tr.v., -nud·ed, -nud·ing, -nudes.

1. To divest of covering; make bare.
2. Geology. To expose (rock strata) by erosion.

[Latin dēnūdāre : dē-, de- + nūdāre, to make bare (from nūdus, nude).]

denudation de'nu·da'tion (dē'nū-dā'shən, -nyū-, dĕn'yʊ-) n.

All the weathering and erosional processes that contribute to the lowering of the land surface. Denudation is, thus, the complement of deposition, which is the accumulation of the products of denudation in sedimentation basins. See also Basin; Depositional systems and environments; Erosion; Weathering processes.

Contemporary records of sediment and solute flux through river systems, representing the mass removed from the continental surfaces, have been used to estimate rates of denudation since the mid-nineteenth century. These are usually expressed as an average rate of lowering of the land surface, in units of millimeters per thousand years (mm/ka).

In recent decades methods which allow the definition of denudation rates over geologic time scales have been developed. Attempts to invert sedimentary and stratigraphic records, and so define rates of erosion on the contributing continental surface, have greatly benefitted from improved seismic surveys, core extraction, and modeling of sedimentation basin processes. On the land surface itself, estimates of denudation rates based on the dissection of surfaces of known age have improved with the use of digital terrain models and absolute dating techniques. Equivalent estimates show that very rapid rates of bedrock denudation (up to 15 mm/yr) have been maintained in the western Himalaya during the past few million years. See also Dating methods.

Developments in the dating of bedrock surfaces and surficial material in the 1990s represent the greatest improvement in defining rates of denudation during the late Cenozoic era. Potassium-argon (K-Ar) dating of lavas and the magnitude of dissection on volcanic cones had been used earlier to define erosion rates. More recently, exposure dating of bedrock through the accumulation of cosmogenic nuclides produced within them is a development that allows the estimation of average surface lowering rates over long time intervals. Cosmogenic nuclides have also been used to define rates of regolith production and erosion, contributing to denudation, over more recent time periods. Fission track analysis of apatite is another recent development that has had success in defining the long-term tectonic and denudational history of continental margins and mountain systems. See also Apatite; Cenozoic; Cosmogenic nuclide; Fission track dating; Regolith.

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verb

To make bare: bare, disrobe, divest, expose, strip, uncover. See put on/take off.

The laying bare of underlying rocks by the processes of weathering, transport, and erosion. The term may be used more narrowly to describe the removal of weathered rock and the exposure of the material beneath by mass wasting processes. Denudation chronology is the now somewhat outdated study of the long-term formation of specific landscapes.

The stripping or laying bare of any part.

IN BRIEF: To strip the covering from.

Fires denude forests and can cause mudslides in the next rainy season.

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Dansk (Danish)
v. tr. - klæde af, afdække, berøve, fratage

Nederlands (Dutch)
blootleggen, ontdoen (van)

Français (French)
v. tr. - (lit, fig) dénuder, dépouiller

Deutsch (German)
v. - abholzen, entziehen, berauben

Ελληνική (Greek)
v. - απογυμνώνω, ξεγυμνώνω, (μτφ.) αποστερώ

Italiano (Italian)
denudare

Português (Portuguese)
v. - desnudar

Русский (Russian)
обнажить, начисто уничтожить

Español (Spanish)
v. tr. - desnudar, descarnar, descortezar, denudar

Svenska (Swedish)
v. - blotta, beröva

中文（简体） (Chinese (Simplified))
使裸露, 剥夺, 剥下

中文（繁體） (Chinese (Traditional))
v. tr. - 使裸露, 剝奪, 剝下

한국어 (Korean)
v. tr. - 벗기다, 빼앗아 가다, (땅이) 척박하다

日本語 (Japanese)
v. - 裸にする, …からはぎ取る

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(فعل) يعري, يجرد‏

עברית (Hebrew)
v. tr. - ‮עירטל, חשף, הפשיט‬

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