Tuesday 13 December 2011

Soil Erosion

A Brief Demonstration of Soil Erosion

As you can see from the first two pictures; the roots of this Oak tree have been exposed, by about 5 feet/just over 1.5 meters.  My arms mark where I reckon the original soil level was, when this tree was an acorn.  Which, by the looks of the slender girth of this tree's trunk; was probably only about forty years ago.

That means that the soil here is eroding at a rate of 5cm/just over 1.5 inches per year.  Which is pretty high.


On the next two pictures, a huge mud cave can be seen, gaping beneath another tree.  Formed presumably as the soil and rocks crumble away from under it.


On the fith picture; none of the trees are growing straight, all are listing down the slope & not one tree is more than 30/40 years old + many roots are clearly visible.

On the final caption, a fallen tree. The inevitable consequence of this much soil erosion.

The rock here is a kind of Limestone.  This is normally quite a tough rock, but there are old mines and sink holes, also the site slopes steeply, to a large river, so all these factors may have contributed to the extraordinary rate of erosion here.



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