| A | B |
|---|
| Chemical Weathering | Chemical weathering changes the minerals or the chemical make-up of a rock. In this minerals can be added or removed, or rocks minerals can be decomposed. This is called decomposition. Many chemical can break down the minerals and make-up of a rock. |
| Mechanical Weathering | Mechanical weathering brakes rocks into smaller pieces and different shapes. It also rounds out the sharp point of a rock. |
| Exfoliation | When rocks brake due to temperature, they often brake in circular slabs paralel to the rocks surface. |
| Deflation | Where the wind carries silt, sand and clay away from the land. |
| Abrasion | The wearing away of rocks by particles carried by the wind, water or other forces. |
| Oasis | Wind erodes the sand to the water depth of soil and enables plants to grow. |
| Wind | It is most active in desert, plowed fields and beaches. Loose material is easily carried by the wind. |
| Running Water | Major cause of erosion. |
| Organic Activity | Plant and animals that cause weathering. |
| Oxidation | When oxigen combines with another substance to form a entirely new one. |
| Carbonation | When carbon dioxide dissolves in water a weak acid is produced (pop drink fizz). When it falls it dissolves certain minerals in the ground. |
| Temperature | In hot weather the rock expands, when it cools down it contracts. The continuous process makes the surface particles crack or flake off. |
| Sulferic Acid | Sulfur oxides, byproducts of burning coal, mix with rain to form acid rain. This rain can corrode metals and other minerals very quickly. |
| Plant Acids | Plants produce weak acids that dissolve certain minerals in rocks. For example, mosses can make acids that break rocks into smaller pieces. |
| Erosion | Is the process of moving weathered rock and soil from one place to another, over time, this creates new landforms. Gravity, running water, waves and glaciers are the 5 agents of erosion. |
| Deposition | The process of rocks and soil being moved and deposited in other places. |
| Loess | Accumulations of fine particles of sand and silt deposited by the wind. |
| Wind Break | A barrier that slows the wind. |
| Runoff | When rain falls, some of it evapourates, some sinks into the ground, and some of it run along the ground. As it does it carries particles of sand, clay, and gravel with it. |
| Drainage System | Rills to gullies to streams to rivers. |
| Drainage Basin | The area drained by a main river and it's channels. |
| Tribituaries | A large stream that flows into an areas main river. |
| Flood Plains | A flat region on either side of a river that's formed by sediments deposited by floods. |
| Delta | When a river meets a lake or ocean it slows down and spreads out because of deposited sediments. |
| Glaciers | Large, powerful masses of moving ice that erode by abrasion and plucking away at the land underneith. |
