Erosion is the acquisition and transportation of rock debris. When the massive rocks break into smaller fragments due to weathering and other processes, the geomorphic agents like water, glaciers, wind, waves etc remove and transport these rock debris to other places.
Types of erosion
- Water Erosion – It is the removal of soil by water and transporting away, it is due to rain, gully, rill, and stream.
- Sheet and Rill Erosion – It occurs when a thin layer of soil is taken away by water when the water doe not infiltrates into the ground. Rill erosion occurs when runoff water forms small channels as it concentrates down a slope.
- Scalding Erosion–Scalding occurs when water or wind removes the topsoil layer. This exposes the sodic or saline soils in the subsoil layers.
- Gully Erosion-It is the process by which gullies are formed. Hillsides are more prone to gully erosion when they are cleared of vegetation, through deforestation etc.
- Stream Bank Erosion – It is wearing away of the banks of a stream or river. This is distinguished from erosion of the bed of the watercourse, which is referred to as scour.
- Wind Erosion -The wind is the cause of the removal of top layer soil. This occurs in arid and semi-arid lands.
These are the different types of erosion that are also responsible for Deposition.
Deposition
The deposition is the consequence of erosion. The erosional agents lose their velocity and thereby energy on the gentler slopes and the materials are carried by them start to settle.
The coarser materials get deposited first and finer materials deposit later. The deposition depression gets filled up and erosional agents act as aggradational or depositional agents also.