Erosion

Good day steemians of @Steemkidss I greet you all how was your weekend I believe you all had fun.
In today's topic I will discuss about everything you need to know erosion and I believe after reading this post you will find it very educative.

What is Erosion?

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Erosion simply means the washing away and carrying away of the top soil on the surface of the earth by wind and water. The existence of man is endangered by the effects of erosion on the environment because if the top soil is completely eroded, the earth will lose nutrients and fertility which will threaten the possibility of agricultural practices.

Unfortunately, man has been responsible for the exposure of the soil to the forces of water and wind through his influence on the natural composition of his physical environment. This influence is carried out through man's search for food, minerals, shelter, economic development and social changes. This has gone a long way to aid the impact of erosion on the soil.
There are four types of erosion namely;
Rill
Splash
Sheet
Gully erosion.

Causes of erosion

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There are two main causes of erosion namely: water in the form of rain and ice glacier and wind erosion.

Rain: When water In the form of run off, flood and rainfall flows on the Earth's surface, it washes away the loose particles of the soil.

Ice: When ice which has accumulated on a high altitude melts, it descends slowly and gradually into the lower regions of the rocks and washes away the loose particles of the top surface of the rocks.

Wind: When strong wind such as whirlwind, hurricane, tornado, etc. blows, it carries the loose particles of the top soil.

Apart from the main causes discussed, some factors mostly man-oriented aid erosion. These include:

• Poor agricultural practices by man.
• Deforestation that's exposing the Earth's surface to erosion by cutting down trees 🌲.
• Overgrazing by animals in a particular area.
• Bush burning: This exposes the soil to water and wind erosion.
• Topography: The sloppy nature of a particular surface area.
• Poor drainage.
• Exploitation of natural resources for instance mining of solid minerals, oil drilling etc.
• Road construction.
• Localisation of industries, buildings of market places etc.
• Poor methods of waste disposal.

All the above mentioned are other causes of erosion

Effects of erosion

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The impact of erosion on our physical environment is in many forms, which we could term effects of erosion.

The following are some of such effects

• Erosion makes the soil to loose nutrients and fertility.
• Degradation of the physical environment.
• Loss of lives and property.
• Erosion makes transportation difficult. Roads are spoilt as a result of erosion I am a witness of this effect because they was a certain time that I was traveling we had to come down to push out car before it could move because of bad road erosion have destroyed the road.
• Wind erosion can cause blindness if it blows heavily causing Sharp object to get into human eyes I am sure most of us if not all of us have experience this effect.
• Waste of resources for instance much money is spent on checking erosion.
• Erosion causes poor harvest or low crop yields.
• Erosion can affect the natural structure of the physical landscape.

Control of erosion

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Plants and animals require a good environment to survive. However, erosion affects the quality of the environment as we have learnt. It's advisable and important to always control erosion.

The following measures help control erosion:

Afforestation that's the planting of trees it help in controlling erosion.

• The government should legislate against bush burning.
• Wind break that's planting trees 🌲 in rows, it help in controlling the speed of wind.
• Terracing that's artificial creation of Barrie's against the slope.
• Formulation and implementation of land use policies.
• Strip cropping that's planting rows of farm crops such as yam and maize in-between grasses and legumes in order to protect the land from too much exposure to erosion.
• Control of waste disposal.
• Public enlightenment campaigns on the advantages of living in an erosion-free environment.