Ch. 12] 



MEANDER-BELT SEDIMENTS 



217 



arm fills more slowly and with finer material. Maximum thicknesses 

 of these plugs generally occur in the bendways where 75 feet or so of 

 sediment is an average accumulation in old Mississippi River scars. 

 False River of Fig. 3 is such an oxbow lake of an abandoned meander 



Aerial view of typical meander-belt deposits and adjacent backswamp, 

 False River, Louisiana. 



loop and is at present slowly filling with fine-grained deposits. From 

 the illustration it can be seen that the crescent points have already 

 become filled and that sediment continues to be brought in by small 

 tributary creeks. 



Backswamps. Adjacent to the meander belts in the Lower Missis- 

 sippi Valley are restricted low-lying areas known as backswamps, 

 which receive considerable fine sediment during flood inundations. 



