Weathering and Soil Vocabulary

The chemical and physical processes that break down rock at Earth’s surface.

The process by which water, ice, wind, or gravity moves weathered rock and soil.

The geologic principle that the same geologic processes that operate today operated in the past to change Earth’s surface.

The type of weathering in which rock is physically broken into smaller pieces.

The grinding away of rock by other rock particles carried in water, ice, or wind.

Process that splits rock when water seeps into cracks, then freezes and expands.

The process that breaks down rock through chemical changes.

A chemical change in which a substance combines with oxygen, as when iron oxidizes, forming rust.

Characteristic of a material that is full of tiny, connected air spaces that water can seep through.

The loose, weathered material on Earth’s surface in which plants can grow.

The solid layer of rock beneath the soil.

Dark-colored organic material in soil.

A measure of how well soil supports plant growth.

Rich, fertile soil that is made up of about equal parts of clay, sand, and silt.

A thick mass of grass roots and soil.

Anything in the environment that humans use.

The area of the Great Plains where wind erosion caused soil loss during the 1930s.

The management of soil to prevent its destruction

Plowing fields along the curves of a slope to prevent soil loss.

Soil conservation method in which the dead stalks from the previous year’s crop are left in the ground to hold the soil in place.

The planting of different crops in a field each year to maintain the soil’s fertility.

The process by which water, ice, wind, or gravity moves weathered rock and soil.

Earth materials deposited by erosion.

Process in which sediment is laid down in new locations.

A force that moves rocks and other materials downhill.

Any one of several processes by which gravity moves sediment downhill.

Water that flows over the ground surface rather than soaking into the ground.

A tiny groove in soil made by flowing water.

A large channel in soil formed by erosion.

A channel through which water is continually flowing downhill.

A stream that flows into a larger stream.

Wide valley through which a river flows.

A looplike bend in the course of a river.

A meander cut off from a river.

A wide, sloping deposit of sediment formed where a stream leaves a mountain range.

A landform made of sediment that is deposited where a river flows into an ocean or lake.

Water that fills the cracks and spaces in underground soil and rock layers.

A calcite deposit that hangs from the roof of a cave.

A cone-shaped calcite deposit that builds up from the floor of a cave.

The ability to do work or cause change.

Energy that is stored and available to be used later.

The energy an object has due to its motion.

The grinding away of rock by other rock particles carried in water, ice, or wind.

The amount of sediment that a river or stream carries.

The force that opposes the motion of one surface as it moves across another surface.

A type of movement of water in which, rather than moving downstream, the water moves every which way.

A large mass of moving ice and snow on land.

A glacier that covers much of a continent or large island.

Times in the past when continental glaciers covered large parts of Earth’s surface.

A long, narrow glacier that forms when snow and ice build up in a mountain valley.

The process by which a glacier picks up rocks as it flows over the land.

The sediments deposited directly by a glacier.

A ridge formed by the till deposited at the edge of a glacier.

A small depression that forms when a chunk of ice is left in glacial till.

A part of the shore that sticks out into the ocean.

Wave-washed sediment along a coast.

The movement of water and sediment down a beach caused by waves coming in to shore at an angle.

A beach formed by longshore drift that projects like a finger out into the water.

A deposit of wind-blown sand.

Wind erosion that removes surface materials.

A wind-formed deposit made of fine particles of clay and silt.