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Here the sudden base level drop triggered by the draining of Lake Agassiz down the Minnesota-Mississippi River system has triggered 11,000 years of knickpoint retreat and bank erosion that has been exacerbated by modern agricultural practices, such as tile drainage.
hernesheir commented on the word knickpoint
A term from geomorphology and stream hydrology for a point of inflection in a stream's gradient. A knickpoint occurs as a steeper reach between two low-gradient reaches within a streambed, a waterfall being an extreme example. Knickpoints naturally migrate, illustrated by the slow upstream march of the famous Horseshoe Falls of the Niagara river.
December 14, 2011