Types of Weathering
What is physical weathering?
Answer: Physical weathering is the process where rocks are broken down into smaller pieces without changing their chemical composition.
What is water?
Answer: Water is a major agent of erosion that can wear away rocks and soil through processes like rainfall and rivers.
What is sediment?
Answer: Sediment refers to small pieces of rock, soil, and other materials that are moved by erosion.
What is a delta?
Answer: A delta is a landform created at the mouth of a river where it deposits sediment as it meets a body of water.
Formed by cooling magma or lava, this type of rock includes varieties like basalt and obsidian
What are igneous rocks?
What is chemical weathering?
Answer: Chemical weathering is the breakdown of rocks through chemical changes, often involving water and minerals
What is wind?
Answer: Wind is an agent of erosion that can transport sand and small particles, especially in dry areas.
What does it mean to transport?
Answer: To transport means to move sediments or materials from one place to another by agents like water, wind, or ice.
What is a beach?
Answer: A beach is a sandy or pebbly shore along a body of water, formed by the deposition of sediments carried by waves.
This is the process by which sedimentary rock can become metamorphic rock.
Answer: What is heat and pressure?
Name an example of biological weathering.
Answer: An example of biological weathering is tree roots breaking apart rocks.
What is gravity?
Answer: Gravity causes erosion by pulling materials down slopes, leading to landslides and rockfalls.
Name a method of transportation by water.
Answer: A method of transportation by water is river currents carrying sediments downstream.
Name a characteristic of marshes.
Answer: Marshes are wetland areas that are flooded with water and often have a variety of plant life.
This type of rock forms from layers of sediment pressed together over time and often contains fossils.
Answer: What is sedimentary rock?
What is the main cause of mechanical weathering?
Answer: The main cause of mechanical weathering is temperature changes that cause expansion and contraction of rocks.
Name an agent of erosion that involves ice.
Answer: Glaciers are agents of erosion that can carve out valleys and transport large amounts of sediment.
What happens to sediment during transportation?
Answer: During transportation, sediment can be sorted by size and shape as it moves along.
What is a barrier island?
Answer: A barrier island is a long, narrow island that runs parallel to the mainland, formed by the deposition of sand and sediment.
This beautiful white rock is made when limestone gets squeezed by extreme heat and pressure
What is marble?
Explain how ice can cause weathering.
Answer: Ice can cause weathering through a process called frost wedging, where water seeps into cracks, freezes, expands, and breaks the rock apart.
Explain how plants can be agents of erosion.
Answer: Plants can be agents of erosion by their roots breaking up soil and rocks, and when they die, they can leave soil exposed to wind and water erosion.
How do rivers transport materials?
Answer: Rivers transport materials by picking up sediments from the riverbed and banks and carrying them downstream.
How do rivers create environments of deposition?
Answer: Rivers create environments of deposition by slowing down as they enter larger bodies of water, causing sediments to settle out and form features like deltas.
This scale, ranging from 1 to 10, is used to measure a mineral's hardness.
Answer: What is the Mohs hardness scale?