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A water-made cutting, usually steep-sided with a flattened floor. Gullying usually occurs in unconsolidated rock and rarely cuts through bedrock. Gullies usually form quickly as a result of destruction of the plant cover. Gully erosion is the removal of topsoil and the creation of many steep-sided cuttings in a hillside. It can be stopped by restoring a vegetation cover, by contour ploughing, and by making terraces and small dams across the hillside.

Tutor's tip: By "golly"! (an exclamation of surprise) there is a "gully" (a cut in land caused by water) that we cannot get across!

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• Hills, Hollows, and Valleys - gully: channel or small valley worn in earth by running water

This article refers to the landform. For other uses, see Gully (disambiguation).

A gully in Saratov Oblast, Russia.

Inside the gully (above) in Saratov Oblast, Russia.

A gully in Kharkov oblast, Ukraine.

Voçoroca (Portuguese for gully) in Avaré, Brasil

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gully

A gully is a landform created by running water, eroding sharply into soil, typically on a hillside. Gullies resemble large ditches or small valleys, but are metres to tens of metres in depth and width. When the gully formation is in process, the water flow rate can be substantial, which causes the significant deep cutting action into soil.

Gullying or gully erosion is the process by which gullies are formed. Hillsides are more prone to gullying when they are cleared of vegetation, through deforestation, over-grazing or other means. The eroded soil is easily carried by the flowing water after being dislodged from the ground, normally when rainfall falls during short, intense storms such as during thunderstorms. Gullies reduce the productivity of farmland where they incise into the land, and produce sediment that may clog downstream waterbodies. Because of this, much effort is invested into the study of gullies within the scope of geomorphology, in the prevention of gully erosion, and in restoration of gullied landscapes. The total soil loss from gully formation and subsequent downstream river sedimentation can be sizable.

Contents 1 Hydraulic mining 2 Gullies on Mars 3 Etymology 4 See also 5 References

Hydraulic mining

Artificial gullies are formed during hydraulic mining when jets or streams of water are projected onto soft alluvial deposits to extract gold or tin ore. The remains of such mining methods are very visible landform features in old goldfields such as in California and northern Spain. The badlands at Las Medulas for example, were created during the Roman period by hushing or hydraulic mining of the gold-rich alluvium with water supplied by numerous aqueducts tapping nearby rivers. Each aqueduct produced large gullies below by erosion of the soft deposits. The effluvium was carefully washed with smaller streams of water to extract the nuggets and gold dust.^{[citation needed]}

Gullies on Mars

Main article: Martian Gullies

Gullies are widespread at mid- to high latitudes on the surface of Mars, and are some of the youngest features observed on that planet, probably forming within the last few 100,000 years. There, they are one of the best lines of evidence for the recent presence of liquid water on Mars in the recent geological past, probably resulting from the slight melting of snowpacks on the surface^[1] or ice in the shallow subsurface^[2] on the warmest days of the Martian year. Flow as springs from deeper seated liquid water aquifers in the deeper subsurface is also possibly explains the formation of some Martian gullies.^[3]

Etymology

The earliest usage of the term is from 1657. It originates from the French word goulet, a diminutive form of goule which means throat. It is possible that the term was derived from a type of knife at the time, a gully-knife, because hills that have gullies look as if they are cut open with a sharp knife.

See also

• Arroyo (creek)
• Coulee
• Couloir
• Canyon
• Gulch
• Ravine
• Wadi
• Lavaka
• Badlands
• Rill

References

• Oxford English Dictionary

1. ^ Christensen, PR (2003). "Formation of recent martian gullies through melting of extensive water-rich snow deposits.". Nature 422 (6927): 45–8. doi:10.1038/nature01436. PMID 12594459.
2. ^ Costard, F. , Forget, F. , Mangold, N. & Peulvast, J. P. Formation of recent martian debris flows by melting of near-surface ground ice at high obliquity. Science 295, 110–113
3. ^ Malin M. C. and Edgett K. S. (2000) Science, 288, 2330–2335.

This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)

Dansk (Danish)
1.
n. - regnkløft, erosionskløft, nedløbsbrønd, kloakbrønd
v. tr. - skabe kløft i
v. intr. - blive til en kløft

2.
n. - stor kniv

Nederlands (Dutch)
geul, goot, ravijn, groot mes, geulen maken in

Français (French)
1.
n. - ravin, (Géog) ravin, caniveau, rigole, gully (joueur de cricket), zone de jeu du gully
v. tr. - raviner, creuser des rigoles/des canaux
v. intr. - raviner, creuser des rigoles/des canaux

2.
n. - grand couteau

Deutsch (German)
1.
n. - Rinne, Abflußrinne, tief eingeschnittener Wasserlauf
v. - durch Wassereinwirkung Kanäle bilden, zerfurchen

2.
n. - großes Messer

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ρεματιά, ξεροπόταμος, βαθύ ρείθρο, οχετός, φρεάτιο υπόνομου
v. - υποσκάπτω, ανοίγω αυλάκι

Italiano (Italian)
stretta e lunga valle, canale di scolo, scavare canali di scolo

Português (Portuguese)
n. - rego (m), bueiro (m)
v. - corroer (a terra), escavar

Русский (Russian)
глубокий овраг, образованный водой, водосток, канава, образовывать овраги, рыть канавы

Español (Spanish)
1.
n. - barranco, hondonada, canal para desagotar agua de lluvia
v. tr. - hacer canales, formarse canales por la acción del agua
v. intr. - hacer canales, formarse canales por la acción del agua

2.
n. - cuchillo largo

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - ränna, ravin, rännsten, avloppskanal, gully (i kricket)
v. - urholka, gräva ut

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
1. 小峡谷, 水沟, 沟渠, 冲沟, 在...上冲出沟

2. 小峡谷, 排水沟

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
1.
n. - 小峽谷, 水溝, 溝渠, 沖溝
v. tr. - 在...上沖出溝
v. intr. - 在...上沖出溝

2.
n. - 小峽谷, 排水溝

한국어 (Korean)
1.
n. - 협곡, 도랑
v. tr. - 홈을 파다, 도랑을 만들다
v. intr. - 침식을 겪다, 도랑이 되다

2.
n. - 커다란 칼

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 小峡谷, 溝, 下水, 小谷

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) اخدود ( بفعل المياة الجاريه) (فعل) يخدد ( بفعل المياه الجاريه)‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮תעלה, ערוץ‬
v. tr. - ‮חפר תעלה‬
v. intr. - ‮נוצרה כתוצאה מפעולת מים (תעלה)‬
n. - ‮שחקן קריקט בשדה המשחק‬

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