The Changing Earth

Chapter 1
Changes to Earth’s Surface
 4th Grade Science Standards
1 Waves, wind, water and ice shape and
reshape Earth’s land surface. As a basis for
understanding this concept:
a) Students know how some changes in the Earth are
due to slow processes, such as erosion, and some
changes are due to rapid processes, such as
landslides, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
b) Students know natural processes, including freezing
and thawing and the growth of roots, cause rocks to
break down into smaller pieces
c) Students know moving water erodes landforms,
reshaping the land by taking it away from some
places and depositing it as pebbles, sand, silt, and
mud in other places (weathering, transport, and
deposition)
 Vocabulary
landforms
weathering
erosion
deposition
mass movement
Landforms
Physical features on
the Earth’s surface

See the Enchanted Learning

web site for a glossary of
landforms.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/g
 Weathering

The process of
breaking rock into
soil, sand and other
tiny pieces or
particles called
sediment
Erosion

The process of
moving sediment
from one place to
another

This is a satellite picture of

a giant dust storm in the
Sahara Desert
Deposition

The process of
dropping, or
depositing
sediment in a new
location
Mass Movement
The downhill movement
of rock and soil caused
by gravity
 What are some forces that change
landforms?
Wind
 What are some forces that change
landforms?
Water, in the form of rivers, or waves
 What are some forces that change
landforms?
Glaciers
 What are some forces that change
landforms?
Inside forces such as volcanoes and
earthquakes
 What is the difference between
weathering and erosion?
Weathering breaks rocks
into sediment
 What is the difference between
weathering and erosion?
Weathering can also be caused over time by
ice freezing and thawing in the crack of a
rock until the rock breaks, or by root
growth.
 What is the difference between
weathering and erosion?
Erosion moves sediment
from one place to another
 How does wind erosion change
landforms?
Wind erosion forms unusual landforms
such as tables, arches and columns.

Wind erosion also moves sand and dry

sediments, forming sand dunes
 What are glaciers?
Glaciers are thick sheets of ice that form
where more snow falls in winter than
melts in summer. They actually move
and erode everything underneath them.
 What is mass movement?
Mass Movement is the downhill
movement of rock and soil because of
gravity.

Examples are :
Landslides
Sinkholes
What new landforms are created by
erosion and deposition?
Deltas
What new landforms are created by
erosion and deposition?
Oxbow Lakes
What new landforms are created by
erosion and deposition?
Terminal Moraines
 What new landforms are created by
erosion and deposition?
Volcanic Islands
 Summary
Weathering breaks down rock and turns it into soil and other small
particles called sediment.

Wind, water and ice change the Earth’s surface by moving rock and
soil.

Water can carve canyons and deposit sediments to create deltas.

Wind can form sand dunes.

Ice can form U-shaped valleys and leave landforms such as terminal
moraines or it can break rock into smaller pieces.

Volcanoes can create new islands or change the existing surface.