Sediment (1) Soil particles that have been transported from their natural location by wind or water action, particles of sand, soil, and minerals that are washed from the land and settle on the bottoms of wetlands and other aquatic habitats. (2) The soil material, both mineral and organic, that is in suspension, is being transported, or has been moved from its site of origin by erosion (by air, water, gravity, or ice) and has come to rest on the earth’s surface. (3) Solid material that is transported by, suspended in, or deposited from water. It originates mostly from disintegrated rocks, it also includes chemical and biochemical precipitates and decomposed organic material, such as humus. The quantity, characteristics, and cause of the occurrence of sediment in streams are influenced by environmental factors. Some major factors are degree of slope, length of slope, soil characteristics, land usage, and quantity and intensity of precipitation. (4) In the singular, the word is 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, and in a more general sense to deposits of wind and ice. Such deposits that have been consolidated are generally called sedimentary rocks. (5) Fragmental or clastic mineral particles derived from soil, alluvial, and rock materials by processes of erosion, and transported by water, wind, ice, and gravity. A special kind of sediment is generated by precipitation of solids from solution (i.e., calcium carbonate, iron oxides). Excluded from the definition are vegetation, wood, bacterial and algal slimes, extraneous light- weight artificially made substances such as trash, plastics, flue ash, dyes, and semisolids.
Source: http://www.bvsde.paho.org/bvsacg/i/fulltext/dicciona/dicciona.pdf
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Author of the Water Words Dictionary source of text: Gary A. Horton
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