60 Forensic Engineering Fundamentals
and distance, oen by the same agent. Human practices have caused massive soil erosion
over historical time.
Modes of Erosion
Subaerail erosion includes all erosion that occurs on land exposed to the atmosphere.
Exposed rock materials are oen altered by chemical or mechanical processes (weathering)
and then transported by various means. e main agents of subaerial erosion are gravity,
running water, ice (mainly in glaciers), wind, and near-shore ocean waves.
Gravity erosion is oen called mass wasting. It occurs where land-surface irregulari-
ties such as hillslopes allow gravity to transport the rock debris produced by weathering.
Slopes originate in many ways, the most common being crustal movements, or dia ...