Weathering, Rivers and Coast Flashcards
What is freeze-thaw weathering?
Also called frost shattering. Water fills crack in a rock. Water freezes and expands. Crack widens. Rock breaks.
What is a landscape?
The scenery of a place.
Name 4 different types of weathering.
Freeze-thaw weathering, onion-skin weathering, biological weathering and chemical weathering.
What is onion-skin weathering?
Rock is repeatedly heated and cooled, expanding and contracting. This causes small pieces of the rock surface to peel off like the skin of an onion. Common in desert areas.
Biological weathering is what?
Due to actions of plants and animals. Plants grow in cracks of rock and force it apart, eventually breaking rock. Animals can cause same (rabbits, moles, earthworms).
What is chemical weathering?
Caused by action of water. Ordinary rainwater contains acid which, together with heat, causes rock to crumble. Most visible in on grave stones and old buildings.
What is erosion?
Erosion is the wearing away and removal of loosened rock. Weathering and erosion work together.
Name 4 types of erosion.
Rivers, ice, sea and wind.
Explain river erosion.
Rivers wear away small bits of rock from their bed, eating into the banks on either side.
What is sea erosion?
Coastlines are under constant attack from waves, especially during storms. Weakened rock is carried away by currents.
What is ice erosion?
A glacier is a tongue of ice moving down a valley. Frozen rocks and stones on and under the ice act like sandpaper, wearing away the valley bottom and sides.
What is wind erosion?
The wind picks up tiny particles of sand and blasts them against rocks. Sandblasting effect.
Erosion, transportation and deposition help shape the land. Explain.
Erosion wears away the land, transportation moves the material from one place to another and deposition builds up new landforms.
