Scree is best described as which of the following?

• A. Rock fragments lying at the base of steep slopes
• B. Loose material on a rocky slope
• C. Sheet of concentric plates spall off due to release of overburden pressures
• D. Quartz sand produced by granite weathering

Answer: (B)

Scree is unconsolidated rock debris that accumulates on the surface of a rocky slope, formed by physical weathering and rockfall from a cliff or steep face. The essential idea is that the material is loose, angular fragments that sit on the slope itself rather than being a bedrock layer or a chemically derived sediment.

The best description among the options is that it is loose material on a rocky slope, because it captures that loose, non-cohesive debris sitting on the slope rather than a defined sheet of rock being peeled off or fine sediment produced by weathering. Exfoliation sheets (the option about plates peeling off) describe a different process, and quartz sand from granite weathering describes fine sediment—not the loose, angular debris known as scree. The description of rock fragments at the base is close, but scree is best characterized by the loose debris present on the slope surface as it accumulates from ongoing rockfall.