Science & Life Skills

Learn how water and other forces shape Earth's landforms through weathering and erosion.

We learned that Earth looks the same from space, but up close, moving water shapes landforms. The hydrosphere affects the geosphere through a process called weathering.

We learned about two types of weathering: mechanical weathering breaks big rocks into little ones, and chemical weathering changes rocks' shape or color. Erosion moves the broken rock pieces away.

We saw pictures of Cape Cod from 1984 and 2014. The coastline changed dramatically - one long strip of land called North Beach was broken into three separate islands by ocean waves and storms.

We learned that changes from weathering and erosion happen slowly over many years. The hydrosphere shapes and moves the geosphere through processes like floods weathering valleys and glaciers eroding mountains.

Weathering and Erosion: Crash Course Kids #10.2