What is Soil Erosion?
Erosion can be defined as the removal of soil particles by the motion of wind or water. Soil erosion is considered to be one of the major concerns of agriculture throughout the world today. The misuse of land, mismanagement of farm land, felling of trees, overgrazing, poor soil and water management are all practices that contribute to soil erosion. Erosion can cause a decline in soil fertility, water supply, and crop yields. Thus it affects the productivity of the land and decreases the production of food, feed, fiber, and fuel ("Soil erosion- causes," 1987). Erosion can adversely cause the social-economic conditions of the state to be affected.
Causes of Erosion
Erosion causes floods, silting up of water reservoirs, disruption of communication systems, and disturbance of the social-economic setup of the farming community. Erosion can be categorized into two parts: normal, or geological erosion, and accelerated erosion. ("Soil erosion- causes," 1987). With normal erosion, the effects are not visible on the land surface and soil productivity is not adversely affected. The amount of soil lost through this kind of erosion is equal to the amount of soil formed. With accelerated erosion, however, the effects of erosion are visible on the ground surface and the rate of soil loss is greater than the rate of soil formation ("Soil erosion- causes," 1987).
Agencies of Erosion: Wind and Water
Erosion is mainly caused by two agencies: wind and water. These two processes are active around the world all the time. There are four stages of water erosion: (1) raindrop or splash erosion, (2) sheet erosion, (3) rill erosion, and (4) gully erosion ("Soil erosion...
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3. 120 MY : Continued erosion of the land as it is slowly uplifted and
Removing vegetation removes the root systems, which help hold soil in place. Running water can now more easily wash soil and rock away, increasing erosion.
Erosion is when the elements such as wind, water, and ice remove pieces of land. (“What is Coastal Erosion?”) Coastal Erosion takes place when destructive waves wear parts of the coast away. Four ways in which this takes place are corrasion/abrasion, hydraulic action, attrition, and corrosion/solution. (“Internet Geography”) Corrasion/abrasion is when materials are hurled at the base of cliffs through waves. Hydraulic action is when waves hit the base of a cliff and air is compacted, when the wave leaves air is rushed out and often this causes the material to break. Attrition is when the waves cause rocks and pebbles to smash into each other and eventually break into pieces. Finally, Corrosion/solution is when certain types of cliff erode from the result of acids in the sea. (“Internet Geography”) Coastal Erosion is the natural process of taking land away permanently from one place to put it somewhere else. (“What is Coastal Erosion?”) Eroding coastlines are an abundant and important topic because it can change people’s surroundings in a negative way. I would like to address the questions surrounding Coastal Erosion.
eroded as fast as 6 metres per year, but the average is 1.8 metres per
Dry lands is a previous stage into what can develop the atrocity of desertification. These plains of ground lack moisture. These areas lose it either to evaporation or by transpiration of plants. Generally the land that is considered dry lands is still used by primitive technologies within herding and farming. This weak land is put on even l...
Not only can clear-cutting can lead to deforestation, but can lead to soil erosion, as plants act as a barrier to slow down water as it runs off the land. The root fix the soil, and prevents it from washing away, the absence of vegetation causes the topsoil to erode more quickly, allowing difficulty for plants to grow in a less nutrition soil quality.
Pimentel, D., Harvey, C., Resosudarmo, P., Sinclair, K., Kurz, D., McNair, M., & Blair, R. (1995). Environmental and economic costs of soil erosion and conservation benefits. Science-AAAS-Weekly Paper Edition, 267(5201), 1117-1122.
Coastal erosion is a diverse issue with many different causes. However, it is basically defined as a situation that for some reason or another causes the amount of coastline in a given area to decrease. The causes behind coastal erosion are varied. They are often the result of manmade problems, such as pollution (Williams). However, the erosion of some coastlines is a natural process that occurs without human interaction (Internet Geography).
affects the ecosystem. The land's incline prevents some areas to receive and maintain a water
The issue that I will be outlining is land erosion. I have chosen this issue because it is a big problem in Australia and in the world as it effects many industries, especially agriculture. Soil degradation is the decline in soil quality caused by its improper use, usually for agricultural, pastural, industrial or urban purposes.
It’s funny how things that you used to do as a kid can change the course of people’s lives. Myself, when my parents told me and my brothers and sisters that we were going to the cabin meant a week of solid fun. My family has a cabin up on Camano Island, which is about 20 minutes north of Everett, right off of the I-5 interstate. My family would go up there during the summer with my cousins and grandma, and go swimming when the tide was in, build sandcastles when the tide was out, only to have them washed away when the tide came back in, build forts with the new driftwood that came in each year, explore the wrecked ship down the beach in one direction from our cabin, and scour the dunes that were north of our cabin. The dunes were the best part going to the cabin. We would always try to get there by walking along the wood that had been washed up and once we got there, we would race up the hills and jump down into the sand pits below. Another things that we all used to love doing, were to see who had carved messages into the sides of the dunes. There were all sorts of messages, love message from husband to wife, boyfriend to girlfriend. ‘I was here’ messages, and then there were simply names. That is what we always used to do. Every year, my two cousins, dad, three siblings and I would climb up into the dunes and carve our names into the wall using sticks. This was done over and over again for about 8-10 years. Over the last couple of years we did this we noticed that we could see a house at the top of the dunes. This was something that we never noticed before and when we asked my dad, he said that he never noticed it either. We thought nothing about it at the time, carved our names in the wall and went back to the cabin. Later on we heard from other people who lived up there that there was a big concern by the people who live in that house that all of the messages that people had carved along with the natural erosion of the hills has caused the hill side to be dangerously close to being pushed back far enough to where the house might fall down.
Coastal Erosion is a process at Muriwai that gradually wears away the rock particles of the earth's surface, transporting them to another location. There are many types of processes that cause erosion at Muriwai such as wave erosion, wind erosion and wave refraction.
Living in Bangladesh, we have seen quite disastrous mudslides from the past few years. Mudslide is also called a landslide or a land slip. It is a downward mass movement of earth or rock on unstable slopes, including many forms resulting from differences in rock structure, coherence of material involved, degree of slope, amount of included water, extent of natural or artificial undercutting at the base of the slope, relative rate of movement, and relative quantity of material involved. There are numerous facts that can cause a mudslide and there are also numerous effects that it can cause us.
Weathering is the process in which rocks and minerals on Earth's surface are broken down by natural agents. These natural agents include water, ice, acids, salt, plants, animas, and temperature. Weathering can smooth and wear away rock. There is no rock that is hard enough not to be weathered.
Agriculture is the major farming activity. Agriculture's scale means not only that large area is directly affected, but that local and even regional climates can be affected. The draining of water from rivers and watersheds for irrigation leads to drier natural habitats. Those rivers that receive runoff from farmland are often poisoned by excessive nutrients and pesticides.