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erosion
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
erosion
noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
accelerated
▪ It is this which has resulted in accelerated erosion.
▪ We infer that they accumulated during periods of accelerated soil erosion.
▪ For agriculture, the most significant result of accelerated soil erosion is a reduction in productivity.
coastal
▪ Waxholme is on the coast and suffers badly from coastal erosion.
▪ Exact positions of the 120 pegs will depend on the state of the beach due to the recent coastal erosion.
▪ In 1816 the old church at Owthorne finally succumbed to the coastal erosion and its remnants disappeared into the sea.
further
▪ Labour committee chairman Jim Skinner said he would be concerned by any further erosion of rail services.
▪ This led to a further erosion of sectional loyalties.
▪ Our goals are safety, income and to halt further erosion of principal.
▪ Dole aides denied that he was being kept under wraps to prevent further erosion in his support.
gradual
▪ Furthermore, long-standing untreated gonorrhoea and syphilis cause joint swelling and inflammation with the gradual erosion of complete joints in severe cases.
▪ The condition is characterized by spinal cysts and the gradual erosion of spinal nerves.
▪ Hence, since the late 1960s there has been a gradual erosion of the line between sales promotion and advertising.
marine
▪ Coasts shaped by marine erosion. 2.
▪ A series of such oscillations, aided perhaps by marine erosion, is probably an important cause of island formation.
▪ A second contrast between subaerial and marine erosion is to be found in the relative importance of erosion and deposition.
▪ Thus the coastline receives not only the products of marine erosion but also the waste derived from subaerial erosion.
▪ Finally, it must be pointed out that the recession of a coastline is not merely the result of marine erosion.
serious
▪ In fact, many of the occasional desert rainfalls are very light and incapable of any serious erosion.
▪ Reliable eyewitness reports of actual events, when embedded in such a list, suffered a serious erosion of credibility.
▪ Many of these areas also suffer from extremely serious soil erosion, although reports and impressions seem to differ.
▪ We must expect that asteroids in this size range would have suffered serious erosion of their regolith.
severe
▪ Possibly more than half the soils in the semi-arid regions are subject to severe erosion.
▪ The makeshift trails that grow deeper and wider each day cause severe erosion and destroy valuable watershed, she said.
▪ Acid rain has caused such severe erosion of the Sierra del Mar that the entire mountainside could slide down on to Cubatoa.
▪ Accordingly these areas are heavily used and subject to severe environment erosion.
▪ Currents of the velocity quoted above are obviously capable of severe erosion and considerable transport.
significant
▪ A significant erosion of household wealth could accentuate a slowdown.
steady
▪ The next four decades saw a slow but fairly steady erosion of royal power.
▪ The increase would arrest a steady erosion that had cut the budget by almost half since the mid 1980s.
▪ They believe the Bush administration's promise of steady deficit erosion, in co-operation with Congress, is being more systematically derailed.
▪ But the steady emotional erosion, the sleeplessness, the manic anxiety I can not pretend about or minimize.
■ NOUN
problem
▪ Three different ways can be identified in which piecemeal improvements to the conceptualisation of the soil erosion problem have been transcended.
rate
▪ It might well be more prudent to think of climatic influences on forms and erosion rates rather than climatically dominated landforms.
▪ This shows that slope form and soil moisture status are particularly influential in determining erosion rates.
soil
▪ Without the trees, soil erosion in the area accelerated rapidly.
▪ Poor farming methods have contributed to increased soil erosion.
▪ At this point the discussion shifts to the question of ideology in assessing the importance of soil erosion.
▪ Is soil erosion really a problem?
▪ Constructing rows of turbines in strategic areas could reduce soil erosion and help to phase out the use of wood for fuel.
▪ The main purpose of the list is to illustrate complexity and variety of political-economic and physical circumstances of soil erosion.
▪ This quotation is one of the very few places in his work where he actually mentions soil erosion.
▪ In conclusion, there is a wide variety of social and physical contexts of soil erosion.
wind
▪ The work of wind erosion is therefore very limited.
▪ Geological features ground out by ancient glaciers are seen overlaid by the scars of recent wind erosion.
▪ A minor effect of wind erosion is the formation of faceted and polished pebbles.
▪ Somewhat softened by wind erosion, the surface none the less looked more like the lunar highlands than like anything on Earth.
▪ Planetary scientists believe it is most likely the product of wind erosion.
■ VERB
cause
▪ Acid rain has caused such severe erosion of the Sierra del Mar that the entire mountainside could slide down on to Cubatoa.
▪ The external heat drives the atmosphere and the oceans and causes the erosion of mountains and the reduction of rock to sediment.
▪ The analysis must start therefore in areas which initially may seem remote from the physical processes which directly cause degradation and erosion.
▪ The makeshift trails that grow deeper and wider each day cause severe erosion and destroy valuable watershed, she said.
▪ Apart from damage caused by trampling and erosion, more widespread and long-lasting degradation can occur as a result of recreation activities.
▪ Now encryption will cause the erosion of the current corporate monopoly on expertise and proprietary knowledge.
▪ The storm dumped up to 18 inches of snow on the North Shore, but caused little flooding or erosion.
increase
▪ The result is a tendency to increase the amount of erosion on the coast.
▪ Poor farming methods have contributed to increased soil erosion.
▪ As the volume increased, the erosion of the canyon accelerated and widened.
lead
▪ Repeated involvement in meetings leads to progressive erosion of the personality traits of the disease.
▪ It was the quickness of the changes in water flow during previous operations of the dam that led to the most erosion.
▪ Unemployment, the collapse of the housing market and changes in population trends have led to an erosion of famous traits.
▪ Vomiting can lead to dental erosion and gastrointestinal reflux.
▪ Trampling of vegetation is one of the most widespread environmentally degrading repercussions of recreation and can also lead to excessive soil erosion.
▪ Such a veto would be difficult to defend internationally and could well lead to an uncontrollable erosion of the sanctions regime.
prevent
▪ The government has, alas, enclosed some of the mountain streams in concrete banks to prevent land erosion.
▪ The idea was to prevent erosion and enrich the soil.
▪ They also harbour wildlife and help prevent soil erosion.
▪ Dole aides denied that he was being kept under wraps to prevent further erosion in his support.
▪ More trees are being planted for timber and to prevent soil erosion.
reduce
▪ Last year an attempt was made to improve the drainage to stop flooding and reduce erosion.
▪ Besides discussing ducks, the report also will look at reducing erosion, increasing oxygen levels and improving fishing.
▪ Another interesting option is the use of wind turbines as windbreaks to reduce wind speed and erosion.
▪ Constructing rows of turbines in strategic areas could reduce soil erosion and help to phase out the use of wood for fuel.
▪ The latter were constructed to both conserve moisture and to reduce soil erosion and occur on slopes as steep as 25°.
▪ Hence sustainable agriculture could replace unsustainable agriculture, reducing the impact of erosion and flooding on downstream agricultural areas.
▪ The techniques refer to new or modified agricultural practices to reduce soil degradation and erosion.
result
▪ It is this which has resulted in accelerated erosion.
suffer
▪ Waxholme is on the coast and suffers badly from coastal erosion.
▪ Reliable eyewitness reports of actual events, when embedded in such a list, suffered a serious erosion of credibility.
▪ We must expect that asteroids in this size range would have suffered serious erosion of their regolith.
▪ Any particular location may have collected sediment for part of the time, but suffered erosion the rest of the time.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ soil erosion
▪ the erosion of civil liberties
▪ the erosion of our beaches
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Erosion or accretion of sand by wind action is evident throughout and soil genesis is truncated by erosion or fossilised by deposition.
▪ Although the increase in rainfall would aid irrigation, it would add to the problems of soil erosion and nutrient leaching.
▪ But the networks have scrambled to keep them on the air for another year in an attempt to stem audience erosion.
▪ Constructing rows of turbines in strategic areas could reduce soil erosion and help to phase out the use of wood for fuel.
▪ Regulators say that although the erosion does not pose an immediate risk, they are concerned about its long-term safety implications.
▪ The condition is characterized by spinal cysts and the gradual erosion of spinal nerves.
▪ These movements and earlier erosion have tended to obscure Mesozoic and Paleozoic structures.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Erosion

