PIPING, A GEOMORPHIC AGENT

IN LANDFORM DEVELOPMENT
OF THE DRYLANDS (*)
GARALD G. PARKER (**)

ABSTRACT

In certain arid and semiarid lands, piping is a major factor in the erosion process
and thus in the shaping of land forms. Piping, sometimes called natural tunneling, is
the development of internal drainage tubes in silty soils or weakly consolidated siltstone, claystone, or similar bedrock. It is fairly widespread over dry areas of the earth,
and in some places has created serious erosion problems. Nonetheless, piping is scarcely
mentioned in scientific literature and no references to this phenomenon have been
found in available textbooks on geomorphology, geology, physiography, soils, or in
scientific or popular encyclopedias.
In the United States piping is commonest in denuded heavy-soils areas of the
dry West where gullying, or arroyo development, has made possible the development
of steep-gradient subsurface drainage. However, not all piping is related to gullies.
In the Navajo Country piping is not uncommon on residual hills or mounds in the
Chinle and Moenkopi Formations of the Painted Desert of Arizona. Here crowns of
many hills are miniature karsts. Much of the precipitation upon these hills runs into
them, not down over their sides, and eventually discharges by seeps or tiny wet-weather
springs in drainage courses at or near the bases of the hills.
Commonly the subsurface drainage courses (pipes) show meanders just as surface
streams often do, and natural bridges on a miniature scale are numerous in piped areas.
1. INTRODUCTION

Characteristic landforms of the drylands (arid and semiarid regions) and the
geomorphic processes that produce them are fairly well understood. So, also, are
the major causes of the development of badlands and of gullying outside the badlands.
However, little attention has been paid heretofore to the importance of piping and its
role as a geomorphic agent. It is the purpose of the writer to call attention to this
subject and to describe the process in the light of present knowledge.
2. PIPING CHARACTF.RISTICS

Piping is not a new term to some scientists and engineers, although its application
to geomorphology may be new to many geologists. The term has long been used by
civil engineers to describe the process by which subterranean channels (the pipes)
develop as a consequence of the movement of water in currents through relatively
insoluble, incoherent clastic rocks.
Piping most commonly occurs where dams and dikes, or deep, pumped, excavations below the water table have created large hydraulic head differentials over
relatively short distances. Such differences in head can become competent to transport
disaggregated clastic rock particles, such as sand grains, in suspension through the
more permeable parts of a permeable formation. By this kind of subterranean erosion
pipes are formed; the surficial expression of this process is commonly called "boiling"
(Jumikis, 1962). Such pipes usually develop in sand, sand-and-gravel, or even in finer
grained materials such as silt and clay. They will, unless controlled, undermine foundations and cause collapse of overlying structures.
(*) Publication approved by the Director, U.S. Geological Survey.
(**) Research Geologist (Arid lands), U.S. Geological Survey, Denver, Colorado.
103

Piping with which civil engineers are most familiar is a direct result of man-made
changes in hydraulic head in the ground-water system at a construction site. However,
exactly the same kind of piping can develop in nature without man's interference or
help. For example, a landslide large enough to block the flow of a stream in a valley
could result in the establishment of a lake behind the landslide-dam. If, in the underlying valley fill, there were permeable, easily erodible materials such as quicksand, the
new hydraulic forces established by the rising lake level might become great enough to
force ground-water flow through the permeable beds beneath the dam. This could
produce pipes and "boils", which might undermine and eventually destroy the landslide-dam by pipe erosion.
Similar to this is the gully-wall type of piping which is so widespread and destructive in drylands valleys of the American West. In this condition, as a result of a heavy
rainstorm or over-irrigation (Harris and Fletcher, 1951), subsurface flow may develop
to a gully through a permeable, easily erodible layer such as a bed of quicksand or
highly dispersed clay or silt.

