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 erode the landscape. As mentioned in our WWotW on rills, gullies are basically the same feature, but much larger. You can put your fingers in a rill, you can step into a gully.
Gullies usually form on steeper slopes and/or with a large volumes of water in a short period of time. Summer thunderstorms are the perfect scenario for gullies to form. The rapid removal of sediment from the landscape and potential deposition into waterbodies is a major environmental concern as the eroded material can carry nutrients and bacteria.