Erosion \E*ro"sion\, n. [L. erosio. See Erode.]

  1. The act or operation of eroding or eating away.

  2. The state of being eaten away; corrosion; canker.

  3. The wearing away of the earth's surface by any natural process. The chief agent of erosion is running water; minor agents are glaciers, the wind, and waves breaking against the coast.

  4. a gradual reduction or lessening as if by an erosive force; as, erosion of political support due to scandal; erosion of buying power by inflation. [fig.]

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
erosion

1540s, from Middle French erosion (16c.), from Latin erosionem (nominative erosio) "a gnawing away," noun of action from past participle stem of erodere "gnaw away" (see erosion). Related: Erosional.

Wiktionary
erosion

n. 1 (context uncountable English) The result of having been being worn away or eroded, as by a glacier on rock or the sea on a cliff face. 2 (context uncountable English) The changing of a surface by mechanical action, friction, thermal expansion contraction, or impact. 3 (context uncountable figurative English) The gradual loss of something as a result of an ongoing process. 4 (context uncountable English) Destruction by abrasive action of fluids. 5 (context mathematics image processing English) One of two fundamental operations in (w: morphological image processing) from which all other morphological operations are derived. 6 (context dentistry English) Loss of tooth enamel due to non-bacteriogenic chemical processes. 7 (context medicine English) A shallow ulceration or lesion, usually involving skin or epithelial tissue.

