The document discusses various agents of erosion including wind, water, glaciers, waves, and gravity. It provides examples of different types of erosion caused by each agent and defines key terms. For example, it states that running water is the most powerful erosion agent, eroding continents at an average rate of 1 inch every 750 years. The document also covers different types of mass movement including landslides, slumps, falls, rockfalls, and mudflows. It describes farming conservation methods to reduce erosion like terraces, contour farming, and cover crops.

1. Erosion
By Jared Mellody
1
In association with
2nd Hour Earth Science

2. Definition
• The process of eroding or
being eroded by wind, water,
or other natural agents.
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3. 5 Agents of Erosion
• 1. Wind
• 2. Running water
• 3. Glaciers (Ice)
• 4. Waves
• 5. Gravity
• What they are ↓
• The direct source of movement that can cause erosion through
the transfer of energy or transport of rock material.
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4. Agent of Erosion: Wind
• Wind erosion damages land
and natural vegetation by
removing soil from one place
and depositing it in another.
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5. Agent of Erosion: Running
Water
• Running water is the most
powerful agent of erosion.
Continents are eroded
primarily by running water at
an average rate of 1 inch every
750 years. The velocity of a
stream increases as its
gradient increases but velocity
is also influenced by factors
such as degree of turbulence,
position within the river, the
course of the stream, the
shape of the channel and the
stream load.
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6. Agent of Erosion: Ice
• Ice erosion is the process of
large chunks of ice, known as
glaciers, eroding an area over
a long period of time with the
help of gravity.
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7. Agents of Erosion:
Waves
• Coastal erosion is the wearing
away of land and the removal
of beach or dune sediments by
wave action.
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8. Agent of erosion: Gravity
• Gravity can pull rocks and soil
loose from the sides of
mountains and cause
rockslides and mudslides.
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9. Logging effects on erosion
• Logging affects the soil by
degrading soil fertility and
reduces crop production.
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10. Construction effects on
erosion
• Construction such as Grading
and filling drastically reduce
the soil quality and over time if
unprotected may affect more
areas.
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11. Effects of Farming
• Farming has many impacts on
erosion and waterways. In
erosion top soil may be picked
up by wind and or washed
away by rain.
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12. Conservation Farming -
Terraces
• a terrace is a piece of sloped
plane that has been cut into a
series of successively receding
flat surfaces or platforms,
which resemble steps, for the
purposes of more effective
farming.
• Terraces save soil and improve
water quality over periods of
time.
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13. Conservation Farming -
Contour Farming
• Contour farming is the farming
practice of ploughing and/or
planting across a slope
following its elevation contour
lines.
• Farming on the contour creates
small ridges that slow runoff
water, and it increases the rate
of water infiltration, reduces the
hazard of erosion, and
redirects runoff from a path
directly downslope to a path
around the hills slope.
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14. Conservation Farming - Wind
Breaks
• A windbreak is a plantation
usually made up of one or
more rows of trees or shrubs
planted in such a manner as to
provide shelter from the wind
and to protect soil from erosion
• Windbreaks protect the land
from erosion by congaing the
amount of dirt in the air.
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15. Conservation Farming - Strip
Cropping
• Strip cropping is a method of
farming used when a slope is
too steep or too long, or
otherwise, when one does not
have an alternative method of
preventing soil erosion.
• Strip cropping helps keep the
soil in on a long stretch of land.
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16. Conservation Farming - No-
Till
• No-till farming is a way of
growing crops or pasture from
year to year without disturbing
the soil through tillage.
• No-till improves soil quality
(soil function), carbon, organic
matter, aggregates,protecting
the soil from
erosion,evaporation of water,
and structural breakdown. A
reduction in tillage passes
helps prevent the compaction
of soil.
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17. Conservation Farming -
Cover Crops
• A cover crop is a crop planted
primarily to manage soil
erosion, soil fertility, soil
quality, water, weeds, pests,
diseases, biodiversity and
wildlife.
• Although cover crops can
perform multiple functions in an
agroecosystem
simultaneously, they are often
grown for the sole purpose of
preventing soil erosion.
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18. Mass Movement
• Mass movement is the movement of surface
material caused by gravity.
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19. 4 triggers of Mass Movement
• Creeps
• The combination of small
movements of soil or rock in
different directions over time
are directed by gravity
gradually downslope
• Landslides
• A landslide, also called a
landslip, is a rapid movement
of a large mass of earth and
rocks down a hill or a
mountainside
• Slump
• A slipping of coherent rock
material along the curved
surface of a decline
• Falls
• It is where regolith cascades
down a slope, but is not of
sufficient volume or viscosity
to behave as a flow.
