Erosion is the movement and removal of weathered rock, soil and sediment by wind, water, ice or gravity, distinct from weathering because it displaces material rather than merely breaking it down in place. Rain, rivers, ocean waves and glaciers all erode continuously, from the daily wearing of a coastline to the slow deepening of a river canyon over geologic time. Landslides are erosion driven by gravity alone, moving material already loosened by weathering.
Facts
Timescale
Timescale (category) Timescale (category) Timescale (category) Process Type TimescaleContinuous and ongoing at every scale: waves rework a beach many times a minute, while a river-cut canyon deepens over millions of years. 1 Erosion
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A major river actively eroding and reworking its channel and banks today.
Source British Geological Survey
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Source Inselberg, Wikipedia
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Source Niagara Falls - Wikipedia
Source Plateau (Wikipedia)
Source Plunge pool (Wikipedia)
Source Promontory (Wikipedia)
Source Rhine Gorge (Wikipedia)
Source Natural Arch Formation (Wikipedia)
Source Wikipedia, Slot Canyon
The canyon's depth is the product of sustained fluvial erosion by the Colorado River system over millions of years.
Source British Geological Survey
Source Hanging Valley Formation (Wikipedia)
Source Waikato River (Wikipedia)
Source Wave-cut platform (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
- Also in Nature Atlas: Erosion, the same subject.
Sources
1. British Geological Survey
British Geological SurveyErosion, Discovering Geology
Erosion involves the movement of fragments of rock by the erosion processes and therefore differs from weathering, which is just concerned with the decay of rock in situ.
- Shaped: The Grand Canyon
- Demonstrated By: The Yangtze
View the Source James Hutton (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationPart Of: Rock Cycle, Theory of rock formations sectionQuote, Part Of: Rock Cycle, Theory of rock formations section
Hutton reasoned that there must have been innumerable cycles, each involving deposition on the seabed, uplift with tilting and erosion then undersea again for further layers to be deposited.
View the Source Badlands (Wikipedia)
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Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded.
View the Source Natural Arch Formation (Wikipedia)
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Natural arches commonly form where inland cliffs, coastal cliffs, fins or stacks are subject to erosion from the sea, rivers or weathering (subaerial processes).
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Natural arches commonly form where inland cliffs, coastal cliffs, fins or stacks are subject to erosion from the sea, rivers or weathering (subaerial processes).
View the Source Inselberg, Wikipedia
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An inselberg results when a body of rock resistant to erosion, such as granite, occurring within a body of softer rocks, is exposed by differential erosion and lowering of the surrounding landscape.
View the Source Hanging Valley Formation (Wikipedia)
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Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers or streams over a very long period.
View the Source Canyon, Wikipedia
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A canyon (from Spanish cañón; archaic British English spelling: cañon), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales.
Shaped: Gorge, Lead
A canyon (from Spanish cañón; archaic British English spelling: cañon), gorge or chasm, is a deep cleft between escarpments or cliffs resulting from weathering and the erosive activity of a river over geologic time scales.
View the SourceWikipedia, Slot Canyon
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A slot canyon is a long, narrow channel or drainageway with sheer rock walls that are typically eroded into either sandstone or other sedimentary rock.
View the Source Escarpment (Wikipedia)
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An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations.
View the Source Plateau (Wikipedia)
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Plateaus can be formed by a number of processes, including upwelling of volcanic magma, extrusion of lava, and erosion by water and glaciers.
View the Source Plunge pool (Wikipedia)
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It is created by the erosional forces of cascading water on the rocks at the formation's base where the water impacts.
View the Source Wave-cut platform (Wikipedia)
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A wave-cut platform, shore platform, coastal bench, or wave-cut cliff is the narrow flat area often found at the base of a sea cliff or along the shoreline of a lake, bay, or sea that was created by erosion.
View the Source Rhine Gorge (Wikipedia)
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The gorge was carved out during a much more recent uplift to leave the river contained within steep walls 200 m (660 ft) high, the most famous feature being the Loreley.
View the Source Matterhorn (Wikipedia)
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The mountain's current shape is the result of cirque erosion due to multiple glaciers diverging from the peak, such as the Matterhorn Glacier at the base of the north face.
View the Source Promontory (Wikipedia)
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Most promontories either are formed from a hard ridge of rock that has resisted the erosive forces that have removed the softer rock to the sides of it, or are the high ground that remains between two river valleys where they form a confluence.
View the Source Niagara Falls - Wikipedia
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Niagara Falls was formed when glaciers receded at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation (the last ice age), and water from the newly formed Great Lakes carved a path over and through the Niagara Escarpment en route to the Atlantic Ocean.
View the Source Waikato River (Wikipedia)
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The channel was gradually eroded as far upriver as Piarere, leaving the old Hinuera channel through the Hinuera Gap high and dry.
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