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Home > For Teachers
> Weathering Activity - The Rock Smashing Test
Weathering produces rotten rocks and soil and some of it is eroded away - but how does more erosion happen? Find out by seeing what happens on a beach in a storm - by a shaking exploration at home!
The Rock Smashing
Test - Weathering and Erosion
What you will need: A plastic container with a wide neck and a screw on or clip on top; pieces of rock/building material of various sorts
The challenge: Which type of rock do you think is the toughest? Which will break up fastest? Try to work it out first - then have a go.
Try it this way: Lay out the rocks and look at them. Put them all in the plastic container together and shake it hard for 15 seconds. Pour them out and see which ones have changed the most. Do this several times to find out which rocks are the best survivors. If you have some kitchen scales, you could try weighing the different bits of rock at each stage to measure how they get broken down.
What happens and
why: Were you right? Could you work out which would be toughest and
which would break up most quickly? If these rocks formed cliffs at the
seaside, which would make high cliffs and which would make low cliffs
or no cliffs at all? Which would make hills and which valleys? If you
were choosing one of these rock for your gravestone, which would you go
for? Since bits of rock are removed by the shaking - you are doing your
own exploration of erosion here.
- Be sure to check out our other activities dealing with weathering
Click here to view a complete list of activities that our site has to offer
The Rock Cycle Web Site
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This page was last updated on December 4, 2000
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