Soil and Sediment Physics

Abstract

This chapter discusses how physical principles apply to unconsolidated materials. Soil and sediment hold pollutants as reservoirs. Pollutants move into, though, and out of these reservoirs according to fluid dynamic principles, The pollutants also change because of thermodynamics and rate laws and other chemical processes. This chapter also explains how land can be harmed by human activities, such as construction, agriculture, and transportation. These and other human activities lead to the release chemical contaminants, but they also result in landscape damage, such as soil erosion, habitat destruction and loss of resources, such as wetlands and coastal ecosystems.