Question

Using the following types of water erosion, find which order is the correct one.
(A) Splash erosion
(B) Sheet erosion
(C) Rill erosion
(D) Gully erosion
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

• A. (A), (B), (C), (D).
• B. (A), (D), (C), (B).
• C. (B), (A), (D), (C).
• D. (C), (B), (D), (A).

Hint:

Think about erosion growing from a single raindrop splash to a small sheet, then rills, then deep gullies.

Answer 1

The Correct Option is A

Step 1: Understanding the Question:
The question gives four named stages of water erosion and asks in what order these stages actually develop on a field as rainfall keeps hitting and running off the soil surface.

Step 2: Key Concept:
Water erosion by rainfall is a progressive process. It starts at the scale of a single raindrop and, if left unchecked, grows step by step into larger and more damaging channels on the land.

Step 3: Detailed Explanation:
The process begins with splash erosion, where the impact of falling raindrops on bare soil breaks up soil aggregates and throws loosened particles into the air, which is the very first and smallest scale of damage.
As more rain falls and the loosened particles start moving with the runoff spread evenly over the surface, this stage is called sheet erosion, where a thin, fairly uniform layer of topsoil is removed across the field.
When the runoff starts to concentrate into many small, shallow channels because of tiny irregularities in the land, these channels are called rills, and this stage is rill erosion; rills are shallow enough to be smoothed out by normal tillage.
If rills are not controlled and repeated flow keeps deepening them, they enlarge into gully erosion, forming channels too deep and wide to remove by ordinary ploughing, and this is the most severe and final stage.
So the natural sequence, from the smallest first stage to the largest final stage, is splash, then sheet, then rill, then gully, matching (A), (B), (C), (D).

Step 4: Final Answer:
The correct order is (A), (B), (C), (D), option (1).