soil erosion in trinidad

erosion is defined as the removal of soil, sediment, regolith, and rock fragments from the landscape. Most landscapes show obvious evidence of erosion. erosion is responsible for the creation of hills and valleys. It removes sediments from areas that were once glaciated, shapes the shorelines of lakes and coastlines, and transports material downslope from elevated sites. In order for erosion to occur, three processes must take place: detachment, entrainment and transport. erosion also requires a medium to move material. Wind, water, and ice are the environmental media primarily responsible for erosion. Finally, the process of erosion stops when the transported particles fall out of the transporting medium and settle on a surface. This process is called deposition. Figure 1 illustrates an area of Death Valley, California where the effects of erosion and deposition can be easily seen. Particle weight, size, shape, surface configuration, and medium type are the main factors that determine which of these processes operate. The erosion Sequence * Abrasion: the excavation of surface particles by material carried by the erosion agent. The effectiveness of this process is related to the velocity of the moving particles, their mass, and their concentration at the eroding surface. Abrasion is very active in glaciers where the particles are firmly held by ice. Abrasion can also occur from the particles held in the erosional mediums of wind and water. Figure 2: This graph describes the relationship between stream flow velocity and particle erosion, transport, and deposition. (Source: PhysicalGeography.net) Figure 2: This graph describes the relationship between stream flow velocity and particle erosion, transport, and deposition. (Source: PhysicalGeography.net) Figure 1 is an image that was created from DEMs (Digital Elevation Model) for the following 1:24,000 scale topographic quadrangles: Telescope Peak, Hanaupah Canyon, and Badwater, California. To the left is the Panamint Mountain Range. To the right is Death Valley. Elevation spans from 3,368 to -83 meters and generally decreases from left to right. The blue line represents an elevation of 0 meters. Large alluvial fans extending from a number of mountain valleys to the floor of Death Valley can be seen in the right side of the image. The sediments that make up these depositional features came from the weathering and erosion of bedrock in the mountains located on the left side of the image. (This image was created with MacDEM software). * Saltation is where the particle moves from the surface to the medium in quick continuous repeated cycles. The action of returning to the surface usually has enough force to cause the entrainment of new particles. This process is only active in air and water.
erosion due to the surface collapse of air bubbles found in rapid flows of water. In the implosion of the bubble, a micro-jet of water is created that travels with high speeds and great pressure producing extreme stress on a very small area of a surface. Cavitation only occurs when water has a very high velocity, and therefore its effects in nature are limited to phenomenon like high waterfalls. * Suspension is where the particles are carried by the medium without touching the surface of their origin. This can occur in air, water, and ice. * Saltation is where the particle moves from the surface to the medium in quick continuous repeated cycles