Weathering Wonders
This is the natural process of breaking down rocks and minerals into smaller pieces called sediment.
What is weathering?
This process involves the movement of weathered materials from one location to another by wind, water, ice, or gravity.
What is erosion?
This process happens when wind or water slows down and "drops off" the sediment it was carrying.
What is deposition?
The Colorado River used erosion over millions of years to carve out this massive landmark in Arizona.
What is the Grand Canyon?
These tiny bits of broken-down rock, sand, and silt are the "passengers" moved during erosion.
What are sediments?
This type of weathering breaks rocks into smaller pieces without changing their chemical makeup—like crushing a cookie into crumbs.
What is mechanical (or physical) weathering?
This is the most powerful and important agent of erosion on Earth's surface.
What is flowing water (or streams/rivers)?
This fan-shaped landform is created when a river deposits its sediment as it enters a larger body of water like an ocean.
What is a delta?
These lumpy, pillar-like rock formations in Utah's Bryce Canyon were shaped by weathering and erosion.
What are hoodoos?
When plant roots grow into the cracks of a sidewalk and break it apart, it is an example of this.
What is biological weathering?
When water seeps into cracks in a rock, freezes, and expands to split the rock apart, it is known by this term.
What is ice wedging (or frost wedging)?
These massive "ice bulldozers" scrape away rock and soil as they slowly creep down mountains.
What are glaciers?
Wind deposition in deserts or on beaches often creates these rolling hills of sand.
What are sand dunes?
A famous example of ice wedging, this landmark in New Zealand looks like a piece of fruit split perfectly in half.
What is Split Apple Rock?
This process occurs when wind-blown sand acts like sandpaper, smoothing and wearing down rock faces.
What is abrasion?
This type of weathering occurs when substances like acid rain or oxygen react with minerals to change a rock’s color or shape.
What is chemical weathering?
This invisible force is the main cause of sudden erosional events like landslides and mudflows.
What is gravity?
These are the large piles of rocky debris left behind by a melting glacier.
What are moraines (or glacial till)?
This environmental disaster of the 1930s was caused by severe wind erosion on dry, over-farmed land.
What was the Dust Bowl?
Rusting (oxidation) that turns rocks red is a specific example of this type of weathering.
What is chemical weathering?
These underground structures, like the ones in the Yucatán Peninsula, are often formed when acidic water dissolves limestone.
What are caves (or caverns)?
In dry, arid climates, this agent is primarily responsible for carving unique rock formations and moving sand.
What is wind?
Sediments that are deposited and eventually compacted and cemented together over millions of years form this type of rock.
What is sedimentary rock?
This question has two answers: These V-shaped landforms are often carved out of the Earth by the slow, constant flow of creeks and rivers, and look very different similar landforms shaped by glaciers.
What are river valleys and U-shaped valleys?
This term describes the process of wind removing loose topsoil and lowering the land's surface (think of a balloon losing its air).
What is deflation?