Effects of Erosion

 By: Hannah Meadows

      The article I read was called, “Erosion and Weathering”, by National Geographic. This article discusses the influence of the weather and precipitation. Weathering and erosion happens when rock is slowly chiseled, polished, and buffed into works of art, and then the remains are washed out to sea. According to National Geographic, “Weathering is the mechanical and chemical hammer that breaks down and sculpts the rocks. Erosion transports the fragments away.” When weathering and erosion work together they create boulders high in the mountains, sandstone arches in the desert, and polished cliffs on the edge of the sea. 

    National Geographic explains water as nature’s greatest tool. For example, “the water pools in cracks and crevices. Then, at night, the temperature drops and the water expands as it turns to ice, splitting the rock like a sledgehammer to a wedge. The next day, under the beating sun, the ice melts and trickles the cracked fragments away.” There are many ways nature can use water and the weather to break down the land and rock. Another way the nature uses weather is repeated temperature swings weaken and fragment rock, which expands when hot and shrinks when cold. This can cause stone to turn into sand because the constant cycle from wet to dry causes crumbling. 

    Plants and animals also change Earth’s hardened minerals. “Lichens and mosses can squeeze into cracks  and crevices, where they take root. As they grow, so do the cracks, eventually splitting into bits and pieces.” Animals also play a big part. Animals trample, crush, and plow rocks as they walk across the surface and burrow underground. “Plants and animal also produce acids that mix with rainwater, a combination that eats away at rocks.” 

Erosion is very important because without erosive forces of, water, wind, and ice, rock debris would pile up where it is formed and obscure from view nature’s weathered sculptures. National Geographic states that abusive land-use practices such as deforestation, and overgrazing can expedite erosion and strip the land of soils needed for food to grow.