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

Grade 6 Science Worksheet - Building Confidence

Circle the best answer.

1. 1.

   “the two halves have not moved” On a hillside walk, Ari sees a boulder split by a crack, with both halves still sitting in place. Which process broke it?

   • Deposition
   • Weathering
   • Erosion
   • Melting
2. 2.

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

   • Deposition
   • Cementing
   • Erosion
   • Weathering
3. 3.

   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?

   • Weathering
   • Erosion
   • Deposition
   • Melting
4. 4.

   A tree's roots grow into a crack in a big rock and slowly push it apart. Which agent of weathering is Luz looking at?

   • Plant roots
   • Erosion by a glacier
   • Running water, since water does the breaking
   • Wind
5. 5.

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

   • Weathering in place
   • Wind on the ice
   • The glacier's ice
   • Rivers under the ice
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
   • Deposition of red dust
   • Chemical weathering
   • 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?

   • Deposition
   • Mechanical weathering
   • Melting by the water
   • Chemical weathering
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
   • Weathering
   • Erosion
   • 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?

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