Name______________________
Test Date______________
Parent Signature______________________________
Unit 7: Weathering, Erosion, and Soil
1. Broken up ____________ and ____________ along with ____________ and
____________ are the ingredients of soil.
2. Good soil does more than just grow crops. It also provides _______________,
________________________, and ____________________________________.
3. Draw and label all of the horizons in a soil profile.
4. Subsoil is ____________, Bedrock is ____________, and Topsoil is
____________.
5. Dead plant and animal material in soil is also known as ____________.
6. Of the three horizons, ____________has the best soil and ____________has the
worst soil.
7. The three types of soil are ____________, ____________, and ____________.
8. The type of soil that is best for drainage is ____________ and the best type for
growing crops is ____________.
9. The following human activities damage healthy soil: ____________,
____________, ________________________, and ________________________.
10. ____________ is a __________________ resource. If humans keep misusing
it, ________________________, ____________________________________, and
____________can occur.
11. Farmers should alternate the types of things they grow from year to year. This
is known as __________________and it helps to reduce _____________________.
12. Progressive farmers utilize ____________, ________________________, and
________________________to protect the soil on their farms.
13. ____________ plowing means driving your tractor and plowing across the
________________________.
14. The movement of a large amount of dirt down hill is known as
________________________or ________________________.
15. Examples of large amounts of topsoil moving downhill are ____________,
____________, and ____________.
16. The slowest type of mass movement is ____________.
17. One simple way to keep soil healthy is to ensure that the soil is never bare.
That means keeping ____________ in dirt for as long as possible.
18. Dirt is extremely valuable. It is responsible for all of the food that people eat.
Soil is considered to be a ________________________resource because
___________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________.
19. Stopping the erosion of topsoil is a top priority of farmers and soil
conservationists. Six strategies that are utilized include ____________,
________________________, ________________________, ____________,
____________, and ________________________.
20. Weathering is ____________________________________.
21. The three types of weathering are ____________, ____________, and
____________.
22. Mechanical weathering is breaking down rocks by _____________________.
23. The roads in the northern part of America are damaged every winter because of
ice wedging. This occurs when water seeps into cracks in the road, freezes and
expands, and the road is damaged. This is an example of ___________________.
24. Breaking rocks apart by living organisms is called ___________________.
________________________, ________________________, and ____________
are examples of this action.
25. The breaking apart of rocks because of chemical reactions is called
________________________.
26. A plant that breaks apart rocks because of acids that it produces is called
____________.
27. ________________________ occurs when slightly acidic rain water dissolves
slightly basic rocks.
28. The dirt on Mars is red because of ____________/____________. This is an
example of ________________________.
29. ________________________/____________ is a term that describes how acids
break apart rocks.
30. ________________________/____________ refers to a chemical change to a
substance when it interacts with water.
31. Dirt from mountain tops can be carried downhill to fill in valleys. This is
called ____________.
32. Human intervention can ____________ and ____________ erosion.
33. Wind, water, and gravity all combine to move dirt around. Of the three,
____________ is responsible for moving the most amount of soil.
This is known as ____________.
34. The agent of erosion that carries the largest rocks is ____________.
35. The type of ____________ that carries away most sand at Tybee Island is
____________. This is called ________________________.
VOCABULARY
chemical weathering
biological weathering
mechanical weathering
erosion
deposition
soil horizon
horizon A
horizon B
horizon C
dissolution
hydrolysis