GENERAL AND SPECIFIC

TYPES
OF SOIL EROSION
 Soil Erosion
 The geological process in which earthen materials are worn
away and transported by natural forces such as wind or water.

 Soil erosion is the process by which soil is removed from the

Earth's surface by exogenetic processes such as wind or water
flow and then transported and deposited in other locations.

 A similar process, weathering, breaks down or dissolves the

rock, but does not involve movement. Erosion is the opposite
of deposition, the geological process in which earthen
materials are deposited, or built up, on a landform.
Weathering, Erosion, and Deposition

 Weathering - the BREAKING DOWN of

rocks.

 Erosion - the MOVEMENT of sediment from

broken rocks.

 Deposition - the DROPPING of sediment in a

NEW place.
 Physical Erosion
 The process of rocks changing their physical properties
without changing their basic chemical composition.

 Physical erosion often causes rocks to get smaller,

thinner, or smoother.
 Types of Physical Erosion
 Landslides and Mass  Bio-erosion
 Ice and Liquid
wasting water
A down-slope movement of soil The process in which a living Their movement forces
and rock under the direct influence organism wears away at rock or rocks to crash together or
of gravity. another hard substance. crack apart.
 Water Erosion
 In water erosion, the water acts as an agent to dislodge and transport
the eroded soil particle from one location to another.

 Rainfall produces four types of soil erosion: splash erosion, sheet

erosion, rill erosion, and gully erosion.
Types of Water Erosion
 Splash Erosion
The impact of a falling raindrop,
which can scatter tiny soil particles as
far as .6 meters (2 feet).
 Rill erosion
Erosion that takes place as runoff
develops into discrete streams (rills).
 Sheet Erosion
Erosion caused by runoff.
Sheet erosion is the uniform removal
of soil in thin layers by the forces of
raindrops and overland flow.
 Gully erosion
The stage in which soil particles are
transported through large channels.
 Wind Erosion
 A natural process that moves soil from one location to another by wind power. It can
cause significant economic and environmental damage.

 Caused by a light wind that rolls soil particles along the surface through to a strong
wind that lifts a large volume of soil particles into the air to create dust storms.
 Types of Wind Erosion
 Suspension  Saltation  Creep
Fine particles move parallel to the Movement of particles by a series of The rolling and sliding of
surface and upward into the atmosphere short bounces along the surface of the larger soil particles along
by strong winds. Suspended particles ground, and dislodging additional the ground surface.
can travel hundreds of miles. particles with each impact.
 CREEP
vs
SALTATION
vs
SUSPENSION
 Ice Erosion
 Glacial erosion includes the loosening of rock, sediment, or soil by glacial processes,
and the entrainment and subsequent transportation of this material by ice or meltwater.

 Glaciers are massive bodies of slowly moving ice. Glaciers form on land, and they are
made up of fallen snow that gets compressed into ice over many centuries. They move
slowly downward from the pull of gravity.
 Types of Ice Erosion
 Abrasion  Freeze Thaw  Plucking
Melt water from a glacier freezes
When rock frozen to the base Melt water or rain gets into cracks in around lumps of cracked and broken
and the back of the glacier the bed rock, usually the back wall. rock.
scrapes the bed rock.
When the ice moves downhill, rock is
plucked from the back wall.
 FAST FACT
Eroding Animals

Burrowing animals, such as beetles

and worms, contribute to erosion by
displacing soil.
 FAST FACT
Solar Erosion

The sun itself is actually an

instrument of erosion! As rocks heat
up, they expand. Expanding rocks
can sometimes crack and crumble
away.