Erosion Vocabulary

The process by which, wind, water, ice or gravity transports soil and sediment from one location to another.

The process by which rock materials are broken down by the action of physical or chemical processes.

The continuous movement of water from the ocean to the atmosphere to the land and back to the ocean.

A type of vaporization of a liquid.

The change of state from a gas to a liquid.

Any form of water that falls to the Earth’s surface from the clouds.

The process of a liquid slowly passing through a filter.

The movement of land water to the oceans.

A stream that flows into a lake or into a larger stream.

The area of land that is drained by a water system.

A drainage divide on a continent.

The process in which material is laid down.

A fan-shaped mass of material deposited at the mouth of a stream.

A fan-shaped mass of material deposited by a stream when the slope of the land decreases sharply.

An area along a river that forms from sediments deposited when the river overflows its banks.

The upper surface of underground water; the upper boundary of the zone of saturation.

A facility that cleans the waste materials found in water that comes from sewers or drains.

A tank that separates solid waste from liquids and that has bacteria that breaks down the solid waste.

Blocks of erosion-resistant rock isolated from the land by sea.

Natural arches commonly form where cliffs are subject to erosion from the sea, rivers or weathering.

A type of cave formed primarily by the wave action of the sea.

The narrow flat area often found at the base of a sea cliff.

A narrow piece of land that projects from a coastline into the sea.

An area of the shoreline made up of material deposited by waves.