Erosiontion Essay: What Is Soil Erosion?

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What is Soil Erosion?

Soil erosion is when soil moves (like a slope) to a different place. It can be a short distance or kilometers carried by rivers. Soil erosion is occurring by winds, rains, floods, glaciers, rivers, and earthquakes. Soil erosion is a natural occurring process which affects all landforms. The soil that is moved goes down the flattered land in which it may block roads and damage houses. It enters the streams and rivers in which it harms wildlife and makes water dirty and goes out to the sea. In agriculture, soil erosion is wearing away of a field's topsoil by natural physical forces of water and the wind or farming activities such as tillage. Erosion involves three distinct actions, soil detachment, movement, and deposition. …show more content…

Rill erosion is when on sloping land, the water that runs off may gather in small V-shaped rolls. Gully erosion occurs on spread subsoils. These are mostly deep and create a lot of sediment, which often feeds into rivers. Mass-movement erosions when gravity combines with heavy rain or earthquakes and the whole slopes can slump, slip or slide. Slips are one of the main forms of erosion in the North Island. They are a direct result of the change from forest to pasture. Slips occur when the soil (topsoil and subsoil) on slopes becomes saturated.Slips are common, where the underlying rock is mudstone or siltstone. In the South Island, soil slips are widespread throughout the hill country (Gisborne, Taihape, Wanganui, Taranaki and King Country), but mostly north of Christchurch. Streambank erosion is common throughout New Zealand, especially in rivers and watercourses with periodic flooding. I chose this topic because it is one of the main crisis in NZ. It will affect our future if we don’t take action now. New Zealand loses 200 - 300 million tonnes of soil every year in the ocean. The rate of of soil erosion is New Zealand is about ten times faster than the rest of the world. If we don’t start taking action, then our crops, plants and trees will start dying, New Zealand will be

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