Though the problem of secondary currents acting across the main flow in straight channels has been considered in numerous works, relatively little attention has been paid to their effect on the configuration of natural river beds. The experimental work of Casey [1935] and Vanoni [1946] indicated that rectilinear patterns of current‐aligned ribbons of sediment are formed by dilute sand suspensions flowing along the bottom of a straight flume. This form of bed sculpture, revealed after the flow was stopped, was attributed by them to the action of secondary currents generated within the flowing suspension. The same line of thought was followed by Bagnold [1941], who described large‐scale (spacing up to 60 m) longitudinal strips of aeolian sand found in the Egyptian desert, and by Dzulynski and Walton [1963], who discussed the mode of formation of the small ‘longitudinal current ridges’ occasionally found in turbidite sequences.
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