Soil Erosion is the process that erodes, breaks or gradually diminishes things down. The process of erosion usually takes place on the surface of soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth’s crust and with the help of the wind or water flow, it gets to settle down at another location.
What Is Soil Erosion?
Soil Erosion is one form of soil degradation. It occurs in almost all types of lands. Flowing water, rainwater, and the wind are the prime agents which cause a significant amount of soil loss each year. Too much of soil erosion causes serious loss of topsoil and also reduces crop production potential, lower surface water quality, and damaged drainage networks.
Types of Soil Erosion
One of the most important things that we can do to ensure the health of our crops and nearby ecosystems is to reduce soil erosion. The different soil erosion types are explained below.
Rain Drop or Splash Erosion
The erosion due to the impact of falling raindrops on the soil surface leading to the destruction of the crumb structure is known as raindrop or splash erosion.
Sheet Erosion
It is the uniform removal of soil in thin layers from the land surface caused by the wind. Land areas with loose, shallow topsoil overlying compact soil are most prone to sheet erosion.
Rill Erosion
Rill erosion is a form of water erosion in which the erosion takes place through numerous narrow and more or not so straight channels called streamlets or head cuts. Rill is the most common form of erosion, which you can also observe during heavy rain.
Gully Erosion
Gully erosion occurs due to the runoff of surface water, causing the removal of soil with drainage lines. Gullies when started once, will move by headward erosion or even by slumping of side walls unless and un-till proper steps will be taken in order to stabilize the disturbance.
Stream Bank Erosion
Bank erosion is nothing but washing up away from banks of a stream or a river. It is different from the erosion of the bed of a watercourse, that is referred to as scouring. This type of erosion is also termed as Stream Bank Erosion.
Causes of Soil Erosion
Running water is one of the main cause of soil erosion. Some soil erosion causes are mentioned below.
Due to Soil Texture
If the texture is loose that is the soil contains more of small grains and of open structure erodes faster.
Slope
Soil present in a steeper slope more than the soil present at a plane level of the ground.
Intensity or Amount of Rainfall
More intense rain, more erosion. This can be a bit slow if there are more trees present in the land as the roots of the plants hold soil in a firm manner.
Human Activities
Agricultural practices, deforestation, roads and urbanization and global warming are a few major causes of soil erosion.
Deforestation
Mismanaged utilization of soil resources like the removal of forest cover causes soil erosion heavily. Due to increasing land demand, the human is more into deforesting lands. Tree roots act as a binder of the top layer of the soil.
Read More: Deforestation
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