Physical geographyLesson 2 of 2 in the course Landforms and geomorphology

Erosion: Agents, Landforms, Rates, and Impacts

5 flashcards · 5 quiz questions · 5 match pairs · 5 fill-in sentences · English

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Summary

Erosion reshapes Earth's surface by removing and transporting material. Understanding how erosion differs from weathering—and what controls its rate—helps explain how landscapes change and why erosion can become an environmental problem.

Erosion is the action of surface processes that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location and transports it elsewhere. The material may travel only a few millimetres or thousands of kilometres.

All flashcards

What is erosion?
Erosion is the removal and transport of soil, rock, or dissolved material from one place to another by surface processes.
How is weathering different from erosion?
Weathering breaks down or alters material in place. Erosion includes removing and transporting that material.
What is the difference between physical and chemical erosion?
Physical erosion removes solid fragments as clastic sediment. Chemical erosion removes material in dissolved form as solutes.
What is deposition?
Deposition is the arrival and emplacement of transported material at a new location, often when the transporting agent loses energy or capacity.
Name four major agents of erosion.
Water, ice, wind, and gravity are major agents. They act through processes such as runoff, glacial abrasion, wind transport, and landslides.

Quiz questions

  1. What distinguishes a gully from a rill in runoff erosion?Answer: A gully is large enough that normal tillage cannot erase it.
  2. What does scour refer to in a river channel?Answer: Erosion or changes affecting the channel bed.
  3. Waves throw sediment against a coastal cliff, wearing the rock down. Which process is occurring?Answer: Abrasion, also called corrasion.
  4. Which wind-transport mode moves particles by lifting them briefly and making them bounce along the ground?Answer: Saltation.
  5. How does glacial plucking remove bedrock?Answer: Ice helps crack and detach pieces of bedrock, which are then carried away.

Based on the Wikipedia article Erosion, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Adapted into a summary, flashcards and quizzes.

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