arroyo, a dry channel lying in a semiarid or desert area and subject to flash flooding during seasonal or irregular rainstorms. Such transitory streams, rivers, or creeks are noted for their gullying effects and especially for their rapid rates of erosion, transportation, and deposition. There have been reports of up to 8 feet (2 m) of deposition in 60 years and like amounts of erosion during a single flood event.
The beds of ephemeral streams are commonly almost flat in cross section and are dry most of the time. Such beds are given various names according to regional differences, such as wadi or oued in North Africa and Saudi Arabia and dry wash or arroyo in the southwestern United States. Most ephemeral streams become shallower downstream, and most of the water is absorbed by the dry stream bed. Mudflows are a fairly common occurrence because sediment yields are high in arid and semiarid areas, and the soil lacks the binding effect of continuous vegetation cover.