Forces of Change
This force involves the movement of water, like in rivers or rainfall, that can shape the land.
What is water?
This is the process where rocks and soil are broken down into smaller pieces.
What is Weathering?
This is the process where broken-down rocks, soil, and sediments are moved from one place to another.
What is erosion?
When this force freezes in cracks, it can break rocks apart.
What is Ice?
When water freezes and expands inside a rock, causing it to crack, it's an example of this process.
What is Ice Wedging?
A deep cut in the land formed by a flowing river carrying away sediment over a long time.
What is a Canyon?
This force causes materials to move downhill, like in a landslide.
What is Gravity?
The slow wearing away of a rock's surface by wind-blown sand is an example of this process.
What is abrasion?
When strong winds pick up and carry loose sand, forming large piles, these landforms are created.
What are Sand Dunes?
This force can pick up and carry small particles like sand across a desert.
What is Wind?
This type of weathering happens when chemicals in water or air change the makeup of rocks, like rust forming on iron-rich rocks.
What is chemical weathering?
This specific type of erosion occurs when a large mass of rock and soil suddenly slides down a steep slope.
What is a landslide?
Tree roots growing into rocks or animals burrowing are examples of this force changing the land.
What are living organisms?
The process where large rocks slowly break into smaller pieces due to temperature changes, like heating up in the sun and cooling down at night.
What is physical weathering?
The process by which glaciers slowly move across the land, scraping and carrying away rocks and soil, is an example of erosion by this force.
What is glacial erosion?