Block 2: Erosion: How Earth Moves Itself Around
Match: weathering / erosion / deposition to the matching action: 'breaks rock down' / 'moves material' / 'drops material in a new place.'
Task: Use the pre-teach handout if needed.
Answer in your Field Notebook, dated.
I can identify the four erosion agents, distinguish erosion from weathering, and find a Chennai-area example of erosion in Google Earth.
I can explain how Earth's surface features are built and reshaped by processes working at very different speeds and sizes.
"Develop a model to illustrate how Earth's internal and surface processes operate at different spatial and temporal scales to form continental and ocean-floor features."
Where this runs:
- U2 B1: Weathering: How Rocks Break Down
- U2 B2: Erosion: How Earth Moves Itself Around ← you are here
- U2 B6: Field Photo / Map Analysis Work Day
- U2 B7: Reading the Landscape: Worked Example + OPVL
- U3 B1: Inside Earth + Boundary Types
- U3 B2: Subduction & Transform Deep Dive + Sim Demo
Assessed:
Landscape Reading: biography past + current processes (K/U strand, Components 1–2 lock U2 Block 6)
On track looks like:
Your location's biography names specific processes at specific timescales ('monsoon pulses move the beach yearly; the harbour changed it in decades'), not just 'erosion happened.'
The Field Geologist · Pallikaranai worked example (in Google Classroom)
What today is about
The moving step. Block 1 broke the rock; today we ask where the pieces go.
Erosion is what happens after weathering. Once a rock is broken down (by frost or roots or chemistry), something has to move the pieces. Today: the four erosion agents (water, wind, ice, gravity) and where each one dominates. In tropical monsoon Chennai, water dominates: rivers in the wet months, sheet wash on bare lateritic surfaces, wave erosion along the coast. Ice and frost-wedging are essentially absent. Wind matters mainly on the coast. Gravity (mass wasting) matters mainly in the Eastern Ghats foothills.
The worked example today is Marina Beach: a 2005 / 2015 / 2025 satellite sequence. You'll see visible change across three timepoints. The point: erosion is happening here, now, on a beach you've walked on. Reading it is a learnable skill.
Before you start the work
Start with the Interact: it anchors the day and runs with the whole class. The Watch is projected first to set it up, and the Read is your reference for the choice board. Notes go in your Class Notebook as a Power outline.
Taking notes? Power 1 seeds for today
Today's work: choose one path
All four paths end the same: one Chennai-area erosion example with screenshot + 2-sentence interpretation. The path you pick is about how you want to do the looking.
Groups of three or four, one recorder. The question: how many different ways does Earth move material from one place to another? Name the force, and a real place you've seen it work; real examples count double. Everything goes on the list; we judge after, not during. Harvest to the board. Today's four agents should already be hiding in your lists; the lesson is finding them there.
Open your Class Notebook and type today's entry header as Heading 2:
A: Oct 21 | U2 B2 | Erosion: How Earth Moves Itself AroundB: Oct 23 | U2 B2 | Erosion: How Earth Moves Itself Around
What you're submitting today
One Chennai-area erosion example. Be specific.
One Google Earth screenshot (or a Block-2 walk photo if you went Path C). Two sentences. Sentence one names the erosion agent you're claiming is dominant. Sentence two cites the visible evidence. "I see erosion at Marina Beach" is too generic; "I see longshore drift carrying sand southward along the Marina, evidenced by the sediment accumulation on the south side of the breakwater" is the move.
Submit via Google Classroom (link posted in August)One question before you leave
Three to five minutes. Your answer is saved to your reflection journal, where you can read back everything you have written this year.
The self-assessment style this block surfaces which erosion concept needs a Block 3 callback.
Today's reflection is in Google Classroom, under Reflection Journal.
Link posted in AugustSign in with your school account. Your teacher can see what you write here.