27.1 Flashcards
What is the difference between weathering and erosion?
weathering is the breakdown of materials, erosion is the removal of surface material.
When the slope of a river decreases what happens to rivers speed?
It also decreases.
What are small streams called that flow into larger rivers?
Tributaries.
What is the land area called that gathers water for a major river?
Drainage Basin.
What is the boundary called that separates distinct drainage basins?
Drainage divide.
As water flows downhill under the influence of gravity, water erodes earths surface creating____?
Channels.
What shape do young rivers carve on earths surface due to the fast movement?
V-shape.
What type of rivers are wide with smooth and gentle slopes?
Mature rivers.
When rivers flood and drop their sediment load what type of land form is created?
Flood-plains.
What is a fan shaped sediment deposit that forms at the mouth of a river?
Deltas.
What are ditributaries?
branching channels created by deltas.
What are the two types of glaciers?
Valley glaciers and continental glaciers.
Where do valley glaciers come from?
High mountainous regions.
Where do continental glaciers come from?
colder climates and occupy large land areas.
Where are the two continental glaciers located?
Greenland and Antarctica.
What is a cirque?
A bowl shaped basin.
What is a arete?
A long sharp ridge line that is formed between two valley glaciers.
What is a horn in a mountainous region?
Sharpened peaks.
What shape of valley do valley glaciers form?
U-shaped valleys.
What are tributary glaciers?
Small glaciers that beat into large glaciers.
What type of valleys do tributary glaciers form?
they create hanging valleys.
on which side of the dune does erosion occur?
Windward side
On which side does deposition occur?
Leeward side
what is deflation?
the removal of small particles by wind, leaving heavier particles behind.
What is desert pavement?
When small particles are removed, and this is the remaining surface.
Due to wind what does the shape and sizes of land forms depend on?
Wind speed, time wind blows, and sediment supply
what are three land forms created by wave erosion?
coastal cliffs, sea stacks, and sea arches.
what are two land forms created from wave depsostion?
sand bars and sand spits.
what are sand bars?
land forms that are parallel tot he shoreline.
what are sand spit?
they are similar to sand bars except they curve back towards the land.
what are some things that can trigger mass wasting?
snow, heavy rains, earthquakes, or human activity.
What are some examples of mass wasting?
Rock slides, mud flows, and landslides.
The process by which water enters Earth and becomes groundwater below the surface.
Infiltration
The upper boundary of the saturated zone.
Water table.
A rock unit that can transfer water through its pore space.
Aquifer
The percentage of a materials total volume that is pore space.
porosity
Th process of assigning an exact numerical age to an organism, an object, or event.
Absolute dating
The process of placing objects or events in their proper order in time.
Relative dating
States the laws of nature operate today as they have in the past.
Uniformitarianism
States that in an undisturbed sequence of sedimentary rock layer, the youngest rocks will be at the top and the oldest rocks at the bottom.
Principle of superstition
Gaps in the rock record during which either erosion occurred or deposition was absent.
Unconformitites
Remains or traces of organisms found in the geologic rock record.
Fossils
