Weathering (breaking down rock) and erosion (transporting rock material) at or near the earth's surface breaks down rocks into small and smaller pieces. These smaller pieces of rock (such as sand, silt, or mud) can be deposited as sediments that, after hardening, or lithifying, become sedimentary rocks.n Earth's surface, wind and water can break rock into pieces (weathering!). They can also carry rock pieces to another place (erosion)!. Usually, the rock pieces, called sediments, drop from the wind or water to make a layer.
The water cycle or hydrologic is a continuous cycle where water evaporates, travels into the air and becomes part of a cloud, falls down to earth as precipitation, and then evaporates again. This repeats again and again in a never-ending cycle.
The water cycle describes how water moves above, on, and through the Earth. But, in fact, much more water is in storage at any one time than is actually moving through the cycle. By storage, we mean water that is locked up in its present state for a relatively long period of time.