EXPLANATION
w . WIDTH OF AREA CONTRIBUTING FLOW TO PIPE
v

ISOPIESTIC LINES, 0.1 FOOT CONTOUR INTERVAL

* " - - - FLOW LINES. NORMAL TO ISOPIESTIC LINES

1.0

Adapted fromTerzaghi & Peck, Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice

Fig. 1 Flow nets illustrating increase of intake area as pipe erodes headwarcl. A,
incipient state. B, after pipe is extended considerably headward.
Figure 1 depicts the hydraulics of such a situation. The layer, let us assume it is
silt, becomes saturated, and water, moving under hydraulic head to a nearby gully
wall or other free face that cuts the permeable layer, begins to drip out of the face of
the cliff from its most permeable part. As each droplet of water departs it carries
dispersed and disaggregated silt particles away with it in suspension. This action,
once started, creates a small hole in the cliff face, the orifice of the developing pipe.
This is the situation shown in figure 1A.
At this point in time the pipe is small in diameter and very short; and its area
of intake is likewise small. Note the narrow width of area between the boundary lines
104

in figure 1A. But with the passing of time and runoff events, the pipe saps its way
farther and farther into the bank. As it does so, the pipe enlarges in diameter and taps
an ever greater area of contribution to flow (figure IB). The growing pipe walls create
additional "free-face" for ground-water discharge and the pipe itself becomes a channel of unlimited permeability. Thus, increased flow develops and the corrasion that
it produces is a new erosive factor added to those involved in the initial phase of the
piping process.

Photo by Lynn M. Shown

Fig. 2A Pscudokarst developing in Quaternary alluvium near Benson, Arizona

Photo by Garald G. Parker

Fig. 2B Officer's Cave Ridge, developed in the John Day Formation of late Oligocne and early Miocene age, in Turtle Cove, 9 miles south of Kimberly, Ore.
105

Soon the initial small hole and seepage drip at the cliff face have both increased.
A large hole, perhaps several feet in diameter has developed and the discharge, following a heavy rain, especially from the smaller orifices, may gush out as from a hydrant.
Such volumes and rates of flow rapidly enlarge the pipe through corrasion and caving
of the walls and roof of the pipe. Finally, in the more weakened areas along its course,
the roof of the pipe caves in. This produces a line of sinks which, themselves, may
then act as localized funnels to channel additional surface runoff into the subterranean
pipe (Leopold and Miller, 1956). Between the sinks, natural bridges remain for a while,
the last remnants of the pipe's roof. A karst-like topography thus may be produced,
for which the term "pseudokarst" recently has been proposed (Parker, Shown, and
Ratzlaff, 1963).
Eventually, the sinks merge laterally and at last, after the roof of the pipe has
all caved in and the natural bridges have disappeared, an open, ragged gully has
evolved (Fig. 2A). Meanwhile, at adjacent sites, other similar pipes have been developing and soon, often within a day or two following especially heavy rains, an incipient
badlands pseudokarst, such as that shown in figure 2A, may suddenly appear where
there was little or no apparent indication of it previously ().
The piping conditions above described are for the valley floor, flood plain, terrace,
or pediment situation, in which recent gullying has made possible the development of
relatively short, steep-gradient, subsurface drainage routes through easily erodible
materials where none previously existed. The flow through the permeable bed to the
cliff face or to the growing pipe is laminar; probably flow through the pipe, once it
is formed, is turbulent.
Piping may also occur on hillside slopes, on the crowns and sides of miniature
badlands mountains, and in badlands ravine or gully channels and channel walls.
However, in all cases, the basic essentials arc all the same: (1) Water enough to saturate
some part of the soil or bedrock above base level; (2) hydraulic head to move the
water through a subterranean route; (3) presence of a permeable, erodible soil or
bedrock above base level; and (4) an outlet for flow.
The basic conditions listed differ from those of Fletcher and others (1954) mainly
in that there is no requirement for the presence of an impermeable or retarding layer
below the erodible layer. Doubtless, where such layers are present above base level,
they influence and may even determine both the course and the outlet of a developing
pipe. In such conditions the pipe develops on top of the retarding layer and thus may
emerge at some distance above the gully floor. However, many pipes have as their
outlets the junction of the gully wall and gully floor. From detailed examination of
the structural and stratigraphie conditions of these sites it appears that such outlets
are at this location only because it is the lowest point above local base level.

