Earth's Surface Vocabulary

a mixture of water, air, tiny pieces of rock, and humus

• Soil

• Dirt

• Gravel

• Erosion

fuel that is formed from the decayed remains of ancient plants and animals. Examples include natural gas, coal, and petroleum (oil).

• renewable resource

• deposition

• fossil fuels

• Exxon

determined by the composition of sand, silt, and clay particles

• erosion

• sediments

• deposition

• texture

A natural resource that can be replaced with a reasonable amount of time.

• agent of erosion

• nonrenewable resource

• renewable resource

• sediment

Determined by texture, describes how well soil can hold water.

• water pooling

• water retention

• puddling

• erosion

A natural resource that cannot be replaced in a reasonable amount of time.

• nonrenewable resource

• natural resource

• renewable resource

• particles

Moving water, wind, gravity, and ice.

• special agents

• deposition

• agents of erosion

• Elsa's powers

the dropping or settling of eroded materials

• derosion

• texture

• weathering

• deposition

Sand, bits of rock, fossils, and other matter carried and deposited by water, wind, or ice.

• sediment

• grit

• soil

• agents of erosion

the process of moving weathered rock and sediment from one place to another.

• deposition

• erosion

• weathering

• water retention