close to the heart bend of the watercourse is not only very beautiful, but also symbolic for a Russian person - "… The island behind the bend of the fast river is the Motherland!".
