| A | B |
|---|
| weathering | The chemical or mechanical process by which rock is gradually broken down, eventually becoming soil. |
| chemical weathering | The process by which the acual chemical structure of rock is changed, usually when water and carbon dioxid cause a breakdown of the rock. |
| agents of erosion | Water, glaciers, and wind are the key components to erosion, or the movement of weathered material. |
| dust bowl | The dust bowl was the area near the Great Plains in the 1930's when farmers plowed too much land, which therefore meant less plants. When you have less plants, the dirt is more suseptable to being carried off by wind because there is nothing to hold them down. Massive dust storms covered this area, and it is now known as the dust bowl. |
| moraines | A ridgelike mass of rock, gravel, sand, and clay carried and depositd by a glacier. |
| "Ice Age" | The Ice Age occured when a third of the planets water became locked up in glaciers, and when these glaciers melted the earth became colder. Long periods of these cold temperature were called the Ice Ages. Four Ic eAges have occured in the last 600 million years, the last one being about 18,000 years ago. |
| mechanical weathering | The acual breaking up or physical weakening of rock by forces such as ice and roots. |
| acid rain | Rain whose high concentration of chemicals, usually from industrial pollution, that pollutes water, kills plant and animal life, and eatd away the surface of stone and rock; a form of chemical weathering. |
| sediment | Small particles of sand, soil, and gravl carried and deposited by water. |
| loess | Fine grained, mineral-rich loam, dust, o silt deposited by the wind. |
| "u" shaped valleys | U-shaped valleys are formed when giant glaciers move and carve out the earth's crust that is beneath them. They leave a u-shaped trail. |
| frost wedging | Frost wedging is when water seeps into crevis in-between mountains. When it freezes, it expands, and becomes to large for the space it is in a brakes of a piece of the rock. |
| erosion | The movement of weathered materials, including gravel, soil, ans sand usually causedby water, wind and glaciers. |
| delta | A delta is a flat, low-lying plain that forms when water carries sediment and deposits it into a area at the mouth of a river. |
| glaciers | A huge, slow-moving mass of snow and ice, formed over many years from layers of unmelted snow pressing together, thawing slightly, and freezing. |
| "v" shaped valleys | V-shaped valleys are formed when rivers carve out tis shape in the earth's cust while it is flowing. |
| valley/alpine glaciers | Alpine glaciers are those found in the tops of mountain ranges and slowly move downhill by the force of gravity. |
