Weathering erosion and deposition are processes that alter Earth’s surface gradually over time, leading to amazing landforms like waterfalls and deltas.
Physical Weathering, which refers to the grinding away of rocks by other rocks, may involve freezing and thawing cycles, ice wedging (widening cracks in rock), or plant roots penetrating cracks in rock.
Wind
Wind erosion is the movement of rocks, soil and other materials from one area to another through various means – wind, water, ice or gravity among them.
Wind-blown waves erode rocks in ways that leave behind sand dunes on beaches or deserts, as well as arches like Utah’s Delicate Arch shaped in the shape of an “U.” They can also wear away at the surface, scratching like woodgrain sandpaper to scratch away at it; eventually this leads to cracks appearing and eventually, to crumbling away of parts.
Erosion removes and transports bits of Earth to new locations, often local such as hillsides or rivers nearby the area affected. Erosion processes use erosion as tools that chisel away at Earth’s rocks into ever-evolving works of art – but if misused can also become destructive.
Water
Water is an effective physical and chemical weathering agent. When seeping into cracks and gaps in rock surfaces, it can expand and erode them, leading to exfoliation and surface scour.
Erosion on sloped surfaces is particularly pronounced, often the result of fast-flowing water or sheetwash, frost crystal wedging or burrowing animals.
Erosion has long played an essential role in shaping Earth’s incredible features, but it can also be dangerous. When soil is washed away from its original site and washed into streams or rivers, it may carry chemicals or fertilizers with it that can harm the environment; then these pollutants reach other places known as deposition sites where they’re dumped as sediment – this includes sand, silt gravel and even large rock fragments; additionally erosion may transport organic materials such as dead plants or animals along its journey.
Ice
Chemical weathering process by which freezing-thawing cycles of ice crack and disintegrate rocks; commonly referred to as frost weathering.
Water can enter cracks in rocks and, when temperatures drop, freeze into solid blocks of ice that expand outward and expands, widening and splitting rocks as it spreads ice ‘wedging’ is an active physical form of weathering that often forces road crews to repair holes on sidewalks or other pavement.
Weathering breaks apart rocks into pieces that can be carried away by erosion and then deposited elsewhere through deposition – this process forming the sedimentary rock layers found at Scotts Bluff National Monument, made up of clay, silt and fine sand deposited through wind erosion, moving water erosion or glacier ice erosion; hence why Scotts Bluff has such steep canyon walls.
Natural Agents
Weathering erosion and deposition is affected by natural forces such as climate, topography, vegetation and tectonic activity. Rock types also impact susceptibility to weathering: for instance softer rocks erode more quickly than harder ones; landscape forms also impact where erosion takes place – for instance earthen floodplains may be more vulnerable than rocky river channels in terms of erosion risk.
Wind can play an integral part in mechanical weathering by shifting sand and other debris around, leading to such extreme effects as desert sand dunes reaching incredible heights or New Zealand’s “split apple” formations being formed.
Water can act as a powerful agent of erosion. As liquid or frozen forms, water seeps into cracks and crevices of rocks for chemical weathering; or can even freeze/thaw the rock surface, cracking apart its composition and transporting any eroded material downhill via gravity.