alluvium
Sign in to savethumb|Alluvium and adjacent constituents thumb|Alluvium deposits in the Gamtoos River|Gamtoos Valley in [[South Africa]] thumb|An alluvial plain in [[Red Rock Canyon State Park (California)]] thumb|Alluvial river deposits in the Amazon basin, near Autazes, AM, [[Brazil. The seasonal deposits are extremely fertile and crucial to subsistence farming in the Amazon Basin along the river banks.]] Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes
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Alluvium is loose sediment—such as clay, silt, sand, or gravel—that has been deposited by flowing water in streambeds, floodplains, and similar environments. It matters because these deposits, particularly in river basins like the Amazon, are extremely fertile and crucial for agriculture and subsistence farming.
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5 sectionsContents
- Definitions
- Age
- See also
- References
- External links
thumb|Alluvium and adjacent constituents thumb|Alluvium deposits in the Gamtoos River|Gamtoos Valley in [[South Africa]] thumb|An alluvial plain in [[Red Rock Canyon State Park (California)]] thumb|Alluvial river deposits in the Amazon basin, near Autazes, AM, [[Brazil. The seasonal deposits are extremely fertile and crucial to subsistence farming in the Amazon Basin along the river banks.]] Alluvium (, ) is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluvium is also sometimes called alluvial deposit. Alluvium is typically geologically young and is not consolidated into solid rock. Sediments deposited underwater, in seas, estuaries, lakes, or ponds, are not described as alluvium. Floodplain alluvium can be highly fertile, and supported some of the earliest human civilizations.
==Definitions== The present consensus is that "alluvium" refers to loose sediments of all types deposited by running water in floodplains or in alluvial fans or related landforms. However, the meaning of the term has varied considerably since it was first defined in the French dictionary of Antoine Furetière, posthumously published in 1690. Drawing upon concepts from Roman law, Furetière defined alluvion (the French term for alluvium) as new land formed by deposition of sediments along rivers and seas.