What are surface processes?

Surface processes are what happen on top of the Earth, like when you play outside and something changes around you.

Imagine you're playing in a sandbox. When you dig with your hands, you’re changing the surface, that’s one kind of surface process. Or think about rain falling on the ground: it can make puddles or even little streams. That’s also a surface process!

There are many kinds of surface processes:

• Erosion: Like when wind or water takes tiny bits of sand from your sandbox and moves them somewhere else.
• Deposition: When those tiny bits of sand get dropped in a new place, like when the rain stops and the puddle leaves wet spots on the ground.
• Weathering: When rocks break apart because of changes in temperature, it’s like how ice cream melts and then gets squishy.

These processes are happening all around you, every day. You don’t need to be a scientist to see them, just look outside and notice what's changing!