system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How does the water of an oxbow lake stay there despite it being cut off from a supply of water? What stops it evaporating like a giant puddle?
gpt
It's cut off from the river as a supply of water, not from any source of water. There can be groundwater that's coming across underground from the river. There can be runoff from the land higher than the lake that will drain there instead of into the river. Water is one of those insidiously persistent things. If there's a route to a lower spot or an area of lower pressure, the water will find it's way there...