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Erosion levels the earths surface. Essentially, erosion is the natural process that ceaselessly tries to level the earths surface. If it were not for other forces also constantly at work, the mountains and hills would eventually disappear and all of the land would be under water. Fortunately, however, many areas of the earths surface are being raised by volcanic action and by balancing movements of the earths crust. For example, great pressures exerted by the water and sediments on the ocean floor along many shorelines result in forces that cause the land area to be uplifted. Thus erosion never completely succeeds in leveling the earths surface. Gravity is influential. The force of gravity is responsible for both the falling of rain from the clouds and for the water running off the land as it always seeks a lower level. Likewise, the great moving currents of air that we call winds are the result of unequal heating of the earths surface and the convection currents that are set up in the atmosphere. Here again the force of gravity is responsible for the downward movement of the cooler, denser air toward the earth which starts the air moving. As long as the winds blow and rain falls, erosion will continue to take place. How is erosion useful to man and when does it become a serious problem? Erosion works with weathering. Erosion works hand in hand with the process of weathering in causing rocks to be broken up and changed into soil. It is the agents of erosion that carry away this newly formed soil and expose fresh rock surfaces to the agents of weathering. Thus new rock surfaces are exposed to the air, to rapid changes in temperature, to the pounding rain and driving wind, to dissolved chemicals in ground water, and to the other agents that help in making more soil. This transported soil often ends up in the fertile river valleys and plains where we find our most productive farmlands. In this process of transporting new soil and minerals from where they have been made to where they can be used, erosion is useful to man. | 
