Log In | Register

Item WE018003: Moving water continuously wears down earth's solid rock layer whenever water is moving over the rock, even if you cannot see it happening.

How long does it take for moving water to wear down earth’s solid rock layer?

  1. Whenever water is moving over solid rock, a little bit of the rock is worn down even if you can’t see it.
  2. Moving water can wear down solid rock, but it takes about ten years or more to cause any change, no matter how small.
  3. Moving water can wear down solid rock, but it takes millions of years or more to cause any change, no matter how small.
  4. Moving water cannot wear down solid rock.
Distribution of Responses
Chart showing distrubtion of responses for Item 018003
Students Responding Correctly
Group Correct Total Percent
Overall 657 1385 47%
Grades
  6–8 391 869 45%
  9–12 264 511 52%
Gender
  Male32768648%
  Female31967148%
Primary Language
  English582122747%
  Other6112549%

View data table

NRC Framework
Grade 8 ESS2.C Water’s movements…cause weathering and erosion, which change the land’s surface features.
Notes
NGSS acknowledges that Earth's systems "operate over fractions of a second to billions of years," (Framework, p. 181), but it does not specifically say how long it takes for the erosion of rock to occur. See also NGSS Performance Expectation MS-ESS2-2: Construct an explanation based on evidence for how geoscience processes have changed Earth's surface at varying time and spatial scales.