what causes erosion in deserts or other dry area?

Question

is it water?

Answer 1

1) Friction
2) Gravity
3) Plate tectonics
4) Earth's rotation
5) Life

Rock and sand resist moving air. We know this intuitively. That's why the 3rd little piggy was better off in his brick house. But in the long run the friction, in dry areas between moving air and rocky ground smoothes and breaks it, eventually stealing and scattering it as sand and dust.

Gravity perpetually tugs at cliffsides, and cliffs are pretty resistant in the short run, very occasionally surrendering a boulder or two; but in the long run, gravity will inevitably make an Appalachian out of a Rocky mountain.

The movement of tectonic plates causes earthquakes that will occasionally help gravity tear down a mountain or artificial structure. Volcanic activity at plate interfaces will blow things up, eroding them to nothing in an instant...

The rotating Earth exposes surface objects to temperature variations that stretch and crush the ground on a daily basis; Air masses heated by the Sun surrender and absorb their water from the ground, leaving puddles or parched cracks, and these air masses move, sometimes violently, as wind.

Plants grow even in the desert. They push up though ground and rock, breaking it apart. Animals do their part too, crushing ground under hoof and foot, or boring right through it.

It's complicated.

Answer 2

Centrete is right. Most deserts have cold nights. If it freezes, the freeze will cause rocks to crack. then they crumble and high winds blow them around and grind them together and form sand. The Sahara was formed this way from a large, rocky mountain range.

Answer 3

The wind.

Answer 4

wind

Answer 5

Hot days.
Freezing cold nights.
Wind.

Answer 6

three things. wind, freezing of dew and thawing.

Answer 7

It would be the wind.

Answer 8

fluvial and aeolian agents.