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What causes erosion on the Moon’s surface?

When the Moon was young, erosion was mainly due to impacts (from comets, asteroids and meteorites) and volcanism. Today the main causes of erosion are micro-meteorites, the solar wind, moonquakes and degradation of rocks by the temperature change as the surface alternately heats up and cools down.

What causes the erosion of rocks on the Moon’s surface Group of answer choices?

Erosion on earth occurs mainly because of the action of wind, water and rain. On the moon, however, there is not atmosphere, so no weather. Instead, tiny dust particles impact the surface of the moon from space. These particles hit the Earth as well, but burn up in the upper atmosphere.

What causes rocks erosion?

Erosion happens when rocks and sediments are picked up and moved to another place by ice, water, wind or gravity. Mechanical weathering physically breaks up rock. … Over time pieces of rock can split off a rock face and big boulders are broken into smaller rocks and gravel.

Does weathering happen on the Moon?

This is because the Moon has no atmosphere and, as a result, has no weathering. Weathering is one of the forces on Earth that destroy rocks and landforms.

What type of erosion happens on the Moon?

Unlike on Earth, there is no erosion by wind or water on the moon because it has no atmosphere and all the water on the surface is frozen as ice.

What causes the phases of the moon?

During the lunar month, the Moon goes through all its phases. … Just like the Earth, half of the Moon is lit by the Sun while the other half is in darkness. The phases we see result from the angle the Moon makes with the Sun as viewed from Earth.

What causes erosion on Mars?

Unlike the rocks of Earth, where there are many things which cause erosion, there are only two main weathering agents on Mars: wind and acid fog. Acid fog is very important, but because there is not a lot of water, the action of sand and wind is the most important thing to cause changes to the planet’s surface.

What is the primary cause of weathering of the Moon’s surface?

The answer is in the hundreds of meteoroids that strike the moon’s surface each year. Billions of years ago, meteoroids struck at a much higher rate — and they were generally larger than today’s meteoroids. The impacts carry enough energy to shatter rock and send the shards spraying away.

What is erosion and what erosion processes take place on moons and planets?

What is erosion? Erosion is the breakdown and movement of a planet’s surface by the action of gravity, running water, waves, currents, ice, and wind. Erosion gradually wears away landforms. Planetary scientists often compare the relative ages of craters by looking at how worn their features appear.

What are the 4 main causes of erosion?

Four Causes of Soil Erosion

  • Water. Water is the most common cause of soil erosion. …
  • Wind. Wind can also make soil erode by displacing it. …
  • Ice. We don’t get much ice here in Lawrenceville, GA, but for those that do, the concept is the same as water. …
  • Gravity. …
  • Benefits of a Retaining Wall.

What are the causes and effects of erosion?

There are many causes of soil erosion, most of them being the same as other forms of erosion: namely water, ice, wind, and gravity. The effects of soil erosion can include the loss of fertile land to floods or water pollution, among others.

What is the process of erosion?

Erosion is the geological process in which earthen materials are worn away and transported by natural forces such as wind or water. A similar process, weathering, breaks down or dissolves rock, but does not involve movement. … Most erosion is performed by liquid water, wind, or ice (usually in the form of a glacier).

What caused the rock to break in small pieces?

They consider the breakdown of rock into smaller and smaller pieces through processes that collectively are known as weathering. … In nature, abrasion occurs as wind and water rush over rocks, causing them to bump against one another and changing their shapes. Rocks become smoother as rough and jagged edges break off.

What type of weathering is exhibited when the rocks are fractured?

Physical, or mechanical, weathering happens when rock is broken through the force of another substance on the rock such as ice, running water, wind, rapid heating/cooling, or plant growth. Chemical weathering occurs when reactions between rock and another substance dissolve the rock, causing parts of it to fall away.

What causes space weathering?

The physical and chemical changes that occur to the materials at the surfaces of such airless bodies are collectively known as “space weathering” and are mainly caused by impacts of meteorites, micrometeorites, and galactic/cosmic and solar-wind particles, in the deep vacuum of space.

What is the most significant kind of erosion that occurs on the Moon today?

Erosion by micrometeorites is the main cause of erosion on the Moon now.

What is Moon surface?

