Name: ___________________________________________________________________________ Date: ____________ Hour: _________
Soil & Erosion
Study Guide
Directions: Answer the following questions in complete sentences. You must re-write the sentence stems for credit.
1. Define the following vocabulary words IN YOUR OWN WORDS. (Yes, these must also be in complete sentences.) This question should be
completed on a separate sheet of paper.
a) weathering
b) mechanical (physical) weathering
c) chemical weathering
d) abrasion
e) acid precipitation
f) soil
g) bedrock
h) soil texture
i) humus
j) erosion
k) soil conservation
l) sand
m) gravel
n) silt
o) clay
2. What are the two types of weathering?
The two types of weathering are physical
and chemical.
3. Describe what happens during freeze-thaw physical weathering.
During freeze-thaw water gets into the cracks between rocks and freezes,
which causes the water to expand and crack the rock further. It then thaws
and more water fills into the expanded crack. It freezes and expands, thus
causing the crack to get even larger. This cycle continues and causes the
rock to be deformed.
4. Give an example of physical (mechanical) weathering.
An example of mechanical weathering is…
*Find your own example*
5. Give an example of chemical weathering.
An example of chemical weathering is….
*Find your own example*
6. What is sediment?
Sediment is pieces of rock produced by erosion
and transported.
7. What happens to the energy level to cause sediment to be deposited?
When sediment is deposited, the energy level decreases.
8. List the components of soil.
The components of soil are minerals, water. air,
and organic matter.
9. Classify silt, clay, and sand by size.
From largest to smallest, the particles of soil are sand, silt, and clay.
10. Describe how Earth is like a magnet.
Earth is like a magnet because it has a north and
a south magnetic pole, just like any bar magnet.
11. What happens when two like ends of a bar magnet (north-north) meet?
When two like ends of a bar magnet meet, they repel one another.
12. What happens when opposite ends of a bar magnet (north-south) meet?
When opposite ends of a bar magnet meet, they are attracted to one another.
13. How does a compass work?
A compass works because a small magnet (called a needle)
is attracted to point to the magnetic North Pole.
12. What do we use a compass for?
We use a compass to navigate.
14. How did we make our own compass in class?
We made our own compass in class by magnetizing one end of a paperclip
and allowing Earth’s magnetic field to attract the magnetized end of the
paperclip.
15. *CONSTRUCTED RESPONSE*
Describe how eating a Snickers represents weathering (physical and chemical), erosion, and deposition.
 Describe how eating a Snickers represents physical and chemical weathering.
 Describe how eating a Snickers represents erosion.
 Describe how eating a Snickers represents deposition.
Eating a Snickers represents physical weathering when we crushed the Snickers by chewing it with our teeth, thus breaking off pieces of the
candy bar using a physical means. Eating a Snickers represents chemical weathering when our saliva melted away the chocolate. Our saliva
acted as water and it changed the “primary mineral” (the hard chocolate coating) to a “secondary mineral” (melted chocolate) that could
not be removed from the saliva (just as secondary minerals cannot be removed from the water that they are found in). Eating a Snickers
represents erosion when we swallow the candy, which is like transporting the sediment (or fragments of material). Eating a Snickers
represents deposition when the candy bar fragments (or “sediment”) ends up in our stomach (“deposited” in our stomach).