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In such processes, it is not the water alone that erodes: suspended abrasive particles, pebbles, and boulders can also act erosively as they traverse a surface, in a process known as traction. [22] Bank erosion is the wearing away of the banks of a stream or river.
Dobbingstone Burn, Scotland—This photo illustrates two different types of erosion affecting the same place. Valley erosion is occurring due to the flow of the stream, and the boulders and stones (and much of the soil) that are lying on the edges are glacial till that was left behind as ice age glaciers flowed over the terrain.
There are two primary mechanisms of stream bank erosion: fluvial erosion and mass failure. Fluvial erosion is the direct removal of soil particles by flowing water. The rate of fluvial erosion is determined both by the force of the flowing water (e.g. faster flow equals more force) and the resistance of the bank material to erosion (e.g. clay is generally more resistant to erosion than sand).
Eemian erosion surface in a fossil coral reef on Great Inagua, The Bahamas.Foreground shows corals truncated by erosion; behind the geologist is a post-erosion coral pillar which grew on the surface after sea level rose again.
The stream erodes away at the rock and soil at its headwaters in the opposite direction that it flows. Once a stream has begun to cut back, the erosion is sped up by the steep gradient the water is flowing down. As water erodes a path from its headwaters to its mouth at a standing body of water, it tries to cut an ever-shallower path.
Wind erosion of soil at the foot of Chimborazo, Ecuador Rock carved by drifting sand below Fortification Rock in Arizona (Photo by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, USGS, 1871). Aeolian processes, also spelled eolian, [1] pertain to wind activity in the study of geology and weather and specifically to the wind's ability to shape the surface of the Earth (or other planets).
Sheet erosion, Pullman, Washington, 1946 Sheet erosion or sheet wash is the even erosion of substrate along a wide area. [1] It occurs in a wide range of settings such as coastal plains, hill slopes, floodplains, beaches, [2] savanna plains [3] and semi-arid plains. [4]
The California coast, which has soft cliffs of sedimentary rock and is heavily populated, regularly has incidents of house damage as cliffs erodes. [22] Devil's Slide, Santa Barbara, the coast just north of Ensenada, and Malibu are regularly affected.