Where does the extra dirt come from that buries an ancient civilization?

Question

I’m laying awake, not able to figure this out.

If our civilization were to be left untouched for thousands of years then over time it’d get covered in dirt. Some future generation would have to “dig up” our civilization in the same way we dig up artifacts from the ancient past.

Where does that dirt come from? Is it floating around in the atmosphere? Or does it get created somehow (ie. organic matter decomposing)?

My understanding is that older artifacts are buried deeper, which may not be the correct understanding. But is there some relationship to dirt vs time?

So many questions.

In: 18

Answer 1

Real ELI5: Your room gets dusty in one week if you don’t clean it, now imagine what kind of dust there is after nobody’s been cleaning it for two thousand years.

The dust comes from space and erosion, and gets whipped up into the air by winds and such.