User:Jonwilliamsl/Erosion Control
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- For 'erosion' as understood by materials science, see Erosion (materials science)
- For 'erosion' as an English analogy, see Erosion (figurative)
- For 'erosion' as an operation of Mathematical morphology, see Erosion (morphology)
Erosion is the displacement of solids (soil, mud, rock and other particles) by the agents of ocean currents, wind, water, or ice by downward or down-slope movement in response to gravity or by living organisms (in the case of bioerosion).
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Erosion is distinguished from weathering, which is the decomposition of rock and particles through processes where no movement is involved, although the two processes may be concurrent.
Erosion is an intrinsic natural process but in many places it is increased by human land use. Poor land use practices include deforestation, overgrazing, unmanaged construction activity and road or trail building. However, improved land use practices can limit erosion, using techniques like terrace-building and tree planting.
A certain amount of erosion is natural and, in fact, healthy for the ecosystem. For example, gravels continuously move downstream in watercourses. Excessive erosion, however, can cause problems, such as receiving water sedimentation, ecosystem damage (including dead fish) and outright loss of soil.
[edit] Causes
What causes erosion to be severe in some areas and minor elsewhere is a combination of many factors, including the amount and intensity of precipitation, the texture of the soil, the gradient of the slope, ground cover (from vegetation, rocks, etc.) and land use. The first factor, rain, is the agent for erosion, but the degree of erosion is governed by other factors.
The first three factors can remain fairly constant over time. In general, given the same kind of vegetative cover, you expect areas with high-intensity precipitation, sandy or silty soils and steep slopes to be the most erosive. Soils with a greater proportion of clay that receive less intense precipitation and are on gentle slopes tend to erode less. But here, the impact of atmospheric sodium on erodibility of clay should be considered.
The factor that is most subject to change is the amount and type of ground cover. When fires burn an area or when vegetation is removed as part of timber operations or building a house or a road, the susceptibility of the soil to erosion is greatly increased.
Roads are especially likely to cause increased rates of erosion because, in addition to removing ground cover, they can significantly change drainage patterns. A road that has a lot of rock and one that is "hydrologically invisible" (that gets the water off the road as quickly as possible, mimicking natural drainage patterns) has the best chance of not causing increased erosion.
Understandably, many human activities remove vegetation from an area, making the soil easily eroded. Logging and heavy grazing can reduce vegetation enough to increase erosion. Changes in the kind of vegetation in an area can also affect erosion rates. Different kinds of vegetation affect infiltration rates of rain into the soil. Forested areas have higher infiltration rates, so precipitation will result in less surface runoff, which erodes. Instead much of the water will go in subsurface flows, which are generally less erosive. Leaf litter and low shrubs are an important part of the high infiltration rates of forested systems, the removal of which can increase erosion rates. Leaf litter also shelters the soil from the impact of falling raindrops, which is a significant agent of erosion. Vegetation can also change the speed of surface runoff flows, so grasses and shrubs can also be instrumental in this aspect.
One of the main causes of erosive soil loss in the year 2006 is the result of slash and burn treatment of tropical forest. When the total ground surface is stripped of vegetation and then seared of all living organisms, the upper soils are vulnerable to both wind and water erosion. In a number of regions of the earth, entire sectors of a country have been rendered unproductive. For example, on the Madagascar high central plateau, comprising approximately ten percent of that country's land area, virtually the entire landscape is sterile of vegetation, with gully erosive furrows typically in excess of 50 meters deep and one kilometer wide. Shifting cultivation is a farming system which sometimes incorporates the slash and burn method in some regions of the world.
When land is overused by animal activities (including humans), there can be mechanical erosion and also removal of vegetation leading to erosion. In the case of the animal kingdom, this effect would become material primarily with very large animal herds stampeding such as the Blue Wildebeast on the Serengeti plain. Even in this case there are broader material benefits to the ecosystem, such as continuing the survival of grasslands, that are indigenous to this region. This effect may be viewed as anomalous or a problem only when there is a significant imbalance or overpopulation of one species.
In the case of human use, the effects are also generally linked to overpopulation. For when large numbers of hikers use trails or extensive off road vehicle use occurs, erosive effects often follow, arising from vegetation removal and furrowing of foot traffic and off road vehicle tires. These effects can also accumulate from a variety of outdoor human activities, again simply arising from too many people using a finite land resource.
