Gcse Geography Help Video : Hydraulic Action And
Where Is Abrasion Found
Abrasions are most commonly caused by falling, skidding, or other types of accidents. Many abrasions occur suddenly and without warning, and may not even be noticed until after the injury. Abrasions typically occur on the extremities, exposed arms and legs, when the skin is scratched against a hard or rough surface.
Erosion In The Rio Puerco: Geography And Processes
U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, ColoradoRichard PelltierU.S. Geological Survey, Denver, ColoradoPeter MolnarColorado State University, Ft. Collins, Colorado
“The Rio Puerco, a tributary of the Rio Grande in New Mexico, hasdeepened and widened its channel, or arroyo, since the settlement of theregion. This process of accelerated erosion still continues.Historical evidence, largely the notes and maps of government landsurveyors, that the cutting began between 1885 and1890. The deepening of the arroyos has decreased the agricultural andgrazing value of the country, resulting in the abandonment of six smalltowns and numerous ranches. The coincidence between the introduction oflarge numbers of stock and the cutting of arroyos indicates thatovergrazing precipitated this form of destructive erosion. The ultimatecause … appears to lie in cyclicfluctuations in climate.” –Kirk Bryan, Journal of Geology, 1928.
Topics in this paper include:
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Erosion Facts For Kids
Erosion sounds like a complicated word, doesnt it? What in the world is erosion?
Well were going to tell you everything you need to know, and youll be a superstar in your next Geography test!
There are different forces around us like wind, rain and ice, and these forces are the very things that cause erosion.
Basically erosion is where land is worn away by these different forces.
If you think of water erosion, next time you go onto the beach, look for really smooth stones.
These smooth stones have often been tossed and turned around in the sea by waves which make them smooth.
So, erosion can change the way that things look, even things like mountains, coastlines and valleys too.
How Does Erosion Happen?
We mentioned those forces that are working around us all the time, like wind, water and ice. These forces are the very things that actually cause erosion.
There are other forces too. Erosion can take years and years, and sometimes it can happen really quickly, like in the case of a flood.
It all depends on which force is working away the hardest.
The main force of erosion is actually water. It causes the most erosion on Earth.
It is also one of the most powerful forces on the planet. But how does water cause erosion and what type of water causes erosion?
Read on to see how!
First, there is rainfall and as it hits the Earth it can cause erosion, which is called splash erosion. When these water drops all get together and flow like a stream, this also causes erosion.
What Is Hydraulic Action In Geographical Terms
Geography Explain how a wave-cut platform is created. Cliffs are weakened by weathering. 2) Through hydraulic action and abrasion waves attack the cliff creating a wave-cut-notch. 3) Eventually the overhanging rock will fall, and the cliff. Cliffs are shaped through erosion and weathering . A wave-cut notch is formed by erosional processes such as abrasion and hydraulic action – this is a dent in the cliff usually at the level of high tide. As the notch increases in size, the cliff becomes unstable and collapses, leading to the retreat of the cliff face hy·drate n. A solid compound containing water molecules combined in a definite ratio as an integral part of the crystal. Often used in combination: pentahydrate v. hy·drat·ed, hy·drat·ing, hy·drates v.tr. 1. To rehydrate. 2. To supply water to in order to restore or maintain fluid balance: Cold water is. 3. Hydraulic Action: The process of erosion of rocks by the heavy pressure of river water or whirlpool is called Hydraulic Action. 4. Corrosion: By the chemical action of water, the minerals of rocks dissolve in water and flow away, which is called Corrosion. 5. Deflation
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Formation And Movement Of Glaciers
Glaciers cover about 10 percent of the land surface near Earths poles, and they are also found in high mountains. During the Ice Ages, glaciers covered as much as 30 percent of Earth. Around 600 to 800 million years ago, geologists think that almost all of the Earth was covered in snow and ice, called the Snowball Theory. Scientists use the evidence of erosion and deposition left by glaciers to do a kind of detective work to figure out where the ice once was and where it came from.
Glaciers are solid ice that moves exceptionally slowly along the land surface. They erode and shape the underlying rocks. Glaciers also deposit sediments in characteristic landforms. The two types of glaciers are: continental and alpine. Continental glaciers are large ice sheets that cover relatively flat ground. These glaciers flow outward from where the most considerable amount of snow and ice accumulate. Alpine or valleyglaciers flow downhill through mountains along existing valleys.
Weathering And The Formation Of Soil
Weathering is a key part of the process of soil formation, and soil is critical to our existence on Earth. Many people refer to any loose material on Earths surface as soil, but to geologists soil is the material that includes organic matter, lies within the top few tens of centimeters of the surface, and is vital in sustaining plant growth.
