Rivers Bend to Their Own Beat

December 13, 2025

Whether it’s rivers cutting through earth, lava melting through rock, or water slicing through ice, channels all twist and bend in a seemingly similar back-and-forth manner. But a new study has discovered that channels carved by rivers actually have curves distinct from those cut by lava or water through ice.

The distinction could eventually help determine what is shaping the geology of channels on other planets.

The exact mechanism that drives the shape of these bends is not certain, but the researchers point to the relationship between the topography of the channel and the fluid’s flow within it. 

In rivers, the centrifugal force pushes water faster around the outer edges of the channel’s bends and more slowly along the inner edges. This erodes the outer edge and deposits sediments along the inner edge. Volcanic and ice channels, on the other hand, are eroded thermally, through melting. And because they do not deposit sediments like rivers do, the only change that occurs in these channels is along the outer edge of a bend, making their curves comparatively smaller than those in rivers.

The research was led by an undergraduate student, Juan Vasquez, who analyzed thousands of bends in rivers and ice channels on Earth and volcanic channels on the moon.