Weathering, erosion and deposition: how land is worn down and built up

Grade 6 Science Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. 1.

   After a storm, muddy water carries soil out of Bo's school garden and down the street. Which process is the water doing?

   • Deposition
   • Weathering
   • Cementing
   • Erosion
2. 2.

   At the beach, the wind slows down behind a fence, and sand piles up there into a small dune. Which process built the dune, as Kira sees it?

   • Melting
   • Weathering
   • Erosion
   • Deposition
3. 3.

   Water seeps into a crack in a rock, freezes and expands, and the crack grows wider. What is breaking the rock, in Jun's notes?

   • Plant roots
   • Liquid water alone, since ice is too soft
   • Ice
   • Wind
4. 4.

   A slow glacier scrapes a mountain valley and carries boulders far away. What is moving the rock, by Milo's reading?

   • Rivers under the ice
   • Wind on the ice
   • The glacier's ice
   • Weathering in place
5. 5.

   Sharp details long ago, and smooth, worn details today. Rainwater slowly dissolves the fine details on the old limestone statue in Noah's town square. Which kind of weathering is it?

   • Erosion
   • Chemical weathering
   • Deposition
   • Mechanical weathering
6. 6.

   Drawing of a gray rock with reddish-brown, rusty patches spreading over its surface. Rocks with iron in them turn reddish brown as oxygen reacts with the iron. Which kind of weathering is Pia reading about?

   • Mechanical weathering
   • Chemical weathering
   • Deposition of red dust
   • Erosion by wind
7. 7.

   Rocks in a fast mountain stream bump and grind against each other until they are smooth and round. Which kind of weathering is it, says Ren?

   • Melting by the water
   • Mechanical weathering
   • Chemical weathering
   • Deposition
8. 8.

   Where the Mississippi River slows down at the Gulf of Mexico, it has built a huge fan of new land. Which process built it, as Tala reads?

   • A volcano
   • Erosion
   • Weathering
   • Deposition

9. Read this first

   Use this

   Drawing of a valley with a shrinking glacier at the top and a curved ridge of mixed rocks and soil where its front used to be.

10. 9.

    When a glacier melts back, it leaves a long ridge of jumbled rocks and soil. Which process left the ridge, in Zee's notes?

    • Erosion
    • Deposition by the melting glacier
    • Water alone, since ice cannot move rock
    • Weathering
11. 10.

    The Virgin River cut deep, narrow Zion Canyon by carrying away rock, bit by bit. Which process carved it, as Esme learns?

    • Wind alone
    • Deposition
    • Weathering alone
    • Erosion by the river