Transcript Weathering - pack Pod D

Weathering: the slow breaking
down or wearing away of rock
into smaller pieces.
(Weathering can do cool things to
rocks! Just wait and see!)
• Next time you visit
the
Chattahoochee
River, you can
see rocks that
have been
weathered by the
river water.
• Do you see the
hole in the rock?
• What do you think
made that hole?
Antelope Canyon in Arizona
Antelope Canyon was formed by weathering from water, too. The
rock is soft sandstone. When it floods, water rushes through the
canyon, picking up bits of sand, scrubbing off new bits of rock.
Another picture from Lower Antelope Canyon.
Can you believe water can do this to rock???
This is Arches National Park. These arches
were created by weathering from wind.
Can you imagine how the wind must blow up here?
The wind carries bits of sand, which slowly, slowly
create this arch. This one is called Delicate Arch.
In Bryce Canyon, also
in Utah, the main
weathering agent is
ice. Because the
temperature varies so
much during the
winter, water can
freeze and thaw up to
200 times each year!
During each thaw,
water gets into little
cracks in the rock.
Then, when it freezes
it expands and actually
breaks up the rock.
Eventually it forms
these beautiful towers,
called “hoodoos”.
Thor’s Hammer
Thor’s Hammer formation in Bryce Canyon National Park in
Utah. This is what ice can do to rock over a long period of time!