1. You have learned how volcanoes and earthquakes
change the features of the Earth. However, landforms
are also changed in other ways.

2. Weathering
 The breaking and changing of rocks

3. Types of Weathering
Water and ice can change rocks.
Water fills tiny cracks in the rocks
and freezes when the weather gets
the cold. The freezing water pushes
against the rocks. Then the weather
gets warm and melts the ice. The
rocks move back, but the cracks
may be larger than they were before.
When this happens over and over
again, the rocks break apart.

4. Types of Weathering
 Plant roots can cause weathering! As roots grow, they
push against the sides of the cracks and break the
rocks apart.

5. Erosion
 The moving of weathered rocks and soils by
wind, water, or ice

6. Wind Erosion
 Mostly noticed in the desert where dunes are formed.
 Dunes: large piles of windblown sand

7. Glaciers
 Large areas of ice formed from snow. As these
large, slowly moving patches of ice move, the land
below them changes.

8. Water Erosion
 As water moves through the land, it can move rocks
and carve out the land.

9. Let’s Review!
What is weathering?
Weather is the breaking and changing of rocks.

10. What is erosion?
Erosion is the moving of weathered rocks and soils by
wind, water, and ice.