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20. Mass Movement - Rockfalls
• Rock falls are when rock slides
off the sides of mountains or
cliffs.
• Triggers include: Frost
wedging, weathering, root
wedging, and external
stresses.
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21. Mass Movement - Rock
slides
• A rockslide is a type of
landslide caused by rock
failure in which part of the
plane of failure passes through
intact rock and material
collapses en masse and not in
individual blocks.
• Happen on sides of ledges with
rocks that have been
weathered.
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22. Mass Movement - Slump
• A slipping of coherent rock
material along the curved
surface of a decline
• Causes of slumping include
earthquake shocks,
thorough wetting, freezing
and thawing, undercutting,
and loading of a slope.
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23. Mass Movement - Mudflow
• A mudflow or mud flow is a
form of mass wasting involving
"very rapid to extremely rapid
surging flow" of debris that has
become partially or fully
liquified by the addition of
significant amounts of water to
the source material.
• Happens where there is a
significant amount of rain over
a period of time.
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24. Mass Movement - Earth flow
• An earth flow is a downslope
viscous flow of fine-grained
materials that have been
saturated with water, and
moves under the pull of gravity.
• Happens in areas downhill that
have had a significant amount
of rain over a period of time.
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25. Mass Movement - Creep
• Creep is the tendency of a
solid material to move slowly or
deform permanently under the
influence of mechanical
stresses.
• Creep happens on sides of
roadways and hills.
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26. Citations (in order by slide)
• https://www.flickr.com/photos/bertknot/9502855842/
• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rhizolith_group_revealed_after_wind_erosion_3.JPG
• http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Urban_stream_in_park.jpg
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glacier#mediaviewer/File:Perito_Moreno_Glacier_Patagonia_Argentina_Luca_Galuzzi_2005.JPG
• http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3841186
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Slide#mediaviewer/File:Frank_Slide,_Canada.jpg
• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Logging_road_East_Kalimantan_2005.jpg
• http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/57/62/2576240_25bae00c.jpg
• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Chickamauga_Dam_(1936)_-_Dam_construction_erosion_control.jpg
• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9a/Silt_fence_EPA.jpg
• http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/01/56/59/1565950_b4bc2411.jpg
• http://pixabay.com/static/uploads/photo/2013/07/19/00/18/food-165214_640.jpg
• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/df/Batad_Rice_Terraces.jpg
• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c4/TerracesBuffers.JPG/640px-TerracesBuffers.JPG
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27. Citations Cont. (in order by slide)
• http://watershedbmps.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/ContourFarming_plantandsoil_unl_edu.jpg
• http://cottontoday.cottoninc.com/natural-resources/soil/images/organic.jpg
• http://www.mda.state.mn.us/protecting/conservation/practices/~/media/Images/protecting/practices/fieldwindbreak1.
ashx?w=300&h=214&as=1
• http://www.mda.state.mn.us/protecting/conservation/practices/~/media/Images/protecting/practices/fieldwindbreak2.
ashx?w=300&h=214&as=1
• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0b/Cotton_Production_in_the_North_Carolina_Coastal_Plain.jpg
• https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5075/5878650615_bc834fa040_b.jpg
• https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8032/8053619620_11c351fd20_b.jpg
• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Rockfall.jpg
• http://www.landforms.eu/shetland/images/villians_ure.JPG
• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/Rockslide_at_Oddicombe.jpg/800px-
Rockslide_at_Oddicombe.jpg
• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Rock_slide.jpg
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28. Citations Cont.[#2] (in order by slide)
• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Misaki_Stratum_Slump_Structur
e_2013-03.JPG
• http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/27/31/2273175_d8bb4209.jpg
• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/63/Slide-guerrero1.JPG
• http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTWxhOEtzWKMP1Hkk-whSSzsxilpkJzZK9OqPgodT_
MQkSZAREfJg
• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e6/Home_sunk_by_mud_flo
w.JPG/1024px-Home_sunk_by_mud_flow.JPG
• http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/01/40/58/1405853_fa82c7e8.jpg
• http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Soil_Creep,_Millennium_Hill_-
_geograph.org.uk_-_518574.jpg
• http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/02/09/15/2091548_7454d853.jpg
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