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Weathering and Soil
Vocabulary words from the Changing Surfaces Unit
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| Weathering | The chemical and physical process that break down rocks and Earth’s surface. |
| Erosion | The process by which water, ice, wind, or gravity moves weathered rock and soil. |
| Mechanical Weathering | he type of weathering in which rock is physically broken into smaller pieces. |
| Abrasion | The grinding away of rock by other rock particles carried in water, ice, or wind. |
| Chemical Weathering | The process which breaks down rocks through chemical changes. |
| Oxidation | A chemical change in which a substance combines with oxygen, as when iron oxidizes forming rust. |
| Permeable | Characteristic of a material that is full of tiny, connected air spaces that water can seep through. |
| Soil | The loose, weathered material on Earth’s Surface where plants can grow. |
| Bedrock | The solid layer of rock beneath the soil. |
| Humus | Dark-colored organic material in soil. |
| Soil Horizon | The layer of soil that differs in color and texture from the layers above and below it. |
| Loam | Rich, fertile soil that is made up of about equal parts of clay, sand and silt. |
| Topsoil | Mixture of humus, clay and other materials that forms the crumbly, top most layer of soil. |
| Subsoil | The layer of soil beneath the topsoil that contains mostly clay and other minerals. |
| Litter | The loose layer of dead plant leaves and stems on the surface soil. |
| Decomposer | Soil organism that breaks down the remains of organisms and digests them. |
| Soil Conservation | The management of soil to prevent its destruction. |
| Contour Plowing | Plowing fields along the curve of a slope to prevent soil loss. |
| Conservation Plowing | Soil conservation method in which the dead stalks from the previous year’s crops are left in the ground to hold the soil in place. ( |
| Crop Rotation | The planting of different crops in a field each year to maintain a soil’s fertility. |
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BarbraTA