Denudation

noun

1. The act of stripping off covering; a making bare.
2. In geology, the wearing away and removal by natural agencies, such as rain, rivers, frost, ice, and wind, of a part of the solid matter of the earth's surface.
3. In surgery, the state of a part which is deprived of its natural covering, as a bone of the periosteum.
4. The act of stripping off covering, or removing the surface; a making bare.
5. The laying bare of rocks by the washing away of the overlying earth, etc.; or the excavation and removal of them by the action of running water.