Erosion experiment: rain, wind and ice move mountains
Tray soil, ice cubes and a watering can show how erosion carves canyons and deserts.
Rain, freeze and wind in a tray
Build a soil slope in a tray and pour water from a can: channels appear in minutes, carrying soil downhill exactly like rivers carve valleys. Freeze wet soil overnight and watch cracks split it — water expands 9 percent when it freezes, prying rocks apart grain by grain.
Blow through a straw over dry sand to model wind erosion that shapes deserts and dunes. Three forces, one tray, and every mountain on Earth yields to them given time.
Real canyons and classroom questions
The Grand Canyon is this experiment at continental scale: the Colorado River cut 1.6 kilometers down through 2-billion-year-old rock over 6 million years. Wind did the rest in deserts, polishing arches and moving entire dunes across the Sahara.
Ask students where the soil went — conservation of matter means every grain landed somewhere downstream, building deltas where rivers meet the sea.
- Tray + soil slope + watering can
- Freeze wet soil overnight for cracks
- Straw wind makes dunes
- Grand Canyon: 1.6 km in 6 million years
- Soil never vanishes, it relocates