 Today, the geomorphology community uses the term "abrasion" in a looser way, often interchangeably with the term "wear".Abrasion in a stream or river channel occurs when the sediment carried by a river scours the bed and banks, contributing significantly to erosion.In addition to chemical weathering and the physical weathering of hydraulic action, freeze-thaw cycles (see frost weathering), and more, there is a suite of processes which have long been considered to contribute significantly to bedrock channel erosion include plucking, abrasion (due to both bedload and suspended load), solution, and cavitation.