In Russia, more than 2.5 million rivers, rivers and streams. The Ob is considered the longest river (with the Irtysh), its length is 5410 kilometers. Then comes Cupid 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, occupying, respectively, 5th, 9th and 10th places.
Causes of occurrence
Natural water arteries never flow straight, because there are always insurmountable obstacles in the form of indelible soil (rocks or raising tectonic layers) and so on on the way of a stream tending under gravity from a higher point to a low one.
Having stumbled, the stream washes the shore, as a result of which a river bend is formed. If the river does not wind on a long stretch of the path, we can say with confidence that this is a canal, the bed of which should be well fortified, because otherwise the flow of water will wash it and bends and loops will form again.
Scientific explanations
For the first time, Einstein explained the regularity of the formation of meanders and bends, oddly enough. This is a complex obligatory process, which superficially resembles stirring a teaspoon in a glass of water with a spoon. There are detailed scientific theories about how a 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 one, an obstacle (deviation from the average is called fluctuation), into which water will begin to beat with great force, washing everything and moving the rock in the opposite direction. On the bend of the rivers, one shore is always steep and steep, the opposite is gentle, usually with washed sand. The water stream hits a cliff and, pushing off from it, tends obliquely, bypassing the formed, usually very beautiful, natural beach, to the opposite bank. It all starts from the beginning - water is washing away the opposite boundary of land and stream. The process of bending lasts a very long time - centuries. The most natural channel laid by a river (or rather, its section) is what a river bend is.
Meaning of the word
The word itself has several synonyms - zigzag, rotation, bend, gyrus. Most often, the term is applied to the river, and there are two more unambiguous words - meander and izluka. 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, however, got its name thanks to an ancient unusually winding river flowing on the territory of modern Turkey. Actually, this term refers to the smooth bends of flat rivers.
The similarity and difference of meanders and bends
The meanders are wandering, that is, smoothly flowing water flows quite often change their course, the former sections of which, when dried up, are called old women. But the meaning of the word “bend” is not always identical to the concept of “meander”. They coincide only on flat rivers with a smooth flow of a watercourse.
The bend itself, formed on the path of the watercourse, has its own inherent names for its outlines. When the loop is quite deep, a piece of land enclosed in it in the form of 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. A shallow peninsula is called the knee.
The charm of the phrase itself
An infinite number of paintings by various artists of the world is devoted to such a bewitching landscape as a river bend. Not the most beautiful, but surprisingly accurate showing which loop the river can do, is the painting of Thomas Cole (1801-1848) "Connecticut River Bend." The name of this picturesque stretch of the water stream serves as the title of the American movie popular in the 50s with the handsome James Stuart in the title role.
You can immediately recall two novels entitled "Bend of the River", one of which was written by the American Norma Newcomb (they love beautiful names).
Literature, including poetry, testifies to the romance contained in these words. Very often the plot about mermaids resting on the gentle shores of the meander is discussed. The picturesque, close to the heart bend of the watercourse is not only very beautiful, but also symbolic for the Russian person - “... The island beyond the bend of the fast river is the Motherland!”