Soil is a complex mixture of minerals , organic matter , and empty space . The mineral content of soils is variable, but is dominated by clay minerals and quartz, along with minor amounts of feldspar and small fragments of rock. The types of weathering that take place within a region have a significant influence on soil composition and texture. For example, in a warm climate, where chemical weathering dominates, soils tend to be more abundant in clay. Soil scientists describe soil texture in terms of the relative proportions of sand, silt, and clay. The sand and silt components in this diagram are dominated by quartz, with lesser amounts of feldspar and rock fragments, while the clay component is dominated by the clay minerals.
Soil forms through accumulation and decay of organic matter and the mechanical and chemical weathering processes described above. The factors that affect the nature of soil and the rate of its formation include climate , the type of parent material, the slope of the surface, and the amount of time available.
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Soil Erosion And Climate Change Share This Page:
A lot of us in the geoscience business are concerned these days with interpreting ongoing and past, and predicting future, responses of landforms, soils, and ecosystems to climate change. As one of my interests is rivers, I have noted over the years that in a lot of the literature on paleohydrology the major changes, such as major influxes of sediment, seem to occur at climate transitions, rather than after climate changes or shifts have had a chance to settle in and exert their impacts for awhile.
A related issue is the relationship between precipitation, temperature, runoff, erosion, and vegetation. As climate changes both temperature and precipitation regimes change. And as every physical geography student knows, moisture availability is not just about precipitation, but the balance between precipitation and evapotranspiration . So, if both temperature and precipitation are increasing , whether available moisture increases or decreases depends on the relative increases of precipitation and ET.
Soil erosion on cropland.
Increases in available moisture, also called effective precipitation, would tend to promote both runoff and soil erosion on the one hand, and vegetation cover on the other. Since vegetation reduces erosion, we have another case of the result hinging on the net effects of competing processes. So, how does this all play out?
Eroded and restored gullies in Ethiopia .
How Soil Erosion Effacts The Environment
The most significant effect of soil erosion on the environment is the loss of agricultural land, but this is only one of its negative effects. Soil erosion pollutes and closes rivers, endangers aquatic life, and reduces their numbers, species that feed on these water sources and their organisms lose their food source, and the number of these species decreases, too.
Destroyed lands do not have much ability to hold water, causing widespread flooding that is dangerous to the inhabitants of an area and the remaining plants.
If the natural soil composition of an area changes due to erosion, there is a possibility of increasing soil acidity, in which case plant growth will be seriously affected.
The soil is the breeding ground for plants, soil erosion means the loss of plants, this can indirectly affect the climate because, with the loss of vegetation, the absorption of carbon dioxide also decreases.
If primary erosion occurs or the area has previous erosion, it will be more difficult to protect against erosion. This means that eroded areas are much harder to recover from than preventative measures.
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What Is Gully Erosion
Gully erosion is the removal of soil along drainage lines by surface water runoff. Unless steps are taken to stabilise the disturbance, gullies will continue to move by headward erosion or by slumping of the side walls. Large gullies that have been left unchecked are difficult and costly to repair.
What Is A Meander Short Answer
A meander is a winding curve or bend in a river. Meanders are the result of both erosional and depositional processes. They are typical of the middle and lower course of a river. This is because vertical erosion is replaced by a sideways form of erosion called LATERAL erosion, plus deposition within the floodplain.
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What Are The 4 Types Of Erosion In Geography
5/5fourtypeserosionabout it here
Erosion is the process that breaks things down. As far as we’re concerned, erosion is the breakdown of the continents and the land around you. The overall effect of breaking down and weathering the land is called denudation. Weathering and erosion always happen in a downhill direction.
Secondly, what is an example of an erosion? Bank erosion – This is the wearing away of banks of streams and rivers. Thermal erosion – This is caused by permafrost melting because of running water. Freezing and thawing – Water in cracks freezes and expands, cracking the rock. Wind erosion and deflation – Wind moves loose soil.
Thereof, what are the 5 types of erosion?
Liquid water is the major agent of erosion on Earth. Rain, rivers, floods, lakes, and the ocean carry away bits of soil and sand and slowly wash away the sediment. Rainfall produces four types of soil erosion: splash erosion, sheet erosion, rill erosion, and gully erosion.
What are the 4 types of river transportation?
Rivers transport material in four ways:
- Solution – minerals are dissolved in the water and carried along in solution.
- Suspension – fine light material is carried along in the water.
- Saltation – small pebbles and stones are bounced along the river bed.
- Traction – large boulders and rocks are rolled along the river bed.
