A Look at How Landforms are the
Result of Changes to Earth’s Surface
by Water, Wind, and Ice
 Students
will focus on three landforms,
how they are formed, and where they are
located in Texas.
 Sand dunes, canyons, and deltas
 TEKS: 5.7; 5.7B; 5.2; 5.2A; 5.2C; 5.2D; 5.3;
5.3A; 5.4; 5.4A; 5.4B
 What
kinds of things are moved by wind?
 How does it feel when a strong wind hits
your bare skin?
 How does if feel if there is sand in the
wind and it hits you?
 What is the texture of sandpaper like?
 How does sandpaper feel against your
skin?
 When
strong winds blow in sandy deserts
or beaches, the wind picks up pieces of
sand and carries it to a new location. In
this way, sand dunes are moved and
reshaped with each strong wind.
 The force of the wind blowing the sand
acts like sandpaper upon the rock it
touches. The blowing sand particles
weather and erode desert rocks, slowly
changing their shape over time.
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/earth/surf
ace_and_interior/erosion
 http://beyondpenguins.ehe.osu.edu/issu
e/earths-changing-surface/the-forcesthat-change-the-face-of-earth

In your science notebook, write a
description of how you would describe
a landform to another student.

Although there are many different
landforms, in this lesson, we will focus
on three specific landforms.
Sand dunes form by…
Sand dunes change by…
The wind reshapes the
rock by…
 When
it rains, and water is flowing, what
happens to the soil on our playground, in
your yard, or around the neighborhood?
 When
it rains and the road floods, why do
the police put up the barricades warning
people to stay away from the flowing
water?
 Running
water is a powerful force
 Running water is powerful enough to move
large amounts of soil or sediment from one
location to another.
 Water that continually runs over rock
causes it to weather and erode, creating
canyons, sea arches, or sea caverns over
time.
 Sediment that is carried by running water
can be deposited at the mouth of a river,
forming a delta over time.

The Grand Canyon has been carved by the
Colorado River for 17 million years. The width of
the canyon ranges from four to 18 miles and is
277 miles in length. The first Europeans to visit
the Grand Canyon were conquistador Francisco
Vazquez de Coronado and Captain Garcia Lopez
de Cardenas who were helped by Hopi Indian
guides.
Read more: Famous Landforms | eHow.com
http://www.ehow.com/list_7633909_famouslandforms.html#ixzz2DNkPn3bj
Flowing water changes
the rock by…
Canyons form by…
Canyons change over
time by…

A delta is formed at the mouth of a river. It is often a
triangular shape. Sediments -- silt, sand and small
rocks -- flow downstream. These materials are
deposited in a fan shape where a river meets a lake
or the ocean. Many famous delta landforms are found
worldwide. Major river systems create the largest
deltas. These landforms create fertile areas
conducive to fishing, farming and human settlements.
Read more: Famous Delta Landforms | eHow.com
http://www.ehow.com/info_8258472_famous-deltalandforms.html#ixzz2DNk5jeMZ
 Mississippi
River Delta - Shows its
characteristic bird's-foot pattern and
plumes of sediment entering the ocean
from the multiple mouths of the
Mississippi River.
The lower picture is of the Nile River
Delta.
Deltas form by…
Deltas change over
time by…
 Have
you ever been in the ocean or felt
the force of a wave hit you or have you
been in a wave pool at a water park?
 How
 If
powerful did the waves feel?
you have been to the beach, where do
you think all the sand came from?
 As
waves repeatedly crash into rocks along
the shoreline, it can weaken the softer rock.
 This weathering by waves can break the
rock causing it to erode and crumble into
smaller rocks.
 Sometimes, when softer rocks are eroded
away, it can create sea caves, sea arches, or
sea stacks.
 Over a long period of time, the force of the
waves can weather the smaller rocks into
grains of sand.
Waves change the
rock by…
Over time, waves
can change…
A
glacier is a mass of ice that stays frozen
throughout the year and moves slowly
downhill.
 When a glacier moves across land, it acts
like a giant bulldozer.
 In most instances, a glacier must be 59
feet thick to begin to move.
 As
gravity causes the glacier to move, the
glacier pushes and covers rocks, soil, and
other debris. Some of the rocks, soil and
debris scrape against the surface of the
land and sometimes it is pushed to the side
of the glacier.
 Once the glacier begins to melt, rocks, soil,
and other debris is left behind.
 The weight and pressure of the glacier can
carve out U-shaped valleys.
 As
glaciers move, they can make deep,
parallel scratches or grooves, called
striations, in the surface of rock too large to
move.
 Water can seep into cracks in the rock
 If the water freezes, it will expand
 This action pushes against the sides of the
cracks, weakening the rock. If the freezing
and thawing cycle is repeated often, the
rock will break at the crack.
Ice can change
rock by…
Mountains can be
reshaped by…
The most famous Glaciers in
the Arctic Circle is Okstindan
and Svartisen. In winter it can
fall more than 10 meters of
snow in the Arctic Circle area
of Norway.
 Are
all Earth’s landforms the same? Why or why
not?
 What
are some of the features that you see when
you look at the pictures?
 Do
you think that these landforms have always
been the same?
 Do
you think that changes in these landforms
occurred quickly or did they take a long time to be
formed?

How will these landforms look:
•
•
•
•
•
Two days from now, one year from now?
Ten years from now?
One hundred years from now?
One thousand years from now?
One million years from now?

Which forces caused these landforms to change?

How do the landforms that are formed and changed
by water, wind, and ice differ from each other?
 In
your science notebook, write a definition for
the word “landform”.
 Landform
- Any feature on the Earth's surface,
caused by erosion, sedimentation, or movement
of material by wind, water, or ice