W.E.D. Review

Weathering, Erosion & Deposition "A thousand Yellowstone wonders are calling. Look up and down and round about you!” – John Muir

W.E.D. Process
Weathering is the process that wears down rocks and other substances on the Earth’s surface.
Erosion is the process by which sediment is moved from one place to another.
Deposition is the process in which sediment is laid down in new locations.
Weathering, erosion, and deposition work together in a cycle that wears down and builds up the Earth’s surface.

Types of Weathering
Mechanical weathering breaks the rock down into smaller pieces (physical change)
Chemical weathering causes a change in the chemical makeup of the rock (chemical change).
The weathered rock is called sediment . The size can range from very small (sand and clay) to larger pieces of rock (gravel and boulders).

Examples of Mechanical Weathering
Abrasion - The wearing away of a substance by solid particles carried by wind, water, or other forces

Exfoliation – The breaking off of curved sheets or slabs parallel to a rock’s surface due to weathering.

Frost Action – The breaking apart of a rock caused by the water freezing and expanding within cracks.

Root-pry (Mr. M’s 2nd most favorite word) – The breaking apart of rocks caused by the growth of plant roots.

Examples of Chemical Weathering
Oxidation – Process in which the iron in rocks combine with oxygen in the air to form iron oxide, or rust.

Acid Rain – Forms when CO 2 ( carbonic acid) or sulfur oxides ( sulfuric acid) dissolve in rain. It then dissolves certain rocks such as feldspars and limestone.

Plant Acids – Weak acids produced by plants such as mosses and lichens that are capable of slowly dissolving the minerals in rocks. This type of chemical weathering is important in the formation of soil.

Rate of Weathering
Composition of the Rock
Climate (temperature and amount of rainfall)
Amount of time the rock is exposed to weathering
Amount of rock surface area
More surface area = faster weathering

Erosion
Erosion is the process by which weathered rock and soil is moved from one location to another one.
Natural erosion can be caused by the following five types or “agents”:
Gravity
Wind
Running Water
Glaciers
Ocean Waves

Deposition
Deposition is the process in which sediment is laid down in new locations.
This sediment may be deposited near to where it was originally weathered or it may be hundreds or thousands of miles away!
The type of deposition and formation will depend on the type of erosion!

Erosion by Gravity

Erosion by Gravity
Gravity causes mass movement , any one of several processes that move sediment (weathered rock) downhill.
The different processes of mass movement include landslides, mudflows, slump and creep .
Mass movement can be rapid or slow.
Remember, these different types of mass movement are eroding the rock because they are moving it downhill.

Deposition by Gravity
A Talus is the pile of rocks and sediments that is deposited at the base of a slope.

Examples of Mass Movement Mudflows Landslide

Examples of Mass Movement Slump Creep

Erosion by Running Water

Running water is the major agent of erosion that has shaped Earth’s surface.
Runoff is rain water that moves over the land.
Rill gully stream river
Streams and rivers can also cause abrasion as the sediments being carried constantly collide with other rocks.
Erosion by Running Water

Deposition by Running Water
Faster moving water can carry a larger amount of sediment (load). Therefore, fast-moving rivers erode more sediment than small streams.
When the water slows down, stream or river cannot carry as much load and sediment is deposited.
As sediment is deposited, it creates new formations such as oxbow lakes, alluvial plains, and deltas .

Formation of an Oxbow Lake Step 1. Step 2. Step 3.

Formation of an Alluvial Fan
When a stream flows out of a steep, narrow mountain valley, it suddenly becomes wider and shallower.
The water slows down and sediments are deposited to form an alluvial fan .

Formation of a Delta
A river ends its journey when it flows into the ocean.
The water slows down and sediments are deposited and build up a landform called a delta .

Glacial Erosion

Glacial Erosion
A glacier is any large mass of ice that moves slowly over land.
Continental glaciers have covered large parts of the US in times known as Ice Ages.
The glaciers of the last Ice Age began about 2.5 million years ago and only finally retreated around 10,000 years ago.

Glacial Erosion
As the glacier moves over the land, it picks up rocks in the process and carries them with it. This process is known as plucking .
Many rocks are dragged on the bottom of the glacier and can scar the bedrock as they grind along the bottom. This is a type of abrasion and can scratch or “scar” the bedrock below.

Examples of Plucking & Glacial Scarring

Glacial Deposition
When a glacier melts, it deposits the sediment that was eroded from the land, creating various landforms.
The mixture of sediments deposited directly on the surface is called till .
The till deposited at the edges of a glacier forms a ridge called a moraine .
Retreating glaciers also create small depressions called kettles that form when a chunk of ice is left in glacial till. When the ice melts, the kettle remains.
Kettles often fill with water, forming kettle lakes.

Glacial Deposition

Glacial Erosion Remnants “ Glacial erratic” This is a boulder-size example of till. Cape Cod

Wind Erosion Mr. M in Juacachina, Peru!

Wind Erosion
Wind caused erosion by deflation and abrasion.
Deflation is the process by which wind removes surface materials such silt and clay.
Slightly heavier particles such as sand will skip for a short distance but soon falls back to the ground.
Even heavier pieces of sediment can slowly move over the ground with strong winds.
Abrasion by wind-carried sand can cause weathering. Then, the small pieces of newly weathered sediments get carried away by the wind as well.

Wind Erosion

“Dancing Stones” of Death Valley! These large pieces of rock have mysteriously been moving on their own. It was just discovered recently that strong winds have been eroding them across the desert!

Wind Deposition
The sediment carried by wind can form sand dunes and loess deposits.
Sand dunes usually form when the wind strikes an obstacle and slows down. These dunes are often found in the desert and on beaches.
Sometimes, very fine clay and silt are deposited in layers far from its original source.
This fine, wind-deposited sediment is loess .
Loess helps to form fertile soil and are found on many farmlands in Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri and Illinois.

Formation of a Sand Dune

Ocean Wave Erosion

Ocean Wave Erosion
The energy in ocean waves comes from the wind that blows across the water’s surface.
Waves shape the coast through erosion by transporting sand and other sediment.
The waves can also cause mechanical weathering (abrasion) as they hit land while carrying sediment. The large waves have a lot of energy and can break apart rocks on impact.

Ocean Wave Deposition
The waves shape a coast when they deposit sediment, forming coastal features such as beaches and sandbars.
A beach is an area of wave-washed sediment along a coast. The sediment deposited is usually sand but may be formed of small fragments of coral or sea shells.

A longshore drift will deposit sediment offshore and create a formation known as a spit.
The spit is a beach that projects like a finger out into the water.
Incoming waves carrying sand may build up long ridges of sand parallel known to the shore, known as sandbars .

W.E.D. Review

by Jeremy Mularella on May 24, 2008

Accessibility

Categories

Tags

Upload Details

Usage Rights

1 Embed 11

Statistics

W.E.D. Review — Presentation Transcript