3. PIPING MATERIALS AND THE PIPING PROCESS

Geologic materials that exhibit piping include: clay, silt, fine sand, alluvium,
colluvium, claystone, siltstone, mudstone, loess, tuff, volcanic ash, and some soils.
In certain places sandstone is involved in piping but where observed by the writer the
sandstone, usually a thin caprock or intercalated layer, appears to be a passive, rather
than an active factor in the process. It is quite likely, however, that if a sandstone
were cemented chiefly with montmorillonitic clay, it would be subject to piping.

(*) Since this manuscript was written there has come to the writer's attention a
fine article on this general subject. Written by Brainerd MKARS, Jr., and entitled:
"Karst-likc features in badlands of the Arizona Painted Desert," it appears in Univ.
of Wyoming Contributions to Geology, V. 2, No. 1, p. 7-11, 9 figs.
106

One factor common to practically all piped soils and rocks, except sand and gravel,
appears to be the containment of one or more of the swelling clays (table 1 ). Of these,
montmorillonite, illite, mixed-layer montmorillonite and illite, and bentonite are
common. Montmorillonite appears to be the most widely occurring and dominant
of the swelling clays incorporated in rocks of piped areas. Montmorillonite may
change in volume about 700 percent between dry and saturated conditions; the other
clays swell to lesser volumes. Such swelling clays upon drying out will shrink, and
in the process the rocks containing them will become extremely hard and may crack
both widely and deeply. Subsequently, upon wetting, the walls of the cracks will swell
and the cracks will close until the clay dries out again.
It has been noted (Parker, Shown, and Ratzlafif, 1963) that piping is commonest
in the drylands. This is to be expected, because piping appears to be so closely related
to montmorillonitic rocks. In the humid lands such materials seldom have the opportunity to dry out enough to produce the hydraulically effective crack system that
develops seasonally during the hot, dry summers of the drylands.
In addition to cracking when dry, the swelling clays become highly dispersed,
slick, plastic, and non-cohesive when wet. This makes them especially vulnerable to
erosion by moving water. Wet clay platelets and silt-sized fragments will wash away
in suspension, even in slowly moving water such as that which seeps through fractures
in the rock (Parker, Shown, and Ratzlaff, 1963). And where large fractures or holes
become available for more rapid movement of water, the erosion becomes proportionately greater. This is the situation responsible for the development of pipes and
pseudokarsts in most consolidated materials, such as siltstone, shale, and tuff. Officer's
Cave, developed in altered tuff and volcanic ash of eastern Oregon (Fig. 2B) is a good
example.
Cracking thus produces the means of making an essentially non-permeable
material permeable, at least for a while; and when wetted, the dispersed clays produce
the conditions that make montmorillonitic rocks so easily vulnerable to erosion, even
by the generally slowly moving water in cracks.
The climates of the drylands are conducive to piping. During the hot, dry summers the soils dry out, and the precipitation, which characteristically falls intermittently
during or at the close of summer, is generally of the thunderstorm type. Such intense
rainfall may fill the cracks with water, and if an opening exists for flow from the cracks
a current of moving water develops. The easily detached, dispersed clays and silts
can then be removed at depth in the pipes by the flowing water. Eventually, if and
when the walls become wet enough to swell, the cracks may close, but in the meantime
a subterranean tube, a pipe, too large to be so closed has developed. This appears to be
the commonest mode of pipe origin in consolidated materials, as contrasted to unconsolidated materials which were described in figure 1 and related text. Likewise, this
subtle but effective form of erosion may well be the commonest factor in the development of badlands. It operates not only at depth to produce pipes but also appears to
be most effective in bringing about shallow and surficial badlands erosion, resulting
in rilling, gullying, and sheet-erosion.
During the field season samples were collected at a number of piping sites for
laboratory analyses. Ordinarily, samples were taken from the land surface above the
pipe and from the pipe's roof, walls, and floor. At one site, Cornfield Wash, N.M.,
samples were taken at I- to 2-inch increments from the land surface into the pipe
floor, 34 inches deep.
To date laboratory sample studies from eight sites (table 1 and fig. 3) have been
completed by my colleagues, Lynn M. Shown and Karl W. Ratzlaff. Table 1 lists
some of the results.
Other laboratory determinations (Fig. 3) include: (1) shrinkage limit (American
Society for Testing Materials, 1958, method D-427-39); (2) saturation percentage
(Richards, 1954, method 27a); (3) pH (Richards, 1954, method 5); (4) conductivity
107

