Investigation 2: Stream Tables FOSS Landforms Investigation 2: Stream Tables

Scientists use models to build simulations to help them understand systems that are too large or complicated to investigate easily. How do you think the Grand Canyon formed?

Erosion by wind and water!

When water runs over the earth and wears the earth away, the process of moving those sediments is called erosion. Some materials like loose sand and soil erode very quickly, while other materials, including hard rocks like granite and sandstone, erode more slowly.

Answer the following questions in your science notebook: How do you think the Grand Canyon formed? What happened to the earth material in the stream table that once filled the area that is now the canyon? What do you think happened to the material that once filled the Grand Canyon? How are your stream tables like the picture of the Grand Canyon?

Word Bank: drainage basin: a system of rivers and streams that drain an area like the Colorado Plateau erosion: moving of earth material by water, wind, or ice landform: a shape of feature of the earth's surface, like a canyon or delta canyon: a V-shaped valley eroded by a river or stream delta: a fan-shaped (triangular) deposit of earth materials at the mouth of a stream plateau: a large, nearly level area that has been lifted above the surrounding area

Earth material carried by moving water eventually settles out into a process called deposition. The eroded materials are deposited in a new location.

Eroded earth materials that have been deposited are called sediments. Sediments usually deposit in low areas of the earth's crust called basins.

Where did the material that was once in the Grand Canyon go? Is a canyon created by erosion or deposition? Is a delta created by erosion or deposition?

There are many landforms on the earth's surface There are many landforms on the earth's surface. Some were created by erosion and some by deposition. Water is one of the ways earth material can be eroded. Ice in glaciers and wind can also erode and deposit earth materials as different landforms.