Avulsion

Definition

Avulsion in plain English

Avulsion is when water suddenly and violently rips away or dumps land in one dramatic event — like a flood tearing off a chunk of riverbank, or a river jumping to a new path overnight. The key legal twist: because it happened all at once and you can see exactly what moved, the official property boundary stays right where it was before. That's the opposite of accretion, where soil builds up so slowly that the boundary quietly shifts with it. It's the difference between a wave suddenly washing away half your sandcastle in one hit versus sand piling up grain by grain over hours.

Learn these first

• Escheat
• Metes and bounds

Related National Real Estate Exam terms

• Abstract of title
• Adverse possession
• Bargain-and-sale deed
• Chain of title
• Cloud on title
• Constructive notice
• Covenant
• Deed
• Escheat
• Estate for years