Which process determines arc abandonment creating an oxbow lake after prolonged channel sinuosity?

💡 Explanation

When a river meander's sinuosity increases to a point that a neck cutoff can occur, river avulsion proceeds rapidly by rapidly eroding narrow meander necks beyond a critical threshold, and thereby favoring a shorter, steeper path. Therefore river avulsion governs the transition, rather than the glacio-isostatic subsidence, evaporative precipitation, or external intervention, which operate on geological or interventionist time scales not applicable here.

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