Weathering Experiments #earthscience

Have you ever wondered, how in the world did we get so many beautiful beaches throughout the year? Well, over the years, oceans, large bodies of waters have just pounded large rocks and as it pounded those large rocks over the years, it broke them into tiny pieces which we see as sand. This is because of the process we call weathering. Weathering is a process where rocks on the earth's surface is broken down into smaller pieces. There are two types of weathering, one mechanical and the second one is chemical. We're going to experiment looking at mechanical and chemical weathering. Hi, welcome to my channel, Michelle Gay Science Teacher, where it's all about science. Mechanical weathering occurs when large rocks, such as a boulder, you've probably seen a boulder in a lake or a stream and water runs across it, well, when this water is running across it, it begins to break down the rock into smaller pieces over time. Mechanical weathering can occur because of frost, ice, the sun, plants, even people and water. We're going to do an experiment where we're going to see how mechanical weathering can wear down a rock and break it into small pieces and even break it down to sand where it's sift. All right, so we're going to take this large piece of chalk and it is going to represent the boulder. We're going to put it in our jar and then put some rock salt to cover it. All right, so here's our jar. I'm going to put the lid on it. In order to represent the weathering, I'm going to shake the jar so that we have some force acting up on it so that the boulder, or our chalk, can break into pieces. All right, let's see what we have after shaking for quite a while. Remember, with weathering, it is a process that takes over time. It doesn't happen like overnight, a quick fix, so it does take a while. Let's look and see how our boulder, or our chalk, changed. Let's look at our rock. Notice our rock began to break into pieces. This is how the rock looked before with smooth edges. Now we have indentions and chips and pieces have broken off. Some pieces have broken off in chunks and some have broken or sanded or sifted into small pieces. If you notice, the color of the rock salt has changed because of all the chalk that came off as it was being shaken. Chemical weathering involves where rocks and minerals are broken down and changed because of a chemical reaction. A chemical reaction can change a substance into a new substance. With chemical reaction, it can occur because of carbon dioxide, oxygen, acid, and even water. Over time, we've seen where rocks have been changed because of chemical reaction. Just think of a rock or landscape that you've seen where the rocks are a beautiful color. That has occurred over time because of the chemical reaction. We're going to test out the chemical reaction of weathering to see how it affects rocks. For the chemical weathering experiment, we're going to take one large piece of chalk, put it in our container, and we're going to pour vinegar because vinegar is an acid. An acid can make a chemical weathering process occur. We're going to pour it over and see what happens. If you look closely, you notice that there's some bubble action. As time occurs in the slow process, observe how the chalk is breaking down and the pink coloring is begin to go at the bottom. The chalk is probably getting softer. I've been letting this sit a while. I want you to observe how the chemical reaction is occurring and how the chalk is breaking down at a slow process. Notice that it's making changes throughout the process. This is what occur during a chemical weathering process. Weathering occurs over time. Remember, there's mechanical and there's chemical. Because of weathering, we're able to enjoy and explore all the beautiful landscapes and all the beautiful places throughout this world because of weathering. All right, friends, I hope you enjoyed this video. I look forward to seeing you the next time at Michelle Gay Science Teacher.