An oxbow lake is a U-shaped body of water that forms when a wide meander from the main stem of a river is cut off, creating a free-standing body of water. This landform is so named for its distinctive curved shape, resembling the bow pin of an oxbow. In Australia, an oxbow lake is known as a billabong, from the indigenous language Wiradjuri. In south Texas, oxbows left by the Rio Grande are called resacas.
The word "oxbow" can also refer to a U-shaped bend in a river or stream, whether or not it is cut off from the main stream.
An oxbow lake forms when a river creates a meander, due to the river's eroding the bank through hydraulic action, abrasion and erosion. After a long period of time, the meander becomes very curved, and eventually the neck of the meander becomes narrower and the river cuts through the neck during a flood, cutting off the meander and forming an oxbow lake.
When a river reaches a low-lying plain, often in its final course to the sea or a lake, it meanders widely. In the vicinity of a river bend, deposition occurs on the convex bank (the bank with the smaller radius). In contrast, both lateral erosion and undercutting occur on the cut bank or concave bank (the bank with the greater radius.) Continuous deposition on the convex bank and erosion of the concave bank of a meandering river cause the formation of a very pronounced meander with two concave banks getting closer. The narrow neck of land between the two neighboring concave banks is finally cut through, either by lateral erosion of the two concave banks or by the strong currents of a flood. When this happens, a new straighter river channel is created and an abandoned meander loop, called a cutoff, is formed. When deposition finally seals off the cutoff from the river channel, an oxbow lake is formed. This process can occur over a time scale from a few years to several decades and may sometimes become essentially static.
Oxbow is a brand of clothing and athletic equipment. Since its creation in 1985 in Pont-Audemer, France, Oxbow has positioned itself in the world of boardsports as an international brand. Oxbow restarted the World Longboard Championship in 1992, and sponsors athletes such as surfer Laird Hamilton and windsurfer Jason Polakow. Oxbow's Back to Powder winter event draws some of the best skiers and snowboarders in the world. The business is involved in five sports: surfing, windsurfing, kitesurfing, snowboarding, and skiing. Oxbow became an affiliate of the French group Lafuma in 2005.
An oxbow is part of oxen tack.
Oxbow may also refer to:
.gal (Galician pronunciation: [ˈpunto ˈɡal]) is a sponsored top-level domain intended to highlight the Galician people, Galician language, and Galician culture. It was approved on 14 June 2013 by ICANN, and the first 93 domains went online on July 25, 2014.
The initiative was backed by more than 13,700 people and 110 institutions in Galicia, including relevant agencies of culture such as the Royal Galician Academy, the Galician Culture Council, and the three Galician universities. Asociación PuntoGal is committed to establishing a foundation to reinvest the money in projects that promote Galician language and culture in the field of new technologies.
Gal, an alteration of girl, is a casual term for a woman.
Gal may also refer to:
The gal, sometimes called galileo, (symbol Gal) is a unit of acceleration used extensively in the science of gravimetry. The gal is defined as 1 centimeter per second squared (1 cm/s2). The milligal (mGal) and microgal (µGal) refer respectively to one thousandth and one millionth of a gal.
The gal is not part of the International System of Units (known by its French-language initials "SI"). In 1978 the CIPM decided that it was permissible to use the gal "with the SI until the CIPM considers that [its] use is no longer necessary." However, use of the gal is deprecated by ISO 80000-3:2006.
The gal is a derived unit, defined in terms of the centimeter-gram-second (CGS) base unit of length, the centimeter, and the second, which is the base unit of time in both the CGS as well as the modern SI system. In SI base units, 1 Gal is equal to 0.01 m/s2.
The acceleration due to Earth’s gravity (see Standard gravity) at its surface is 976 to 983 Gal, the variation being due mainly to differences in latitude and elevation. Mountains and masses of lesser density within the Earth's crust typically cause variations in gravitational acceleration of tens to hundreds of milligals (mGal). The gravity gradient (variation with height) above Earth's surface is about 3.1 µGal per centimeter of height (6994310000000000000♠3.1×10−6 s−2), resulting in a maximum difference of about 2 Gal (0.02 m/s2) from the top of Mount Everest to sea level.