Ch 27 Flashcards
What is the process that involves the physical or chemical breakdown of materials on Earth’s surface ?
Weathering
What is the mixture of weathered rock, organic matter, water, and air that is capable of supporting plant life called?
Soil
What is the removal of surface material through the process of weathering called?
Erosion
What is it called as rocks weather, erosional agents like water, ice, wind, and gravity move eroded materials from one place to another?
sediment transport
When the erosional agent slows down or melts, and it drops this sediment load in the process called what?
Deposition
The land area that gathers water for a major river is called a river’s what?
Drainage basin
The movement of water parallel to the shoreline is called what?
A longshore current
Do rocks weather at the same rate?
No
What are the main two factors that determine how fast a rock will weather?
Rock Type and Landscape
What are the two types of weathering?
Mechanical and Chemical
What type of change happens with mechanical weathering?
physical change
What type of change happens with chemical weathering?
Chemical change
What are the 3 specific types of mechanical weathering?
Frost Wedging, Biological Activity, and Collisions
What causes frost wedging?
collected water in the cracks of a rock and then freezes
What is the cycle called during the frost wedging?
freeze-thaw cycle
What causes biological activity?
Plants and Animals
What causes weathering during collisions ?
Rocks falling from a cliff or tumble through turbulent rivers, or rockslides
What is parent material?
the material soil is formed from
What are soil horizons?
All the different layers of soil
How many soil horizons are there?
6
True or False. All soils contain every soil horizon?
False
What are the specific soil horizons?
O, A, E, B, C, and R horizons
What does the first soil horizon contain ?
Organic material
What is the second horizon mostly made up of?
Mostly minerals
Which layer does leaching occur?
E horizon
Which horizon collects materials from previous horizons?
B Horizon
Which layer is partially weathered bedrock?
C Horizon
Which layer is unweathered bedrock?
R Horizon
Which soil horizons make up the topsoil?
O and A Horizons
Which soil horizons make up the subsoil?
E and B Subsoil
Which horizons make up the true soil?
O, A, E, and B Horizon
What are chemical changes due to water?
Hydrolysis
What are chemical changes due to oxygen ?
Oxidation
What is the difference between weathering and erosion?
Weathering is the breakdown of materials and erosion is the removal of surface material
If the slope of the river decreases, what happens to the speed of the river?
it decreases
small streams that flow into larger rivers are called ____
tributaries
land area that gathers water for a major river is called a ____
drainage basin
A boundary that separates distinct drainage basins is called a ____
drainage divide
As water flows downhill under the influence of gravity, water erodes earth’s surface creating _____
channels
Young rivers are _____ due to the fast movement
V-shaped
_____ rivers are wide with smooth and gentle slopes
Mature
When rivers flood and drop their sediment load, which type of land form is created?
Flood Plains
What is a fan-shaped sediment deposit that forms at the mouth of the river?
Deltas
What are distributaries?
the branching channels
What land forms form where the mouth of the river or stream enters dry land?
Alluvial Fans
What are the two types of glaciers?
Valley and Continental Glaciers
Where do valley glaciers form?
in high, mountainous regions
Where do continental glaciers form?
in colder climates that occupy large land areas
Where are the two continental glaciers located?
Greenland and Antarctica
What is a cirque?
A bowl shaped basin
What is an arete?
a long, sharp ridgeline between two tributary glaciers
What is a horn in a mountainous region?
sharpened peaks
What shape of valley do valley glaciers form?
U-shape valley
What are tributary glaciers?
small glaciers that feed into a large glacier
What type of valleys do tributary glaciers form?
Hanging valleys
Which side of a sand dune does erosion occur?
windward side
Which side of a sand dune does deposition occur?
leeward side
What is the removal of small particles by wind, leaving heavier particles behind?
Deflation
What is the remaining surface called after small particles are removed?
desert pavement
What 3 things do the shape and sizes of landforms do to wind depend on?
wind speed, amount of time the wind blows, and sediment supply
what are three landforms that are created due to wave erosion ?
Coastal Cliffs, Sea Arches, and Sea Stacks
What are the two landforms that are created by wave deposition?
Sand Bars and Sand Spits
What are landforms that are parallel to the shoreline called?
Sand Bars
What are landforms that are like Sand Bars but curve back toward land in a hook shape called?
Sand Splits
What can cause mass wasting?
Snow, heavy rains, earthquakes, or human activity
What are some examples of mass wasting?
Rock slides, Mudflows, and Landslides
What percentage of water on Earth is salt water?
97%
What percentage of water on Earth is freshwater?
3%
Where is the majority of freshwater found?
in glaciers
Where is the smaller percentage of freshwater found?
in lakes, rivers, and stored as ground water
What is precipitation?
when water vapor in the air cools and condenses and causes rain. snow, sleet, and hail to form
What is runoff?
when water runs off the land surface
What is infiltration?
where water enters the Earths surface and can become groundwater below the surface
What is transpiration?
when plants release water vapor into the atmosphere through their leaves
What is evaporation?
when water enters the atmosphere as water vapor
What is condensation?
when water vapor collides with other water molecules to form water droplets
What is the water cycle?
where water on the land goes into the atmosphere and heats up and turns into water vapor and eventually returns back to land
What is an unsaturated zone for groundwater storage?
a porous are where water easily passes through
What is a saturated zone for groundwater storage?
beneath the unsaturated zone, where water completely fills the pore space
What is a water table?
the upper boundary of the saturated zone
What does it mean if sediment is permeable?
the more permeable the material is the easier water can go through the ground
What is an aquifer ?
a rock unit that can transfer water through its pore space
What is the name of the Great Plains Aquifer ?
Ogallala Aquifer
How many states does the Great Plains Aquifer run through?
8 states
What are the names of the states that the Great Plains Aquifer runs through?
South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Texas
What is an aquitard?
impermeable layer that holds confined water
How are water springs formed?
where the water table naturally meets Earth’s surface
What is an artesian well?
wells drilled into pressurized aquifer forming when an aquifer is sandwiched between aquitards
What is a cone of depression?
the direction that the water flows down towards the well
What is the process of assigning an exact numerical age to an organism, an object, or event.
Absolute dating
What is the process of placing objects or events in their proper order in time?
Relative dating
What states that the laws of nature operate today as they have in the past?
Uniformitarianism
What states that in an undisturbed sequence of sedimentary rock layers, the youngest rocks will be at the top and the oldest rocks will be at the bottom?
Principle of superposition
What are the gaps in the rock record during which either erosion occurred or deposition was absent called?
Unconformity
What are the remains or traces of organisms found in the geographic rock record called?
Fossils