TABLE 1
Some properties of the surface, roof pipe, and floor materials at eight piped study areas

Piping

Relative
Concentrations (})

Site

Texture

Clay (3)

(2)

Minerals

vfS

M, M l-I,Ch

pH

stratum
Gypsum

Lime

surface
roof
pipe
floor

5
2
2
0

1
5
6
5

7.9
8.0
8.1
8.1

SiCL
SiCL

surface
roof
pipe
floor

0
0
0
0

0
0
0
0

7.8
8.0
8.0
8.3

coSC
coSC

Badlands
Kutz Canyon,
New Mexico

surface
roof
pipe
floor

4
3
0
1

0
0
0
0

8.1
8.0
8.2
8.1

SiC
C
SiC
SiC

Pseudojamas
Kutz Canyon,
New Mexico

surface
roof
pipe
floor

4
1
0
1

0
0
0
0

8.3
8.1
8.5
8.1

SiC
SiC
SiC
SiC

Badlands
Cameron, Ariz.

surface
roof
pipe
floor

4
4
0
1

1
1
2
5

7.2
8.3
8.3
8.3

SiC
SiC

SiCL

Badlands, near
Many Farms,
Chinle Valley,
Arizona

surface
roof
pipe
floor

1
2
1
1

5
5
5
5

8.3
8.1
8.3
8.5

SiC
CL
L

coSL

Terrace Alluvium
Benson, Arizona

surface
roof
pipe
floor

1
1
4
1

5
5
5
5

8.0
7.9
7.6
7.9

gSiL
gSiL
gSiL
gSiL

M.M + I

surface
roof
pipe
floor

3
4
0
0

4
4
4
4

7.9
7.6
8.0
8.0

SiCL

M,M-i-I

Soil profile Cornfield Wash,

New Mexico
Badlands
Cuba, New Mex.

Warbonnct
Badlands,
Harrison, Nebr.

fSL

M,K

M,I,K
M,I,K,

coS

SiC
M
M

M,I

SCL

SiCL

M,M + I

SL

(') Relative concentrations: 1 very low; 2 = low; 3 moderate; 4 high;

5 = very
high; 6 exceedingly high
(2) Textural symbols: S = sandy; co = coarse; Si silty; C = clay; L = loam;
g 3gravelly; vf = very fine.
( ) Clay minerals: M = montmorillonite; M + I = montmorillonite and illite
mixed layer; Ch = chlorite; K. = kaolinite

(Richards, 1954, method 2Id); (5) relative lime content (Richards, 1954, method 23a);
(6) soluble cations (Richards, 1954, method 3a); (7) calcium plus magnesium (Richards
1954, method 7); (8) sodium (Richards, 1954, method 10a); and (9) gypsum (Richards,
1957, method 14b). Clay minerals were determined by X-ray diffraction analyses.
On figure 3 the separate sites, except Benson and Cornfield Wash, are not identified; for our purposes here it makes little or no difference which station is which.
Although there is considerable scatter on some of the diagrams, in general the trends
PIPED SOIL, CORNFIELD WASH, N.M.
TOTAL SOLUBLE
0

CATIONS

J/

SOLUBLE SODIUM PERCENTAGE 1

MOISTURE PERCENTAGE

I?

