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1. Erosion is the process by which material is removed from a region of the Earth surface. It can occur by weathering and transport of solids in the natural environment, and leads to the deposition of these materials
elsewhere.
2. It usually occurs due to transport by wind, water, or ice; by down-slope
Although erosion is a natural process but human land use policies also have an effect
Erosion Processes
Gravity
1. Mass wasting or Mass movement is the down-slope movement of rock and sediments, mainly due to the force of gravity. 2. Mass movement is an important part of the erosional process, as it moves material from higher elevations to lower elevations where other eroding agents such as
streams and glaciers can then pick up the material and move it to even lower
elevations. 3. Mass-movement processes are always occurring continuously on all slopes; some mass-movement processes act very slowly; others occur very suddenly, often with disastrous results. Any perceptible down-slope movement of rock or sediment is
Talus cones produced by mass wasting, north shore of Isfjord, Svalbard, Norway
Water
Splash erosion is the detachment and airborne movement of small soil particles caused by the impact of raindrops on soil. In rain splash soil particles are knocked into the air by raindrop impact. Sheet erosion is the detachment of soil particles by raindrop impact and their removal down slope by water flowing overland as a sheet instead of in definite channels or rills. the loose particles are moved down slope by broad sheets of rapidly flowing water filled with sediment known as sheet floods. This stage of sheet erosion is generally last only for a short time.
Splash erosion
Sheet erosion
Rill Erosion
Rill erosion refers to the development of small, ephemeral concentrated flow paths, which function as both sediment source and sediment delivery systems for erosion on
hill slopes.
Bank Erosion
Bank erosion is the wearing away of the
banks of a stream or river. Erosion and changes in the form of river banks may be measured by inserting metal rods into the bank and marking the position of the bank surface along the rods at different
times.
ICE
Ice erosion can take one of two forms. It can be caused by the movement of ice, typically as glaciers, in a process called glacial erosion.
It can also be due to freeze-thaw processes in which water inside pores and fractures in
rock may expand causing further cracking.
Wind
1. In arid climates, the main source of erosion is wind. The general wind circulation moves small particulates such as dust across wide oceans thousands of kilometres
3. Wind erosion generally occurs in areas with little or no vegetation, often in areas
where there is insufficient rainfall to support vegetation. An example is the formation of sand dunes, on a beach or in a desert.
Erosion Measurement
Erosion is measured using tools such as the micro-erosion meter (MEM) and the
traversing micro-erosion meter (TMEM). The MEM has proved helpful in measuring bedrock erosion in various ecosystems around the world. It can measure both terrestrial and oceanic erosion. On the other hand, the TMEM can be used to track the expanding and contracting of volatile rock formations and can give a reading of how quickly a rock formation is deteriorating.