Erosion is another part of the rock cycle. Some examples of erosion are acid rain, heavy rain, gravity, water erosion, ice erosion and rocks falling down a cliff or mountainside. Acid rain can dissolve minerals that are sensitive to acid. Heavy rain can cause floods which move or break rocks. Gravity erosion is another example. As you know gravity brings things down. Gravity can pull rocks into steams which breaks them down. Mountainside erosion is when rocks fall off a cliff or mountainside which causes the rocks to break apart. Water erosion is the impact of rain drops on soil. Ice erosion is when water gets into a crack of a rock. Then the water expands when it freezes making the cracks bigger. If the crack gets bigger the rocks will break apart. Another type of ice erosion is glaciers. Glaciers cause erosion by washing away valleys and scratching the land making the land smaller. Glaciers wash the land away by bumping into the land or valley and taking a little part of the land.

Typically erosion happens over many thousands of years, but it could happen in the blink of an eye. Tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes, and avalanches can change the Earth's surface within a matter of minutes. The Earth is always changing. We're glad rocks have been with us to tell the story.

Artwork by Ayanna