Rivers systems are powerful forces of landscape evolution and change on Earth. The abundance of water on Earth guarantees a large number of major river systems whose flowing water continually erodes material from the continents and transports the sediment to the ocean basins.

This virtual view shows a large meander of the Mississippi River near the community of New Madrid, Missouri, USA. This image was generated from a digital elevation model and shows exquisite detail of the fluvial plain constructed by this river.

At the far right, overbank deposits (sediment deposited during floods) are clearly evident along the river bank. In addition, a man-made levee system is visible. This system of low earthen walls is intended to serve as an auxiliary river bank to contain the river during floods.

<a onClick="window.open('/olcweb/cgi/pluginpop.cgi?it=jpg:: ::/sites/dl/free/0072402466/30425/VirtualVista1001.jpg','popWin', 'width=NaN,height=NaN,resizable,scrollbars');" href="#"><img valign="absmiddle" height="16" width="16" border="0" src="/olcweb/styles/shared/linkicons/image.gif"> (369.0K)</a>

Other obvious features in this view are a point bar, cut banks, mid-channel sand bars, and meander scars marking the former path of the river. The narrow neck separating the two cut banks is a likely place for the river to cut-off the active meander during a large flood. Once isolated from the main body of the river's flow, the meander will evolve into an oxbow lake.

This image was generated from digital elevation models of four 7.5-minute quadrangles merged into a single image using Geographic Information System (GIS) software.