detritus

Noun

detritus (usually uncountable, plural detritus or (rare, hypercorrect) detrita)

1. (countable, usually) Pieces of rock broken off by ice, glacier, or erosion.
2. (usually) Organic waste material from decomposing dead plants or animals.
   • Woody detritus is an important component of forested ecosystems. It can reduce erosion and affects soil development, stores nutrients and water, provides a major source of energy and nutrients, and serves as a seedbed for plants and as a major habitat for decomposers and hetereotrophs.2009, Christian Wirth, Gerd Gleixner, Martin Heimann, Old-Growth Forests: Function, Fate and Value, Springer Science & Business Media, →ISBN, page 159
3. (broadly, usually) Any debris or fragments of disintegrated material.
   • But of course: no clutter. No newspapers, no renegade scraps of domestic detritus, no rubber bands, paper clips, coupons, pens or pencils, notebooks, magazines. No knives. Where were the knives?2001, Chip Kidd, The Cheese Monkeys
   • The cutting head removes any chips out of the railhead and restores the required surface shape. The trains also clear up their own detritus as they travel. Neither milling chips nor grinding dust remain on the track.2022 September 7, Tom Allett, “At the cutting edge of NR's track work”, in RAIL, number 965, page 39
4. (usually) Rock consisting of accumulated debris from decayed rocks, like sand, that often is joined by cement.