Chapter 1 & 2 - Terms To Know Flashcards
Alluvial fan
A deposit formed when/where flowing water slows down and spreads out.
A fan-shaped mass of alluvium deposited as the flow of a river decreases in velocity.
Aquifer
Underground water storage zone of rock or other material that holds water.
A body of permeable rock which can contain or transmit groundwater.
Chemical weathering
Reduces particle size by changing chemical makeup.
The erosion or disintegration of rocks, building materials, etc., caused by chemical reactions rather than by mechanical processes.
Colluvium
Parent material transported by gravity.
Material which accumulates at the foot of a steep slope.
Delta
Created where a stream or river enters a body of quiet water like an ocean or lake.
A triangular tract of sediment deposited at the mouth of a river, typically where it diverges into several outlets.
Eolian
Parent material transported by wind.
Floodplain
Part of a I’ve valley that is flooded when a river is high.
An area of low-lying ground adjacent to a river, formed mainly of river sediments and subject to flooding.
Glacial outwash
Till deposited by a glacier at its toe may be picked up and transported by meltwater streams that sort the sediment.
Glacial till
The sediment deposited by a glacier.
Hydration
The process of combining a substance chemically with water molecules.
Hydrolysis
The chemical breakdown of a compound due to reaction with water.
Igneous rock
Rocks formed by the cooling and solidifying of molten materials.
Lacustrine
Of or relating to a lake.
Loess
A loosely compacted yellowish-gray deposit of wind blown sediment of which extensive deposits occur.
Marine
of, found in or produced by the sea.
Metamorphic rock
Rock that has undergone transformation by heat, pressure, or other natural agencies.
Parent material
The underlying geological material in which soil horizons from.
Pedon
The smallest unit of land surface that can be used to study the characteristic soil profile of landscape.
Physical weathering
Is caused by the effects of changing temps true on rocks, causing the rock to break apart.
Polypedon
A soil individual or Polypedon is also a real soil body, it is a parcel of contiguous pedons all of which have characteristics lying within the defined limits of single soil series.
Residual
Remaining after the greater part or quantity has gone.
Sedimentary rock
(Of rock) that has formed from sediment deposited by water or air.
Soil series
A level of classification in the USDA Soil Taxonomy classification system hierarchy.
Solum
The upper part of the soil profile, which is influenced by plant roots; the A horizon and the B horizon.
