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Abrasion, under its strictest definition, is commonly confused with attrition and sometimes hydraulic action however, the latter less commonly so. Both abrasion and attrition refers to the wearing down of an object. Abrasion occurs as a result of two surfaces rubbing against each other, resulting in the wearing down of one or both of the surfaces.
Glacial striations or striae are scratches or gouges cut into bedrock by glacial abrasion. These scratches and gouges were first recognized as the result of a moving glacier in the late 18th century when Swiss alpinists first associated them with moving glaciers. They also noted that if they were visible today that the glaciers must also be ...
Abrasion occurs in natural environments such as beaches, sand dunes, river or stream beds by the action of current flow, wave impact, glacial action, wind, gravitational creep and other erosive agents. Recent studies have demonstrated that aeolian processes are more efficient in the rounding of sedimentary grains.
Diagram of glacial plucking and abrasion. Glaciers erode terrain through two principal processes: plucking and abrasion. [57] As glaciers flow over bedrock, they soften and lift blocks of rock into the ice. This process, called plucking, is caused by subglacial water that penetrates fractures in the bedrock and subsequently freezes and expands ...
A yardang near Meadow, Texas) (USDA photo Yardangs in the Qaidam Desert, Qinghai Province, China.. A yardang is a streamlined protuberance carved from bedrock or any consolidated or semiconsolidated material by the dual action of wind abrasion by dust and sand and deflation (the removal of loose material by wind turbulence). [1]
A ventifact (also wind-faceted stone, windkanter [1]) is a rock that has been abraded, pitted, etched, grooved, or polished by wind-driven sand or ice crystals. [2] The word “Ventifact” is derived from the Latin word “Ventus” meaning ‘wind’.
Hydraulic action, most generally, is the ability of moving water (flowing or waves) to dislodge and transport rock particles.This includes a number of specific erosional processes, including abrasion, at facilitated erosion, such as static erosion where water leaches salts and floats off organic material from unconsolidated sediments, and from chemical erosion more often called chemical ...
Erosional landforms. As the glaciers expand, due to their accumulating weight of snow and ice they crush, abrade, and scour surfaces such as rocks and bedrock.The resulting erosional landforms include striations, cirques, glacial horns, arêtes, trim lines, U-shaped valleys, roches moutonnées, overdeepenings and hanging valleys.