One of the most serious and long-running water erosion problems worldwide is in the People's Republic of China, on the middle reaches of the Yellow River and the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. From the Yellow River, over 1.6 billion tons of sediment flow each year into the ocean. The sediment originates primarily from water erosion in the Loess Plateau region of the northwest.
[edit] Erosion processes
[edit] Gravity erosion
Mass wasting is the down-slope movement of rock and sediments, mainly due to the force of gravity. Mass wasting is an important part of the erosional process, as it moves material from higher elevations to lower elevations where transporting agents like streams and glaciers can then pick up the material and move it to even lower elevations. Mass-wasting processes are occurring continuously on all slopes; some mass-wasting processes act very slowly, others occur very suddenly, often with disastrous results. Any perceptible down-slope movement of rock or sediment is often referred to in general terms as a landslide. However, landslides can be classified in a much more detailed way that reflects the mechanisms responsible for the movement and the velocity at which the movement occurs. One of the visible topographical manifestations of a very slow form of such activity is a scree slope.
Slumping happens on steep hillsides, occurring along distinct fracture zones, often within materials like clay that, once released, may move quite rapidly downhill. They will often show a spoon-shaped depression, within which the material has begun to slide downhill. In some cases, the slump is caused by water beneath the slope weakening it. In many cases it is simply the result of poor engineering along highways where it is a regular occurrence.
Surface creep is the slow movement of soil and rock debris by gravity which is usually not perceptible except through extended observation. However, the term can also describe the rolling of dislodged soil particles 0.5 to 1.0 mm in diameter by wind along the soil surface.
[edit] Water erosion
Splash erosion is the detachment and airborne movement of small soil particles caused by the impact of raindrops on soil.
Sheet erosion is the result of heavy rain on bare soil where water flows as a sheet down any gradient, carrying soil particles.
Where precipitation rates exceed soil infiltration rates, runoff occurs. Surface runoff turbulence can often cause more erosion than the initial raindrop impact.
Gully erosion results where water flows along a linear depression eroding a trench or gully. This is particularly noticeable in the formation of hollow ways, where prior to being tarmacked, an old rural road has over many years become significantly lower than the surrounding fields.
Valley or stream erosion occurs with continued water flow along a linear feature. The erosion is both downward, deepening the valley, and headward, extending the valley into the hillside. In the earliest stage of stream erosion, the erosive activity is dominantly vertical, the valleys have a typical V cross-section and the stream gradient is relatively steep. When some base level is reached the erosive activity switches to lateral erosion which widens the valley floor and creates a narrow floodplain. The stream gradient becomes nearly flat and lateral deposition of sediments becomes important as the stream meanders across the valley floor. In all stages of stream erosion by far the most erosion occurs during times of flood, when more and faster-moving water is available to carry a larger sediment load. 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.
At extremely high flows, kolks, or vortices are formed by large volumes of rapidly rushing water. Kolks cause extreme local erosion, plucking bedrock and creating pothole-type geographical features. Examples can be seen in the flood regions result from glacial Lake Missoula, which created the channeled scablands in the Columbia Basin region of eastern Washington.[1]
[edit] Shoreline erosion
Shoreline erosion, which occured on both exposed and sheltered coasts, primarily occurs through the action of currents and waves but sea level (tidal) change can also play a role.
Hydraulic action takes place when air in a joint is suddenly compressed by a wave closing the entrance of the joint. This then cracks it. Wave pounding is when the sheer energy of the wave hitting the cliff or rock breaks pieces off. Abrasion or corrasion is caused by waves launching seaload at the cliff. It is the most effective and rapid form of shoreline erosion (not to be confused with corrosion). Corrosion is the dissolving of rock by carbonic acid in sea water. Limestone cliffs are particularly vulnerable to this kind of erosion. Finally, Attrition is where particles/seaload carried by the waves are worn down as they hit each other and the cliffs. This then makes the material easier to wash away.The material ends up as shingle and sand.
