How velocity controls erosion and deposition at the Chenango River

Recently, I visited a spot on the Chenango River, about 15 minutes from Colgate, as a TA for a geology class. While the students were making observations about the river, I too began to take note of its key feature. One thing in particular that stood out to me was the velocity of the river. The Chenango River is a meandering river (is made of sinuous repeating curves) and therefore the velocity is not constant in the streambed. Instead, the velocity of the channel is dependent on how much resistance (by friction force) is acting upon the water. 

At the Chenango River, I noticed that the water moved the fastest in the center of the channel. This is because the water is the deepest and experiences less resistance. In addition, the curves or bends that characterize a meandering river create a series of point bars and cut banks based on the velocity of the water. On the outer curve, the banks are highly eroded (creating a cut bank) because the velocity is the highest. The Hjulstrom diagram shows that erosion of larger grain sizes occurs at higher velocities. On the inner curve, point bars form by the deposition of sediment at lower velocities. The Hjulstrom curve shows a relationship between velocity and grain size where the velocity of the water decreases and therefore the grain size also decreases. The decreasing velocity causes the deposition of large grain sizes on the inner curve creating a point bar.