The 3 main principles to control erosion are to:
What Is Stream Abrasion
Abrasion. Abrasion is the process by which a streams irregular bed is smoothed by the constant friction and scouring impact of rock fragments, gravel, and sediment carried in the water. The individual particles of sediment also collide as they are transported, breaking them down into smaller particles.
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Why Do Rivers Meander Ks2
Meanders are formed by erosion and occur where a river has worn away its banks. As well as the water hitting the banks, pieces of sediment may also be thrown against the river banks wearing them away. On the inside bend of a meander, the water flows more slowly. There is normally deposition on the inside bend.
Erosion At Various Scales
Mountain ranges are known to take many millions of years to erode to the degree they effectively cease to exist. Scholars Pitman and Golovchenko estimate that it takes probably more than 450 million years to erode a mountain mass similar to the Himalaya into an almost-flat peneplain if there are no major sea-level changes. Erosion of mountains massifs can create a pattern of equally high summits called summit accordance. It has been argued that extension during post-orogenic collapse is a more effective mechanism of lowering the height of orogenic mountains than erosion.
Examples of heavily eroded mountain ranges include the Timanides of Northern Russia. Erosion of this orogen has produced sediments that are now found in the East European Platform, including the Cambrian Sablya Formation near Lake Ladoga. Studies of these sediments indicate that it is likely that the erosion of the orogen began in the Cambrian and then intensified in the Ordovician.
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What Is Gully Erosion And Sheet Erosion 10
Sheet Erosion: When water flows as a sheet down a slope and as a result, the top part of the land is washed away, such an erosion is called sheet erosion. Gully Erosion: When the running water cuts through the clayey soils and makes deep channels as gullies, then such an erosion is called gully erosion.
Rainfall And Surface Runoff
Rainfall, and the surface runoff which may result from rainfall, produces four main types of soil erosion: splash erosion, sheet erosion, rill erosion, and gully erosion. Splash erosion is generally seen as the first and least severe stage in the soil erosion process, which is followed by sheet erosion, then rill erosion and finally gully erosion .:60â61
In splash erosion, the impact of a falling raindrop creates a small crater in the soil, ejecting soil particles. The distance these soil particles travel can be as much as 0.6 m vertically and 1.5 m horizontally on level ground.
If the soil is saturated, or if the rainfall rate is greater than the rate at which water can infiltrate into the soil, surface runoff occurs. If the runoff has sufficient flow energy, it will transport loosened soil particles down the slope.Sheet erosion is the transport of loosened soil particles by overland flow.
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 hillslopes. Generally, where water erosion rates on disturbed upland areas are greatest, rills are active. Flow depths in rills are typically of the order of a few centimetres or less and along-channel slopes may be quite steep. This means that rills exhibit hydraulic physics very different from water flowing through the deeper, wider channels of streams and rivers.
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Mudflows And Debris Flows
When a mass of sediment becomes completely saturated with water, the mass loses strength, to the extent that the grains are pushed apart, and it will flow, even on a gentle slope. This can happen during rapid spring snowmelt or heavy rains, and is also relatively common during volcanic eruptions because of the rapid melting of snow and ice. If the material involved is primarily sand-sized or smaller, it is known as a mudflow.
If the material involved is gravel-sized or larger, it is known as a debrisflow. Because it takes more gravitational energy to move larger particles, a debris flow typically forms in an area with steeper slopes and more water than does a mudflow. In many cases, a debris flow takes place within a steep stream channel, and is triggered by the collapse of bank material into the stream. This creates a temporary dam, and then a significant flow of water and debris when the dam breaks.
The United States Geologic Survey and the Utah Geologic Survey are excellent sources for more information regarding mass wasting.
Is It Possible To Live In Two Watersheds At The Same Time
Watersheds exist at different geographic scales, too. The Mississippi River has a huge watershed that covers all or parts of 33 states. You might live in that watershed, but at the same time you live in a watershed of a smaller, local stream or river that flows eventually into the Mississippi./span>
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Key Points Of Soil Erosion
- It is the natural process of wearing away of the topsoil, but human activities have accelerated the process.
- It is usually caused due to the removal of vegetation, or any activity that renders the ground dry.
- Farming, grazing, mining, construction and recreational activities are some of the causes of soil erosion.
- The effects of soil erosion are not just land degradation. It has led to a drastic increase in pollution and sedimentation in rivers that clogs the water bodies resulting in a decline in the population of aquatic organisms.
- Degraded lands lose the water holding capacity resulting in floods.
The health of the soil is of utmost importance to the farmers and the population that depends upon agriculture for food and employment. There are several challenges to resist soil erosion, but there are solutions to prevent it as well.
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To know more about soil erosion, its definition, causes, effects and prevention measures, keep visiting the BYJUS website or download the BYJUS app for further reference.