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Wind Erosion
Water Erosion
Gravity Erosion
Ice Erosion
Transportation
Solution - materials are carried along by
water.
Suspension - the suspended materials are
transported by medium (air, water, or ice)
Traction - Particles are moved by rolling,
sliding and shuffling along eroded surface
Saltation - Particles move from the surface
to the medium.
What is Deposition?
Deposition - laying down of sediment that has
been transported by a medium such as wind,
water, or ice
Process of erosion stops when the moving
particles fall out of the transporting medium
and settle on a surface. This settling is
deposition.
If the speed of the medium slows or the
resistance of the particles increases, the
balance changes and causes deposition.
Speed can be reduced by large rocks, hills,
vegetation, etc.
Deposition - Wind
Wind speed can be related to variations in
heating and cooling
Wind can transport fine particles in suspension
hundreds of km from its original source in the desert.
Heavier material may be blown along the ground.
Material is eventually deposited when the wind
changes direction or loses its strength.
Obstacles, whether natural of man-made, will often
decide where the deposition occurs and the nature of
the feature formed.
Deposition - Water
Running water enters a large, fairly still body of
water and its speed decreases.
As speed decreases, water's ability to carry
sediments decreases
Sediments carried by running water are deposited
where the slowing water can no longer move them.
Largest particles are deposited near the shore.
Increasingly smaller particles settle out farther from
the shore where the water is calmer
Occurs in streams, rivers, oceans, etc.
Deposition - Ice
Glacial flows of ice - become slower when the ice
begins melting
Deposits left by glaciers are called moraines and
outwashes
Moraines are large chunks of broken rock left at the base
and sides of the glacier as it melts and recedes
Finer material is carried in the rivers that form when the
glacial ice melts. The deposits of these rivers look similar
to normal river deposits and are called outwashes