7.2B Vocab

The breaking down of rocks and minerals on earth's surface. Often due to physical and chemical processes.

• erosion
• deposition
• weathering
• earth system

The action of surface processes (such as flowing water or wind) that removes soil, rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust, and then transports it to another location

• surface process
• erosion
• weathering
• deposition

A process in which Earth materials (usually small pieces of rocks, like sand) settle out of a moving fluid (air or water) and are added to a landform or land mass, like a beach or shoreline or the mouth of a river.

• deposition
• weathering
• erosion
• earth material

Changes that may be continuously occurring but are so small that they are barely noticed over short time scales but could be measured/observed over very long time scales (e.g. weathering or fingernails growing)

• hydrosphere
• catostrophic changes
• earth system
• gradual changes

Changes that occur over a very short period of time, and are often associated with a big event (e.g. rain storm removing a large section of beach).

• erosion
• gradual changes
• transport
• catastrophic changes

Wind blowing over water pushes surface water and forms waves that squeeze water along the coast, which generates a water current that moves parallel to the coast.

• earth system
• transport
• longshore current
• atmosphere

The transportation of sediments (clay, silt, pebbles, sand, and shingle) along a coast parallel to the shoreline, in the longshore current.

• longshore drift
• erosion
• earth material
• weathering

Things that happen to the Earth's surface that cause changes, including weathering and transport.

• earth system
• system process
• longshore drift
• lithosphere

Rocks and minerals that come from the Earth's lithosphere.

• earth material
• weathering
• longshore current
• deposition

The crust and solid outermost layer of the Earth, including rocks.

• atmosphere
• hydrosphere
• asthenosphere
• lithosphere