Which effect primarily drives oxbow lake formation during highly variable discharge events?

💡 Explanation

During discharge events, helical flow amplifies erosion disproportionately on the outer banks of meanders because of increased shear stress, leading to neck cutoff and forming oxbow lakes. Therefore, erosion acceleration on outer meander bends is primary, rather than deposition, vegetation, or infiltration, which counteract flow dynamics.

• Which process drives the global thermohaline circulation in Earth's oceans?
• Which outcome occurs when intense tropical rainfall accelerates topsoil depletion?
• Which mechanism initiates the creation of a cirque on a mountainside subject to glaciation?
• Which phenomenon causes increased coastal aridity when intensified subtropical gyre circulation upwells cold water?
• Which outcome occurs when a meander stream's floodplain becomes highly constricted?
• Which mechanism causes tsunami formation during a subduction zone earthquake with significant vertical displacement?