Our Ever Changing Earth Earthquakes Volcanoes Erosion Explained MightyOwl Science 2 nd Grade

hello this is mighty owl whoa look at that volcano isn't it incredible all of that lava spewing out of it awesome the lava will eventually cool down and change the shape of the land around it did you know that our earth's surface is constantly changing earth's surface is what's covering our earth like oceans and mountains deserts grasslands those are all part of the surface of our mighty earth volcanoes are just one of the events that make our earth look different and there are actually many different ways that our earth changes some are quick like the volcano or an earthquake and we can see the change immediately while others take long time and happen so slowly we don't even notice them happening at all well let's take look at these amazing ways in which our earth's surface is constantly changing let's start by exploring volcanoes some volcano is landform that's created when molten rock erupts through the earth's surface molten rock is rock that is so hot it becomes liquid like burning fire rock or lava imagine how hot that must be yikes during an eruption as lava flows it destroys anything in its path so you can imagine what happens to the plants that are in its way this might seem like terrible thing but volcanic soil is actually very good for new plants to grow in so even though the existing plants are killed by the lava the soil around volcano is very rich and new plants can grow quickly after the eruption lava cools down and when it does it's changed the way the land looks each time the volcano erupts and the lava cools it forms new layer of rock and over time these layers build up the volcano causing it to become taller then this causes change to the land another way that land can change quickly is when an earthquake happens an earthquake is the shaking of the earth's surface and this shaking happens when there is sudden movement of the earth's crust the earth's crust is the outer layer of our planet the crust is actually made up of very large pieces of land called tectonic plates now those plates sometimes shift and bump into each other causing an earthquake and another amazing thing that can happen when an earthquake occurs is the formation of mountains the plates bumping into one another push the ground upward and create large landforms that we call mountains this process is very slow one and it can take millions of years for mountains to form now this shaking can cause major changes to the land they can create landslides in mudslides which are huge amounts of dirt rock and water that slide down hill you can imagine what that can do to the land landslides and earthquakes can cause major damage to the land and anything around it like buildings roads and bridges and because volcanoes and earthquakes happen suddenly they can be very dangerous scientists work hard to observe the earth and use tools to try to predict when an earthquake might happen and when volcano might be ready to erupt but they can't always be completely sure and this makes these events very dangerous volcanoes and earthquakes cause sudden changes in the land our earth's surface is also always changing in very small slow ways when you look out your window you might see rain falling or the wind causing trees to sway well rain and wind can cause weathering of the land weathering is when some of the earth's rocks are broken down by rain snow ice or wind you can imagine that this is very slow process because it takes long time for these forces to break down super hard rock when weathering happens those little bits of rock stay where they are now erosion is little bit different erosion is when rock is broken down by rain snow ice or wind and the bits of rock are carried away we can think about it like if we were to hold an ice cube under warm running water well some of that ice will melt and be carried down the drain erosion of rocks over very long periods of time can even create things like this cave cool cave like this would take hundreds of years to form as the water slowly breaks down the rock to create these tunnels and soil erosion happens when water or wind carry away dirt now this can be problem for farmers because their plants roots have nothing to hang onto our buildings and homes are built on soil and rock and the soil and rocks support those buildings when erosion occurs it can affect the buildings and cause damage our world is constantly changing volcanoes can erupt sending lava over the land and make sudden changes to it earthquakes happen when plates on the earth's crust bump together sometimes the plates press together so forcefully that they create new mountains also mudslides and landslides that occur due to earthquakes change the land in very sudden and very intense ways weathering and erosion also change our surface but they work very slowly over long period of time so we don't even notice them happening observe the world around you do you see the land around you changing