20

SO

PIPED MATERIALS, ALL EIGHT STUDY AREAS

TOTAL SOLUBLE CATIONS h
K)

20

4 0 60

100

?00

400

SOLUBLE SODIUM
800 0

20

40

PERCENTAGE Zj
60

80

MOISTURE PERCENTAGE !

100 0

SURFACE
-ROOF
-WALL
-FLOOR

* Teitvrol jmbots If, try fin; S. 10<id; L. loom. C, Ckl*; Si, tilt
3/ Shnnhos*Lim>t, monturt contant d n a i m u m shrinkage
r Maitur f V c # t ; tohd i n * * , shrinkage limrtt, dothed ime-s, laturotton motnur
1/ Saturation Percsniagt
ReJatiomhipi bOonaing l o t h low toJubU sodium pcctntogr ife (B*n\, Ai

Analvs! and interpretation, Lyrn M Shown

Fig. 3
are quite clear. The following conclusions can be drawn from table 1 and figure 3 :
(1) cracking potential exists in the profiles at all piped areas, and the potential is
greatest at the depths where the pipes are developed; (2) montmorillonite is diminant
in the clay minerals at all piped sites; (3) higher total soluble cation concentration
occurs in the wall and roof zones of the pipes than in their floors. This may possibly
be explained by cation exchange during capillary-water movement as described by
Miller and Ratzlaff (1960). This is considered by them to be evidence of the accumulation of soil water at depth above the pipe floor; (4) higher soluble sodium percentage
in roofs and floors as compared to the walls. This also is possibly attributable to
cation exchange during capillary-water movement; (5) salts are generally leached from
upper parts of the profile and deposited in roof and wall zones; (6) at six sites the
109

texture of the samples is controlled by silt and clay whereas at the other tow sites
sand is chiefly responsible; (7) the pipe floors were all of low permeability. This might
be considered to1 be the real control of pipe depths, however, most pipe outlets correspond to the level of the gully floor into which the pipes discharge; (8) at all sites except
Benson, which is one of the sandy and more permeable sites, the soluble sodium
percentage is indicative of a sodic system; (9) the surficial materials at all sites were
highly dispersed; (10) the higher salinity of roofs and walls, as compared with floors,
would partially repress dispersive effects indicated by the soluble sodium percentages,
thus the sodium content of these materials is probably no more than a minor influence
in the occurrence of piping. Fletcher and others ( 1954) measured exchangeable sodium
percentages from zero to more than 90 percent atfivepiped sites in Arizona. It appeared
to them "...that while sodium may contribute to the severity of a piping condition,
sodium is by no means necessary to the occurrence of piping..."; (11) the sodium,
lime, and gypsum content of the samples create an alkaline condition at all eight sites.
As the chemical conditions of these systems limit the solution of lime and gypsum,
the possibility of solution being of much importance in the piping process is quite
small.

5. OCCURRENCE OF PIPING

Piping occurs widely over the drylands of the earth. It has been reported from
Australia (Downes, 1946, 1949, 1956, 1959); Bolivia (Dobrovolny, 1962); British
Columbia (Buckham and Cockfteld, 1950; Cockfield and Buckham, 1946); China
(Clapp, 1922; Fuller, 1922; Thorp, 1936); Hawaii (Kingsbury, 1952); Iran (Leggett,
1939; not discussed but shown in a picture of Makran Coast); New Zealand (Cumberland, 1944; Gibbs, 1945); and South Africa (King, 1951, not discussed but shown in
several pictures from Basutoland).
Here in the United Slates piping is known to occur in Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South
Dakota, and Wyoming. Many of the sites in the United States have been checked
personally in the field by the present writer.

