Authors: Luna B. Leopold and M. Gordon Wolman. Abstract: Most river curves have nearly the same value of the ration of curvature radius to channel width, in the range of 2 to 3. Meanders formed by meltwater on the surface of glaciers, and by the main current of the Gulf Stream, have a relation of meander length to channel width similar to rivers. Because such meanders carry no sediment, the shapes of the curves in rivers are evidently determined primarily by the dynamics of flow rather than by relation to debris load. Originally published: Bulletin of the Geological Society of America; v. 71 (June 1960).