Weathering and Erosion

Weathering and Erosion

The breaking, dissolving, and transportation of a rock.

​The process of wearing or being worn by long exposure to the atmosphere.

​Weathering

The process of eroding or being eroded by wind, water, or natural agents.

​​Erosion

A regions typical weather conditions over a long period of time.

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​Climate

The surface featres of a region, including how the land rises to form mountains and falls to form valleys.

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​Topography

​Flowing water is an important agent for erosion. It can carry rocks, sediments, and soil downstream.

​Water

Glaciers can also cause mechanical weathering, ripping chuncks of rock out of the ground as they move across land.

Glaciers

​Winds usually carry smaller sediments that can scrape against rocks and cause weathering at the same time as erosion.

​​Wind

​Gravity constantly pulls water, ice, rocks, and sediments downhill.

​​Gravity

Erosion

A river delta is a landform shaped like a triangle, created by the deposition of sediment that is carried by a river and enters slower-moving or stagnant water. This occurs when a river enters an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, or another river that cannot carry away the supplied sediment.

River Delta

The erosion or disintegration of rocks, building materials, etc., is caused by chemical reactions (chiefly water and dissolved substances) rather than mechanical processes.

​​Chemical Weathering

​Mechanical Weathering also called physical weathering and disaggregation, causes rocks to crumble. Water, in either liquid or solid forms, is often a key agent of mechanical weathering.

Mechanical Weathering

Weathering describes the breaking down or dissolving of rocks and minerals on the surface of the Earth. Water, ice, acids, salts, plants, animals, and changes in temperature are all agents of weathering.

Elemental Weathering