1. Weathering, Erosion and Deposition

2. Types of Weathering Physical Chemical Abrasion – like sand paper
Glaciers – those big frozen masses of ice
Exfoliation – rock layers flake off
Wedging – water gets into something and freezes making it bigger
Chemical
Oxidation – reacting with oxygen, think of rusting
Acid precipitation – acid rain from pollution

3. Physical Weathering
Something that causes larger rocks to break into smaller rocks.
Can be water that gets into cracks and freezes causing it to split, called ice wedging or frost wedging.
Also, can be water that constantly flows over an area; it washes small parts of the rock away until it breaks (abrasion)
Plant roots can cause issues, think of trees and sidewalks
Also called mechanical weathering

4. Enchanted Rock - Exfoliation

5. High Plains
Water Erosion
Wind Erosion
Deposition

6. Gulf Coast Plains and Marshes

7. Chemical Weathering
Oxidation – reaction with oxygen makes a new chemical compound
Eventually causes the rocks to break apart as the old chemical bonds get broken that were holding the rock together.

8. Acid Precipitation From pollution
Can be from natural events or man made
Makes the rain more acidic than normal and it dissolves rock, especially limestone and marble
Most of the buildings are made of limestone and marble.

9. Erosion and Deposition
They work together to change the face of the Earth
Erosion breaks up the rocks, soil, and sediment and move it away
Deposition lays it down somewhere else
Caused by water, wind and gravity
How does that affect a shore?

10. Erosion and Deposition

11. Our Effect on the High Plains
Dust Bowl
Happened in the 1930’s during the Great Depression
In southeastern Colorado, southwest Kansas and the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas

12. Dust Bowl - Causes
Farmers tore the buffalo grass up to make way for plowed fields
A severe drought hit the area and the crops did not grow, leaving the soil exposed.
The weather became very windy picking up the soil and blowing it in the air.

13. Dust Bowl
A giant dust storm blacks out the sky of Goodwell, Okla., during the Dust Bowl.

14. Dust Bowl
By 1934, it was estimated that 100 million acres of farmland had lost all or most of the topsoil to the winds.
By April 1935, there had been weeks of dust storms, but the cloud that appeared on the horizon that Sunday was the worst
Dust from this storm fell in New York City.

15. Dust Bowl

16. Dust Bowl
In 1941 rain poured down on the region, dust storms ceased, crops thrived, economic prosperity returned, and the Dust Bowl was over.

17. Dust Bowl Effects
extended severe drought and unusually high temperatures
episodic regional dust storms and routine localized wind erosion
agricultural failure, including both cropland and livestock operations
the collapse of the rural economy, affecting farmers, rural businesses, and local governments
an aggressive reform movement by the federal government
migration from rural to urban areas and out of the region