6. LOCALITIES AND SETTINGS

In the United States (Brown, 1961) and Canada (Buckham and Cockfield, 1946)
piping occurs most commonly in the vicinity of gullies that are actively trenching alluvial valley fills or terrace materials bordering drylands valleys. These same conditions
apparently govern piping in the loess of northwestern China (Clapp, 1922; Fuller,
1922; Thorp, 1936); in landslide clays and silts of Bolivia (Dobrovolny, 1962); and
in alluvium of Basutoland (King, 1951).
Apparently most of the Australian piping areas are on hillslopes, not associated
with deep gullies or trenches as places of discharge. Instead, tunnels form at some place
upslope and emerge farther downslope, often at an ant hole or dessication crack
(Downes, 1956, p. 230, and 1959, p. 480).
One of the most striking settings of piping is in the tops and sides of some bedrock
hills. No such occurrences are reported from foreign lands, but in the United States
five localities are known.
Three areas are in the red and green siltstones and white tuffs of the Upper
Triassic Chinle Formation, Arizona; one is near the town of Many Farms on the east
side of Chinle Valley; one is in the Petrified Forest near the National Monument
headquarters; and one is about four miles north of Cameron. At such places, little
of the rain that falls on top of the hills runs over their sides; instead it vanishes into

110

the funnels, or sinks, that riddle the hilltops. A few minutes to a half-hour or so later
this water reappears at discrete, small, pipe orifices, or as dispersed seeps in wetweather rills at or near the bases of the hills. Water from the small pipe orifices may
shoot out as small jet streams under considerable hydraulic pressure. Another area
of hilltop piping is in gray and tan shales of the Furnace Creek Formation of Miocene
or Pliocene age in Death Valley, California (Thayer, 1938), a few miles southeast of
Death Valley National Monument headquarters. The fourth, a most unusual display
of piping, is in the gray to white weathered, montmorillonitic tuff and volcanic ash
of the John Day Formation, of Late Oligocne and early Miocene age, in eastern
Oregon (Parker, Shown, and Ratzlaff, 1963). There, at Officer's Cave Ridge, is a
large and apparently rapidly enlarging cave complex (Fig. 2B). The dimensions of the
upper cave are now approximately 35 feet X 43.5 feet X 100 feet, but as reported by
Collier (1914), they were 15 feet X 15 feet X 100 feet. If these measurements are valid,
this represents an extremely rapid rate of erosion, averaging during 48 years of record,
something in the order of 2,700 cu. ft. per year. If the erosion developed at a uniform
rate, the cave would have gained its start about the turn of the century. Inasmuch as
Collier made no mention of the other three caves at this site it is reasonable to assume
that they have all formed since 1914.

7. CLIMATE, VEGETATION, AND PIPING

Climatic effects have been mentioned previously (p. 5) in connection with the
piping of dessication cracks in montmorillonitic rocks. Piping usually occurs where
the annual rainfall is less than 15 inches, but under some circumstances that allow
denudation of the land surface and subsequent cracking of the subsoil, it will occur
at higher rainfalls. Downes (1946) reports 23 inches for the piped area of Victoria,
Australia, and Gibbs (1945) reports 28 inches for the piped area of Marlborough,
New Zealand. Apparently of much greater importance than total annual rainfall is
the intensity and duration of the precipitation, and whether a protective vegetative
cover exists.
Piping seems to be most prevalent in drylands areas where vegetation is sparse,
thinning, or denuded. However, in some situations, pipes may develop in grassy
areas (Hadley, 1963; Cumberland, 1944, p. 99). This appears to be exceptional, however, requiring special localized conditions for its occurrence. Reductions in plant
cover may be related to several causes, including overgrazing, changes in climate,
or even to changes in the duration and intensity of the precipitation. Likewise, the
initiation of the current cycle of gully and canyon cutting may be attributed to these
same factors, or to a combination of them (Huntington, 1914; Gregory, 1917; Bryan,
1922; Fenneman, 1922; Calkins, 1941 ; Leopold, 1943, 1950, 1951). Inasmuch as piping
is so commonly related to gully development, it is not surprising that both might be
causally related to a skimpy or reduced vegetative cover.
Many modern instances of piping can be traced to the misuse and abuse of the
land. Overgrazing (Bond, 1941), cutover and non-protected slopes (Downes, 1946),
recurrent burning (Thorp, 1936 ; Gibbs, 1945), and over-irrigation (Harris and Fletcher,
1951) are the chief elements in the onset of such piping. However, removal of the
vegetation by overgrazing is by far the commonest reported cause.

