Science Common Sense
1293 - What are the effects of external and internal forces on landforms.
Imagine you have a big clay model of the Earth's surface. External and internal forces are like different ways you can play with it.
External Forces: These are forces that come from the outside, like:
- Weathering: Like when you leave your clay model outside and it starts to get wet and crumbly (water and wind making it weak).
- Erosion: Like when you take a toy car and drive it over your clay model, making little paths and wearing it down (wind, water, or ice moving bits away).
- Deposition: Like when you make a new road on your clay model using fresh clay, building up new land (bits carried by wind or water and left in a new place).
Internal Forces: These are forces that come from inside the Earth, like:
- Volcanoes: Like when you put a firework under your clay model and it blows up, making a new mound (volcanic eruption).
- Earthquakes: Like when you shake your clay model and it breaks apart (plates under the Earth moving).
These forces can make big changes to landforms like:
- Creating new mountains or volcanoes
- Changing the shape of rivers and lakes
- Making land rise or fall
- Creating new islands or destroying old ones
Just like how you can change your clay model by playing with it, these forces can shape the Earth's surface over time.