Surface Processes — Sediment Sources and Fates Complete the statement: “The products of ____ are a major source of sediments for erosion and ____.” Choose the pair that makes geomorphic sense.

Introduction / Context:
Earth’s surface is shaped by the sequence weathering → erosion → transport → deposition. Questions frequently test whether learners can place these processes in a logical order and identify how sediments originate and where they ultimately accumulate.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• Sediments come from breakdown of preexisting rocks or soils.
• Weathering produces loose material; erosion mobilizes it; deposition is the end-process of settling.
• The sentence links a source process to a destination process.

Concept / Approach:
Weathering (physical and chemical) creates sediment by disintegrating bedrock or regolith. Erosion then removes and transports these particles via water, wind, ice, or gravity, and deposition lays them down where transporting energy diminishes (floodplains, deltas, dunes, etc.). Thus, “weathering” logically fills the first blank (source), and “deposition” fits the second blank (final sink).

Step-by-Step Solution:

Verification / Alternative check:
Standard geomorphology diagrams display this process chain consistently. Textbook chapters on denudation reinforce the same order and roles.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:

• deposition, weathering: Reverses the natural order of processes.
• rocks, weathering / rocks, deposition: Grammatically possible but conceptually imprecise; the question asks for processes, not materials.

Common Pitfalls:
Using “erosion” where “weathering” is meant. Erosion moves already weathered material; it does not create it.

Final Answer:
weathering, deposition