where do you think sediment comes from?

Sediment mostly comes from the breakdown and erosion of older rocks and soil, then gets moved and dropped off by water, wind, ice, and gravity.

What sediment actually is

Sediment is loose material like sand, silt, clay, and gravel that used to be solid rock or soil.

Over long periods, physical and chemical weathering break those rocks apart into smaller particles that can be carried away.

Main natural sources

• Mountains and highlands where rocks crack and crumble under frost, heat, plant roots, and chemical reactions, producing lots of loose debris.

• Hillslopes and soils in a drainage basin, where rain and runoff strip topsoil and subsoil into streams and rivers.

• Coasts and shorelines , where waves and currents erode cliffs and rework beach sands into new sediment.

How sediment moves

Rivers are a major conveyor belt, picking up material from slopes and banks and carrying it downstream until the flow slows and drops it as bars, floodplains, and deltas.

Wind can lift and move fine grains to build dunes and loess deposits, and glaciers grind rock into rock flour and leave it as till and moraines.

Human-created sediment sources

• Land clearing, agriculture, and construction expose bare soil that washes into streams much more easily.

• Channelization, dredging, and road building can destabilize banks and beds so rivers erode and carry extra sediment downstream.

From sediment to new rock

Over time, thick piles of sediment can get buried, compacted, and cemented to become sedimentary rocks like sandstone, shale, and limestone, which eventually can be uplifted and broken down again.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.