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(PreAP 2013)
Changing Earth Vocabulary – Weathering, Erosion and Deposition
1. Weathering – The processes that break down rock at Earth’s surface.
2. Mechanical weathering – The type of weathering in which rock is physically broken into smaller pieces.
3. Chemical weathering – The process that breaks down rock through chemical changes.
4. Ice wedging – The process that splits rock when water seeps into cracks, freezes, and then expands. Also
called freezing and thawing.
5. Abrasion – The grinding away of rock by other rock particles carried by water, ice, wind, or gravity.
6. Soil – A mixture of weathered rock and decayed organic material.
7. Humus- Dark colored organic material in the soil
8. Bedrock – The solid layer of rock beneath the soil.
9. Erosion – The process that moves weathered rock from one location to another.
10. Sediment – The particles of rock that are moved by erosion.
11. Deposition – The process by which sediment settles out of the water or wind that is carrying it and is put
down in a new location.
12. Mass movement – The process by which gravity moves sediment downhill. (Ex: landslides and mudflows)
13. Glacier – A huge mass of ice that moves slowly over land.
14. Sand dune – A deposit of wind-blown sand.
15. Beach – Wave-washed sediment that is deposited along a coast.
16. Runoff – Water that flows over the ground surface rather than soaking into the ground.
17. Gully – A large channel in soil formed by erosion.
18. Stream – A channel through which water is continually running downhill.
19. River – A large stream.
20. Meander – A looping curve formed in a river as it winds through its flood plain.
21. Oxbow lake – The crescent-shaped, cutoff body of water that remains after a river carves a new channel.
22. Flood plain – A broad, flat valley through which a river flows.