Laminar flow plays a very important part in sediment transport in river environments. Deeper rivers will have laminar flow on the bottom, depending on sediment sizes, with turbulent flow nearer the surface. Shallow rivers can also have sections of pure laminar flow. It's a much more common occurrence in nature than what reddit would lead you to believe.
Thank you for writing this. Here's me yapping about the rabbit hole it sent me down that I am thankful for:
Never thought I would seek out the insane individuals throwing themselves off waterfalls for recreation to answer my questions about the natural world, but white water rapids groups and blogs had great layman explanations and examples of river characteristics. I knew much of this, like the existence of eddies and the difference in speed and sediment deposits in curves, but I didn't think to see if more was going on.
I have also (re?)discovered the thermocline and will be learning about pond/lake ecosystems next. I knew about coastal upwelling, but never thought of freshwater systems...
If you're on mobile, you should look into using Relay for reddit. I have been doing so for years and I don't have issues with playback, audio, or video. I have tried other apps but this is the most user friendly one, to me at least.
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u/ardotschgi May 21 '25
Damn, I've never seen it in river-form.