Erosion is the process that wears down and transports rock and soil, shaping the Earth's surface through forces like weathering, gravity, streams, groundwater, glaciers, wind, and waves. Weathering is the breakdown of rocks through chemical and physical processes, where chemically weathering alters rocks and physical weathering breaks rocks into fragments. Mechanical weathering breaks down rocks through frost wedging as water freezes and expands in cracks, abrasion as rocks scrape against each other, and plant roots prying rocks apart, while chemical weathering uses chemical reactions to break the bonds between minerals in rocks.