Gully

Our final WWotW, as part of our erosion identification series, is “Gully”.  A gully is a feature characterized by the erosion of land by water cutting sharp edges into soil, typically on a hillside. The photo above illustrates the severity in which gullies...

Sheet Erosion

Continuing our WWotW erosion identification, we take a look at “Sheet Erosion”.  Sheet erosion is the detachment of particles, usually by raindrop impact, and their removal downslope by water flowing overland in a sheet as opposed to defined channels like...

Rill

As spring moves forward steadily and summer approaches, I think it is important to dedicate the next few “WWotW” to erosion features.  This week we will look at rills.  Rills often form as the initial sign of erosion.  By definition, a rill is a narrow and...

Oxbow Lake

An Oxbow Lake encompasses the best of both worlds; rivers and lakes!  Oxbow lakes are U-shaped bodies of water that are formed when a meander of a river is cut off and isolates the meander as a lake. Young rivers generally start off fairly straight.  As time goes on,...