Essay On Weathering And Erosion

Weathering and erosion are two processes that sort of shape Earth’s ground and rocks. Weathering is either a mechanical or chemical process that breaks down or shapes rocks, while erosion transports the leftovers of weathering, away. Understanding these processes helps us understand the way lakes, rivers, mountains, shorelines, canyons, and all sorts of other things were formed. For example the Grand Canyon was formed by erosion created from the Colorado River. It is very important to understand how these forces occur to understand the subject completely.

We’ll first start off with discussing weathering. There are two types of weathering processes, one being Physical Weathering and the other being Chemical weathering. Physical Weathering occurs when rocks are broken down but their chemical composition does not change. Frost wedging, plant

Running water is one of the most effective agents of erosion. This is because no matter how big or small the rock that falls in the moving water is, the water will always be able to at least pus it forward if not able to keep it floating. This often causes rocks to scrape against each other and then the smaller particles that can float and go to the side of the river, are deposited ashore. The power of oceanic waves causes it to erode coastline rocks. The erosion of wind is most powerful in desert due to the small sand particles that are easily moved by wind and have a strong effect on weathering rocks. Ice erosion can take place in two forms, either when ice movies or when water seeps into pores of the glaciers and freezes, expanding and breaking rocks that are inside of the glaciers or next to. When the ice moves it can often create friction with rocks near it or it can move large sediments at the base. Gravity simply causes weathered particles to move by falling lower until they reach another and lower