How does the steepness of a
landform affect the amount of
eroded material?
Question
How does the steepness of a landform affect the amount of eroded material?
Research
From credible sources, information was found that could help the
conduction of this experiment. Here is our information that was gathered:
Weathering is the breakdown of exposed rock from various chemical or mechanical
processes such as wind or water. Erosion is the moving of the sediment formed
from weathering. When weathering does occur, the rock will be broken down into
little pieces of itself called sediment and will either saltate or be suspended in the air
for a long period of time, or it will be carried through lakes, streams etc. and
eventually end up in a delta.When fertile soil is moved, the nutrients it contains is
moved as well, leaving cropland barren of all the necessities plants need to
grow.When there is wind erosion, the wind carries sediment and strikes rock, then it
can leave a lasting effect, and over the years the rock will be worn to dust.
Hypothesis
If the elevation increases, then the amount of erosion will decrease. Through
extensive research from credible sites, we have reason to believe that if the landform
is steeper, then it will move less soil or sediment.In this experiment, the amount of
erosion is dependent on the elevevation of a lanform, therefor making it the
dependent variable. Since the amount of erosion is depending on the elevation, this
makes the independent variable in this experiment the elevation of the landform.
Materials
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Steam Table
Water Bottle with Hole in Cap
Water
Cup
Scale
3 bricks
Sand
Collection Bucket
Ruler
Beaker
Procedures
1.
2.
3.
4.
Gather aforementioned materials
Fill sand into stream table until it reaches 20 centimeters.
Place one brick under the stream table.
Place a collection bucket on the floor under the stream table to collect water and sediment from
it.
5. Fill beaker with 400 mL of water
6. Place finger over the hole in the cap of the plastic bottle, and then pour water into the bottle.
7. Hold bottle 5 centimeters away from the sand at the top of the stream table.
8. Release finger and watch delta form.
9. Write down qualitative below the data table as water erodes the landmass
10. After all the water has been released, collect any and all sediment that has passed the 20
centimeters and then place it in a cup. Get as much water out of the sand before putting in cup.
11. Collect the sediment in the collection bucket under the stream table and remove as much water
as possible, then put sediment in the cup from step 10
12. Find mass of sediment by putting cup on triple beam balance. Make sure to take out mass of
cup.
13. Repeat all steps with 2 bricks, and then 3 bricks, keep it as close to the original as possible.
Results
# of bricks
Average amount of erosion(grams)
1 brick
418.428571
2 bricks
649.285714
3 bricks
930.285714
The above chart shows the # of bricks used to get the elevation followed by the dependent variable, the
amount of erosion in grams. This was averaged through seven separate trials.
The graph to the left is showing how the
amount of erosion increased as the
number of bricks increased. As you can
see, it increased at a pretty gradual pace,
an almost straight line can be formed from
this graph.
Conclusion
After experimentation, it was found that our hypothesis was incorrect, the
steepness of a landform actually does affect the amount of eroded material,
although, the higher the incline, the more eroded material, rather than the original
prediction, which said that if the elevation is higher, the amount of eroded material
will be less.
CER
Claim
After our research , we had reason to believe that when the elevation of the
landform was higher, then the amount of eroded material will be less. Our original
claim was that the steepness of the landform doe affect the amount of eroded
material and in a negative way
Evidence
During our experiment, our group noticed that as each brick was added, the amount
of sediment increased by a great amount, from two hundred to three hundred every
time a new brick was added. When there was only one brick, the amount of
sediment was about 418.4 grams, and when another brick was added, there was
about 649.3 grams. A the third brick, there was 930.3 grams of sediment on
average.
Reasoning
After the experiment, our group had seen how our hypothesis was incorrect, so we
took to see how and why this happened, we had realized that the more flat that the
surface is, the slower the water will go, when the water speed is lower, then the
amount of eroded material will be much different, much lower than a landform in
which the incline was more. This was noticed throughout the experiment, the water
speed was much higher when more bricks were added
Bibliography
Soil Erosion and WEPP Technology. n.d. Web. 20 February 2013.
<http://milford.nserl.purdue.edu/weppdocs/overview/intro.html>.
Gollner, Chris. "Erosion Lab." N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Feb. 2013.