Erosion alters terrain from "summary" of Principles of Geology, Volume 1 by Charles Lyell,Sir Charles Lyell
The forces which are incessantly at work in modifying the crust of the earth are mainly two; namely, the aqueous and igneous. The former, comprehending the agency of water whether in the state of ice, snow, running streams, or the waves of the sea, is by far the most important. The effects produced by running water in wearing down the solid rocks which oppose its course, and in transporting the detritus to lower levels, are more conspicuous than any other class of geological phenomena. The extent of country over which the transported materials are spread, the thickness of the strata which they compose, and the vast amount of matter removed from one place and deposited in another, are such as might naturally be expected from the energy of a fluid so generally diffused as water. When the bed of a river which flows through a valley is upheaved, the stream is compelled to deepen its channel, and in doing so it exposes a vertical section of its course. In this section, the geologist may contemplate at a glance the successive changes which the valley has undergone, and the manner in which the solid rock has been disintegrated and carried away. In the excavation of valleys, the torrent and the river cooperate; the former by removing large fragme...
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