“If you measure the contours of a river valley with Lidar (like radar with lasers), you get a beautiful map of all the historical river channels.”

Source: kottke.org

This particular image is fantastic for teaching about geomorphology and river systems.  Students can ‘see’ the historical layers of a meandering stream winding it’s way across the landscape.  Here’s a meandering stream image (Willamette River, Oregon) that shows the dynamism of fluvial processes quite nicely.

 

Tags:  physical, fluvial, geomorphology, erosion, landscape.