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EROSION
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Erosion by chemical action
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural processes
Hypernyms ("erosion" is a kind of...):
chemical action; chemical change; chemical process ((chemistry) any process determined by the atomic and molecular composition and structure of the substances involved)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "erosion"):
indentation; pitting; roughness (the formation of small pits in a surface as a consequence of corrosion)
rust; rusting (the formation of reddish-brown ferric oxides on iron by low-temperature oxidation in the presence of water)
Sense 2
Meaning:
(geology) the mechanical process of wearing or grinding something down (as by particles washing over it)
Synonyms:
eating away; eroding; erosion; wearing; wearing away
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural processes
Hypernyms ("erosion" is a kind of...):
geologic process; geological process ((geology) a natural process whereby geological features are modified)
Domain category:
geology (a science that deals with the history of the earth as recorded in rocks)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "erosion"):
chatter mark (marks on a glaciated rock caused by the movement of a glacier)
ablation (the erosive process that reduces the size of glaciers)
abrasion; attrition; corrasion; detrition (erosion by friction)
beach erosion (the erosion of beaches)
deflation ((geology) the erosion of soil as a consequence of sand and dust and loose rocks being removed by the wind)
planation (the process of erosion whereby a level surface is produced)
soil erosion (the washing away of soil by the flow of water)
Derivation:
erode (remove soil or rock)
Sense 3
Meaning:
A gradual decline of something
Example:
after the accounting scandal there was an erosion of confidence in the auditors
Classified under:
Nouns denoting natural processes
Hypernyms ("erosion" is a kind of...):
decline; diminution (change toward something smaller or lower)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Condition in which the earth's surface is worn away by the action of water and wind
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("erosion" is a kind of...):
environmental condition (the state of the environment)
Derivation:
erode (remove soil or rock)
erode (become ground down or deteriorate)
Context examples:
Before the discovery of the Hiawatha impact crater, scientists generally assumed that most evidence of past impacts in Greenland and Antarctica would have been wiped away by unrelenting erosion by the overlying ice.
(NASA Finds Possible Second Impact Crater Under Greenland Ice, NASA)
A new study by University of Wyoming researchers suggests scientists can go back to the past to study present-day solidified magma chambers where the erosion has removed overlying rock, exposing granite underpinnings.
(Supervolcanoes like Yellowstone may have been more active in the past, NSF)
But even though large lunar craters have experienced little erosion over billions of years, and thus offer scientists a valuable record, there was no way to determine their ages until the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter started circling the Moon a decade ago and studying its surface.
(Moon Data Sheds Light on Earth’s Asteroid Impact History, NASA)
A solid, semi-solid, solution or suspension in which active and/or inert ingredient(s) release is controlled by the erosion rate of a carrier matrix, which is designed to release ingredients at a controlled, prolonged rate so as to reduce dosing frequency.
(Erosion Controlled Extended Release Dosage Form, NCI Thesaurus)
Brazilian cities in coastal areas are more vulnerable to climate change, especially to the sea level rise, but also to such events as heavy rain, storms, floods, and coastal erosion, all of which cause destruction and adversely affect infrastructure in these municipalities.
(Brazil's coastal cities more vulnerable to climate change, Agência Brasil)
After making the initial findings, the team then took two datasets — a global database of erosion rates and a global model of dust inputs — to look at the effects of dust on nutrients in mountain ecosystems worldwide.
(Study reveals surprising role of dust in mountain ecosystems, National Science Foundation)
They found that high rates of carbon accumulation in lake sediments were stimulated by several factors, including thermokarst erosion and deposition of terrestrial organic matter, nutrient release from thawing permafrost that stimulated lake productivity, and by slow decomposition in cold, anoxic lake bottoms.
(Certain Arctic lakes store more greenhouse gases than they release, NSF)
An area, as large perhaps as Sussex, has been lifted up en bloc with all its living contents, and cut off by perpendicular precipices of a hardness which defies erosion from all the rest of the continent.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
The researchers then looked at rates of erosion: they calculated that a crater of that size would have initially been more half a mile deep between its rim and floor, which is an order of magnitude greater than its present depth.
(NASA Finds Possible Second Impact Crater Under Greenland Ice, NASA)
Taking into account a range of plausible erosion rates, they calculated that it would have taken anywhere between roughly a hundred thousand years and a hundred million years for the ice to erode the crater to its current shape — the faster the erosion rate, the younger the crater would be within the plausible range, and vice versa.
(NASA Finds Possible Second Impact Crater Under Greenland Ice, NASA)