8. SUMMARY

Piping, the natural development of subsurface drainage in relatively insoluble

clastic rocks of the drylands (arid and semiarid regions) gives rise not only to badlands
forms but to a system of geomorphic forms simulating those produced by solution
111

of calcareous rocks. Where solution is quite advanced a karst topography results,

and where piping is well developed a karst-like topography is developed, for which
the term "pseudokarst", is proposed. Although the chemistry of the processes is not
the same, the landforms produced are quite similar in shape and general configuration;
piped forms, however, are not geologically so enduring.
In the United States piping occurs most commonly in valley-fill deposits in which
active gully erosion is in progress. The gullies allow the development of steep-gradient
subsurface drainage, which is a basic precursor to development of pipes. The materials
that are subject to piping are alluvium and colluvium, ranging in grade size from clay
to gravel, and most commonly include clay, silt and fine sand. Silt and loess, in any
topographic situation, are likely to be attacked by piping; other materials are montmorillonitic and bentonitic shales, altered tuffs, volcanic ash, and montmorillonitic
soils.
Piping also occurs on badlands hilltops in tuff, such as in the John Day Formation
of eastern Oregon; shales of the Furnace Creek Formation of Death Valley; California; and claystonc and tuff of the Chinlc Formation, Arizona. Such hills are sieved
with sinks and drainage is internal. Badlands ravine bottoms and walls also are commonly piped.
Piping and underground drainage usually develop in rocks in which montmorillonite, a swelling clay, is the dominant constituent. In such materials the open cracks
may serve as subterranean courses for channelized, subsurface flow which gains its
recharge from the typically heavy rains from thunderstorms that are interspersed
with, or that follow the hot, dry summers of the drylands. The dispersed rock particles
are carried away in suspension by flow through the cracks before their walls swell to
close the cracks; thus, subterranean tubes develop.
.
Piping occurs in nature most commonly in the drylands, but may be induced as a
result of construction works anyplace where large hydraulic head differentials are
developed over short distances in weakly consolidated or unconsolidated elastics, such
as sand. The hydraulics of the piping system are the same, basically, whether caused
by human or natural forces.
Wherever natural piping occurs, outside of the badlands areas, it can generally
be traced to gullying and this in turn seems related to reduction in vegetative cover.
Overgrazing, which depletes the vegetation and allows raindrop splash and sheet
erosion to erode the soil, and the hot sun to bake and dessicatc it, is reported to be
the chief cause. Other causes are recurrent burning, cutting off or otherwise destroying
trees, shrubs, and other vegetation, and over-irrigation.
Piping is a widespread and destructive form of drylands erosion and is a major
contributing factor in the gully or badlands types of erosion.
REFERENCES
AMERICAN SOCIETY FOR TESTING MATERIALS COMMITTEE D-18 (1958). Procedures for

testing soils: American Society for Testing Materials, Philadelphia, p. 76-79.

BOND, R.M. (1941). Rodentless rodent erosion; Soil Conserv., V. 10, p. 269.
BROWN, G.W. (1961). Some physical and chemical soil properties associated with
piping erosion in Colorado; Master's thesis, Colo. State Univ.
BRYAN, K. (1922). Erosion aud sedimentation in the Papago Country, Arizona, U.S.
Geol. Survey Bull. 730-B, illus.
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