The moon’s surface is covered with dead volcanoes, impact craters, and lava flows, some visible to the unaided stargazer. … They are oceans of a sort, but rather than water, such bodies are made up of pools of hardened lava.

What causes the moon’s phases quizlet?

The moon’s phases are caused by the changing angles of the earth’s shadows and reflected sunlight as the moon revolves around the Earth over the course of about 1 month (28 days). … The earth completes one revolution around the sun every 365 days.

What causes lunar eclipse?

Lunar eclipses occur when Earth slips between the sun and the moon, creating a celestial alignment that blocks sunlight from falling onto the lunar surface.

What causes full moon and half moon?

The phases occur because the Sun lights different parts of the Moon as the Moon revolves around the Earth. That means the reason we see different phases of the Moon here on Earth is that we only see the parts of the Moon that are being lit up by the Sun.

Where does erosion occur the fastest?

Typically, physical erosion proceeds fastest on steeply sloping surfaces, and rates may also be sensitive to some climatically-controlled properties including amounts of water supplied (e.g., by rain), storminess, wind speed, wave fetch, or atmospheric temperature (especially for some ice-related processes).

Is there still erosion on Mars?

“It’s a good reminder that Mars is an Earth-like planet, but still an enigma. The fastest erosion rates on Mars are similar to the slowest eroding places on Earth. The places with the most freshwater on Mars are equivalent to the saltiest waters on Earth.

What are the agents of erosion?

The agents of soil erosion are the same as the agents of all types of erosion: water, wind, ice, or gravity. Running water is the leading cause of soil erosion, because water is abundant and has a lot of power. Wind is also a leading cause of soil erosion because wind can pick up soil and blow it far away.

What is the breaking down of rocks into fragments?

It’s a process called weathering. In desert regions, rocks expand slightly in the day as they are heated by the Sun. … When their roots grow into cracks, they force the cracks to widen, causing the rock to break into smaller fragments. So, weathering is the breakdown of rock into smaller pieces.

What is the most common process affecting the surfaces of planets and their moons?

The four common Planet Surface Processes are: Cratering, Volcanoes, Erosion, and Weathering (chemical and physical). Accretion, collisions and radioactive decay would be required in the formation.

Which 4 processes are responsible for the surface geology of the earth?

The four major geological processes are impact cratering, volcanism, tectonics, and erosion. Earth has experienced many impacts, but most craters have been erased by other processes.

Does the surface of the moon most resembles the surface of?

The planet Mercury looks a little bit like Earth’s moon. Like our Moon, Mercury’s surface is covered with craters caused by space rock impacts. Mercury is the closest planet to the sun and the eighth largest. It has a diameter of 4,880 kilometers.

What causes erosion in Nigeria?

A land highly saturated with arable crops, high intensity of mechanical tillage, lack of soil-protecting vegetation (perennial grasses) – all these factors contribute to erosion.

What are the 6 causes of erosion?

Soil Erosion: 6 Main Causes of Soil Erosion

  • Soil Texture: ADVERTISEMENTS: …
  • Ground Slope: …
  • Intensity and amount of rainfall: …
  • Mismanaged utilization of soil resources: …
  • Distribution of rainfall and landscape: …
  • Deforestation:

What are the two causes of erosion?

Erosion is caused by wind, water, or gravity.

What causes erosion and what are the impacts of erosion on the environment?

Erosion can occur naturally by wind, water, and gravity. … Other effects of erosion include increased flooding, increased sedimentation in rivers and streams, loss of soil nutrients’ and soil degradation, and, in extreme cases, desertification.

What are main causes of soil erosion?

Following are the important causes of soil erosion:

  • Rainfall and Flooding. Higher intensity of rainstorm is the main cause of soil erosion. …
  • Agriculture. The farming practices are the major cause of soil erosion. …
  • Grazing. …
  • Logging and Mining. …
  • Construction. …
  • Rivers and Streams. …
  • Heavy Winds. …
  • Loss of Arable Land.

What are the three main causes of soil erosion?

Different Soil Erosion Causes

  • Sheet erosion by water;
  • Wind erosion;
  • Rill erosion – happens with heavy rains and usually creates smalls rills over hillsides;
  • Gully erosion – when water runoff removes soil along drainage lines.
  • Ephemeral erosion that occurs in natural depressions.

How does wind cause erosion?

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