Erosion
“Erosion is another process that changes the way that the Earth is shaped. It is what happens when water, wind, and ice remove parts of the earth’s surface as the move through an area” (National Geographic, Erosion, p. 1). Wind erosion occurs because particles of rock break down into tiny pieces of dirt and soil that can easily be carried away by a passing wind. The rock is carried away and eventually lands and settles somewhere else and results in the buildup of that land. Water erosion happens as a river or stream moves through an area of land and takes materials with it as it moves to a larger body of water and deposits it on the floor of it (National Geographic, Erosion). Streams can literally cut through an area of land however, the rate at which it happens depends on how quickly the river flows and how soft the material it is removing is. Ice erosion occurs when huge blocks of ice called glaciers move through an area of land and take parts of soil and rock with them. As the glaciers pick up rocks along their way the rocks that are at the bottom of a glacier grind up other rocks as they continue to move. This process creates smaller pieces of rock that are even easier for the glacier to move and therefore as long as a glacier continues to move it will continue to gouge away the Earth (National Geographic, Erosion).