Sediment

{
  "id": "MLC-T-ENV-025075",
  "term": "Sediment",
  "field": "Environment",
  "definition": "1. Topsoil, sand, and minerals washed from the land into water, usually after rain or snow melt. Sediments collecting in rivers, reservoirs, and harbors can destroy fish and wildlife habitat and cloud the water so that sunlight cannot reach aquatic plants. Loss of topsoil from farming, mining, or building activities can be prevented through a variety of erosion-control techniques.\n\n2. Soil, particles, sand, and other mineral matter eroded from land and carried in surface waters.\n\n3. Particulate material lying below water.\n\n4. Mud, sand, silt, clay, shell debris, and other particles that settle on the bottom of rivers, lakes, estuaries, and oceans. Sedimentation refers to the build up of sediment.\n\n5. A solid particle, generally derived from rocks and minerals, that is being transported or has been moved from its place of origin.\n\n6. The product of erosion processes; the solid material, both mineral and organic, that is in suspension, is being transported, or has been moved from its site of origin by air, water, gravity, or ice.\n\n7. Particulate organic and inorganic matter that accumulates in a loose, unconsolidated form on the bottom of natural waters.\n\n8. Loose particles of sand, silt and clay that settle on the bottom of rivers, lakes, estuaries and oceans. Suspended sediment pushed into the water by erosion is one of the biggest impairments to water quality in the Chesapeake Bay.\n\n9. The material of the bottom of a body of water (i.e., pond, river, stream, etc.)\n\n10. Topsoil, sand, and minerals washed from the land into water, usually after rain or snow melt.\n\n11. Loose particles of sand, clay, silt, and other substances that settle at the bottom of a body of water. Sediment can come from the erosion of soil or from the decomposition of plants and animals. Wind, water, and ice often carry these particles great distances.\n\n12. Soil, sand, and minerals washed from the land into water, usually after rain or snow melt.\n\n13. Usually applied to material in suspension in water or recently deposited from suspension. In the plural the word is applied to all kinds of deposits from the waters of streams, lakes, or seas.\n\n14. Undissolved organic and inorganic material transported or deposited by water.\n\n15. Solid materials or fragments that originate from the break up of rock and are transported by air, water or ice, or that accumulate by other natural agents such as chemical precipitation or biological secretions; solid materials that have settled from being suspended, as in moving water or air.\n\n16. Sediment is a problem when rain washes soil into waterways from fields, construction sites, yards, logging areas, city streets, and other areas. Sediment can make water murky, hurt the health and habitats of fish and other aquatic animals, interfere with uses like fishing and swimming, and carry other pollutants.\n\n17. The solid material, both mineral and organic, that is in suspension, is being transported, or has been moved from its site of origin by air, water, gravity, or ice.",
  "subject": "Water",
  "references": [
    "Environmental Issues Terms & Acronyms; Pesticides Glossary",
    "Nearshore Terrestrial Ecosystems Glossary",
    "Waste and Cleanup Risk Assessment Glossary",
    "Estuaries Glossary",
    "Watershed Protection Glossary",
    "Economic Benefits of Runoff Controls Glossary",
    "Sediment Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) Glossary",
    "Chesapeake Bay Glossary",
    "Ecological Risk Assessment Glossary of Terms",
    "Terms of Environment; EPA Guidance for Federal Land Management in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Glossary at http://www.epa.gov/owow_keep/NPS/chesbay502/pdf/chesbay_glossary.pdf; Federal Land Management in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed Glossary",
    "Contaminated Sediments Glossary & Acronyms",
    "Chesapeake Bay TMDL Glossary",
    "USGS Water Science Glossary of Terms",
    "40 CFR 434.80 (CFR 2013)",
    "Coastal Sensitivity Glossary",
    "How's My Waterway Glossary",
    "Nonpoint Pollution Source from Agriculture Glossary"
  ],
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/environment/sediment/"
}