Related phrases:
WordNet
erosion

  1. n. (geology) the mechanical process of wearing or grinding something down (as by particles washing over it) [syn: eroding, eating away, wearing, wearing away]

  2. condition in which the earth's surface is worn away by the action of water and wind

  3. a gradual decline of something; "after the accounting scandal there was an erosion of confidence in the auditors"

  4. erosion by chemical action [syn: corrosion, corroding]

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Erosion

In earth science, erosion is the action of surface processes (such as water flow or wind) that remove soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, then transport it away to another location. The particulate breakdown of rock or soil into clastic sediment is referred to as physical or mechanical erosion; this contrasts with chemical erosion, where soil or rock material is removed from an area by its dissolving into a solvent (typically water), followed by the flow away of that solution. Eroded sediment or solutes may be transported just a few millimetres, or for thousands of kilometres.

Natural rates of erosion are controlled by the action of geomorphic drivers, such as rainfall; bedrock wear in rivers; coastal erosion by the sea and waves; glacial plucking, abrasion, and scour; areal flooding; wind abrasion; groundwater processes; and mass movement processes in steep landscapes like landslides and debris flows. The rates at which such processes act control how fast a surface is eroded. Typically, physical erosion proceeds fastest on steeply sloping surfaces, and rates may also be sensitive to some climatically-controlled properties including amounts of water supplied (e.g., by rain), storminess, wind speed, wave fetch, or atmospheric temperature (especially for some ice-related processes). Feedbacks are also possible between rates of erosion and the amount of eroded material that is already carried by, for example, a river or glacier. Processes of erosion that produce sediment or solutes from a place contrast with those of deposition, which control the arrival and emplacement of material at a new location.

While erosion is a natural process, human activities have increased by 10-40 times the rate at which erosion is occurring globally. Excessive (or accelerated) erosion causes both "on-site" and "off-site" problems. On-site impacts include decreases in agricultural productivity and (on natural landscapes) ecological collapse, both because of loss of the nutrient-rich upper soil layers. In some cases, the eventual end result is desertification. Off-site effects include sedimentation of waterways and eutrophication of water bodies, as well as sediment-related damage to roads and houses. Water and wind erosion are the two primary causes of land degradation; combined, they are responsible for about 84% of the global extent of degraded land, making excessive erosion one of the most significant environmental problems world-wide.

Intensive agriculture, deforestation, roads, anthropogenic climate change and urban sprawl are amongst the most significant human activities in regard to their effect on stimulating erosion. However, there are many prevention and remediation practices that can curtail or limit erosion of vulnerable soils.

Erosion (morphology)

Erosion is one of two fundamental operations (the other being dilation) in morphological image processing from which all other morphological operations are based. It was originally defined for binary images, later being extended to grayscale images, and subsequently to complete lattices.

Erosion (disambiguation)

Erosion is the gradual removal of a substance by chemical or mechanical means. It may refer to:

  • Geological Erosion
  • Bank erosion
  • Binary erosion
  • Erosion of the skin
  • Tooth erosion
  • Wind erosion
  • Coastal erosion
Related phrases:

Usage examples of "erosion".

One treatment that was administered for nasal catarrh, from which I continued to be affected, caused erosion of the mucous membrane, and destruction of the bony septum which separates the two nostrils.

It was just this primary erosion that the nineteenth century sought in its concern to historicize everything, to write a general history of everything, to go back ceaselessly through time, and to place the most stable of things in the liberating stream of time.

Garden, riders called the place, the area all around and northeast of Anveney, where the soil lay completely bare and prone to erosion, gullies leading to gullies leading to a wash that ran down to a river that ran through barren banks a long, long way before the inpouring of other streams began to put more life into Limitation River than death could take out.

The really perilous course lies in preserving the status quo and institutionalizing our past failed policies: open borders, unlimited immigration, dependence on cheap and illegal labor, obsequious deference to Mexico City, erosion of legal statutes, multiculturalism in our schools, and a general breakdown in the old assimilationist model.

Most of the littoral plain between the hills and the sea was buildup from that erosion.

In prehistoric times, the tribal and nomadic people of the Mediterranean basin overcut and overgrazed the land so severely that the scars of the resulting erosion can still be seen.

The shwpi have overgrazed the world, allowing the storms to pick up and redistribute a lot of soil through wind erosion.

These figures are for arable land and do not include the general erosion and degradation of lands all over the earth from human activities such as deforestation, overgrazing, fire, and other injudicious human occupancy.

Meanwhile, as the land available for grazing shrinks, the number of grazing animals swells-a sure-fire formula for overgrazing, wind erosion, and desertification.

Erosion and overgrazing had produced that desert, not war, though there were mildly radioactive patches all across it.

They drove at high speed through patches of thicket, and forlorn stands of trees, but mostly over rolling countryside denuded of vegetation by centuries of overplanting and soil erosion, until the guard tower next to the main gate came into view.

The effects of this glacial action and of the long periods of erosion preceding it and of other physiographic changes connected with its passing away, have most important bearings on the distribution and character of the gold-bearing alluviums of the province.

From looking at his own farmland, he could see that soil was created by the erosion of rocks and that particles of this soil were continually washed away and carried off by streams and rivers and redeposited elsewhere.

He visualized erosion by the sting of saltating sand grains, driven by the wind.

An unconformity is a lack of continuity in deposition between strata in contact with each other, corresponding to a period of nondeposition, weathering, or, as in this case, erosion.