Sediment is transported along the coast in the direction of the prevailing current (longshore drift). When the upcurrent amount of sediment is less than the amount being carried away, erosion occurs. When the upcurrent amount of sediment is greater, sand or gravel banks will tend to form. These banks may slowly migrate along the coast in the direction of the longshore drift, alternately protecting and exposing parts of the coastline. Where there is a bend in the coastline, quite often a build up of eroded material occurs forming a long narrow bank (a spit). Underwater sandbanks offshore may also protect parts of a coastline from erosion. Over the years, as the sandbanks gradually shift, the erosion may be redirected to attack different parts of the shore.
- See also: Beach evolution
[edit] Ice erosion
Ice erosion is caused by movement of ice, typically as glaciers. Glaciers can scrape down a slope and break up rock and then transport it, leaving moraines, drumlins and glacial erratics in their wake, typically at the terminus or during glacier retreat. Ice wedging is the weathering process in which water trapped in tiny rock cracks freezes and expands, breaking the rock. This can lead to gravity erosion on steep slopes. The scree which forms at the bottom of a steep mountainside is mostly formed from pieces of rock broken away by this means. It is a common engineering problem, wherever rock cliffs are alongside roads, because morning thaws can drop hazardous rock pieces onto the road. In some places cold enough, water seeps into rocks during the daytime, then freezes at night. Ice expands, thus, creating a wedge in the rock. Over time, the repetition in the forming and melting of the ice causes fissures, which eventually breaks the rock down.
[edit] Wind erosion
Wind erosion is the result of material movement by the wind. There are two main effects. Firstly, wind causes small particles to be lifted and therefore moved to another region. Secondly, these suspended particles may impact on solid objects causing erosion by abrasion.
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. Windbreaks are often planted by farmers to reduce wind erosion. This includes the planting of trees, shrubs, or other vegetation, usually perpendicular or nearly so to the principal wind direction.
[edit] Tectonic effects of erosion
The removal by erosion of large amounts of rock from a particular region, and its deposition elsewhere, can result in a lightening of the load on the lower crust and mantle. This can cause tectonic or isostatic uplift in the region. Research undertaken since the early 1990’s suggests that the spatial distribution of erosion at the surface of an orogen can exert a key influence on its growth and its final internal structure.
[edit] Materials science
In materials science, erosion is the recession of surfaces by repeated localized mechanical trauma as, for example, by suspended abrasive particles within a moving fluid. Erosion can also occur from non-abrasive fluid mixtures. Cavitation is one example.
In hard particle erosion, the hardness of the impacted material is a large factor in the mechanics of the erosion. A soft material will typically erode fastest from glancing impacts. Harder material will typically erode fastest from perpendicular impacts. Hardness is a correlative factor for erosion resistance, but a higher hardness does not guarantee better resistance. Factors that effect the erosion rate also include impacting particle speed, size, density, hardness, and rotation. Coatings can be applied to retard erosion, but normally can only slow the removal of material. Erosion rate is typically measured as mass of material removed divided by the mass of impacting material.
[edit] Figurative use
The concept of erosion is commonly employed by analogy to various forms of perceived or real homogenization (i.e. erosion of boundaries), "leveling out", collusion or even the decline of anything from morals to indigenous cultures. It is a common trope of the English language to describe as erosion the gradual, organic mutation of something thought of as distinct, more complex, harder to pronounce or more refined into something indistinct, less complex, easier to pronounce or (disparagingly) less refined.
[edit] Origin of term
The first known occurrence of the term "erosion" was in the 1541 translation by Robert Copland of Guy de Chauliac's medical text The Questyonary of Cyrurygens. Copland used erosion to describe how ulcers developed in the mouth. By 1774 'erosion' was used outside medical subjects. Oliver Goldsmith employed the term in the more contemporary geological context, in his book Natural History, with the quote
- "Bounds are thus put to the erosion of the earth by water."
[edit] See also
- Badland
- Bioerosion
- Biorhexistasy
- Deforestation
- Groundwater sapping
- Erosion control
- Erosion prediction
- Riparian strips
- Surface runoff
- Weathering
[edit] References
- ^ Alt, David. Glacial Lake Missoula & its Humongous Floods. Mountain Press Publishing Company. ISBN 0-87842-415-6.
- World Bank 2001: China: Air, Land, and Water.
- Pan European Soil Erosion Assessment
[edit] Further reading
- Schmittner Karl-Erich and Giresse Pierre, 1999. The impact of atmospheric sodium on erodibility of clay in a coastal Mediterranean region. Environmental Geology 37/3: 195-206.
