Summary
Highlights
A barrier island is formed by weathering, erosion, and deposition. Weathering creates sediment, erosion carries it, and deposition drops it. Weathering is the physical or chemical change that breaks down rocks.
There are two main types of weathering: physical weathering, which breaks rocks into smaller fragments due to environmental factors like wind, water, waves, glaciers, gravity, and plants; and chemical weathering, which changes rocks into new substances or minerals.
Erosion occurs when rocks and sediments are picked up and moved by agents such as water, wind, or gravity. Examples of erosion include rainfall washing away sediment, rushing streams moving rock downstream, and the force of oceans, wind (dust storms), and glaciers.
Deposition happens when the agent of erosion slows down enough for the sediment to be dropped. Examples include sediment deposited by slowing water, sand dunes created by wind deposition, and river deltas formed by river deposition.
In summary, weathering creates the sediment, erosion carries the sediment, and deposition drops the sediment.