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Mystery #2Tier 1rivers and erosion

Why are pebbles in a river so smooth and round when mountain rocks are jagged?

Up in the mountains, the rocks are rough and jagged, all sharp points and broken edges. Yet the pebbles in the river below are smooth and round enough to hold like an egg. They are made of the same stuff, so something must have changed them. Why is a river pebble so smooth and round?

Thousands of smooth rounded pebbles filling the frame at Chesil Beach in Dorset, not a sharp corner among them
Photo: Rosser1954 · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

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