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Physical Process

Rill Erosion

Geomorphology

Rill erosion is the removal of a thin layer of soil by small, well-defined channels a few centimetres deep, cut by concentrated overland flow once sheet flow becomes channelized on a bare or sparsely vegetated slope. Rills are shallow enough to be erased by normal tillage, distinguishing them from permanent gullies, but repeated rilling strips topsoil fast enough to be a leading cause of agricultural land degradation worldwide. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Process Type
Fluvial 1
Timescale
Minutes to hours during a single rainfall event; cumulative topsoil loss becomes measurable over growing seasons. 1
Timescale
Timescale (category)
Minutes 1
Timescale (category)
Hours 1
Connections

Caused By

Source Rill Erosion (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Rill Erosion (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationView the Source
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