Baer's Law of Stream Deflection

Abstract

Baer's Law of Stream Deflection was a concept that was introduced in the mid-nineteenth century, whereby it was believed that the Earth's rotation influenced the ability of streams to erode their banks preferentially to the right in the Northern Hemisphere and to the left in the Southern Hemisphere. A number of examples of this tendency were produced, and experimental and theoretical work was used to elaborate the idea. Various authors suggested that the influence of the tendency was small and that other factors (e.g., wind and eolian deposition) could account for stream course asymmetry, but no convincing rebuttal of the law has ever been produced. However, modern treatments of fluvial geomorphology largely ignore it.