4 - Erosion and land cover in the tropics
from Part I - The Tropical Environment
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2012
Summary
We passed through extensive forests, along paths often up to our knees in mud, and were much annoyed by the leeches for which this district is famous.
Alfred Russel WallaceErosion from tropical rainfall
Tropical rainfall can be strikingly erosive (Fig. 4.1) because it falls with high intensity and often in large amounts. Erosion results from a combination of erosivity and erodibility. Erosivity is the potential ability of a geomorphic agent to erode. Erosivity of a particular rainfall event depends on the physical characteristics of the rain, such as intensity, duration, amount and drop size. Erodibility is the measure of the level of vulnerability of the surface material to erosion. It depends on the properties of the surface material, such as the texture of the surface material, the slope of the land and the protection offered by the local vegetation cover. Intense rainfall, as from convectional thundershowers, erodes, especially when falling on loosely structured soil.
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- Information
- Tropical Geomorphology , pp. 49 - 58Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011