Sediment consists of mineral and organic particles that are displaced by a variety of surface and mass erosion processes (see entry on Soil Erosion). Sedimentation is a more general term relating to the entrainment, transport and deposition of sediments. Erosion and sedimentation are important natural processes that help drive the evolution of the Earth's surface. Rates of erosion and sedimentation tend to equilibrate to the extant geological, climatic, landform, soil and vegetation properties of the ecosystem. Changes in any of these ecosystem components, be they natural or human-induced, can change erosion and sedimentation rates and can be gradual (e.g., climate change, plant succession, or long-term land-use patterns) or rapid (e.g., earthquakes, floods, volcanic and glacial activity, wildfire, or heavy construction). Various vectors for sediment transport include vulcanism, glaciation, wind and water. This discussion deals only with sediment transport by water, which is by far...
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Megahan, W.F. (1999). Sediment, sedimentation. In: Environmental Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4494-1_296
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