Earth Science (Chapter 1-6) Flashcards
By Tarbuck, Lutgens, and Tasa
The first minerals to be mined; they were fashioned into weapons and cutting tools.
Flint and chert
When did the Egyptians began mining gold, silver, and copper ?
3700 B.C. by 2200 B.C.
An alloy formed when copper is combined with tin
Bronze
The weight of electron compared to proton
1/2000 of proton
An important property of matter, is defined as mass per unit volume.
Density
The number representing the ratio of a mineral’s weight to the weight of an equal volume of water.
Specific Gravity
Specific Gravity of Galena
7.5
Specific Gravity of 24-karat Gold
20
Variety of calcite that exhibits double refraction.
Iceland Spar or formerly called Iceland Crystal
What mineral gives the ferromagnesian minerals their dark color?
Iron
Light silicate minerals contain vary ing amounts of what minerals?
Aluminum, Calcium, Potassium, Sodium
The most abundant mineral group.
Feldspars
A group of feldspar containing calcium or sodium ions.
Plagioclase Feldspar
Dark silicate minerals contain varying amounts of what minerals?
Magnesium and Iron
The most common member of pyroxene
Augite
The dark, iron-rich member of the mica family.
Biotite
The most common light-colored member of the mica family
Muscovite
A silicate mineral that is characterized by striations
Plagioclase Feldspar or Alkali Feldspar
A silicate mineral that originates as a product of chemical weathering
Clay
A coarse rock composed of loosely cemented shells and shell fragments
Coquina
A soft, porous rock made up almost entirely of the hard parts of microscopic organisms that are no larger than the head of a pin.
Chalk
The most famous chalk deposit. Where can it be found?
White Chalk Cliffs exposed along the southeast coast of England
A type of limestone that decorates caverns which is formed when chemical changes or high water temperatures increase the concentration of calcium carbonate to the point that it precipitates.
Travertine
Enumerate the different sedimentary rocks composed of micro crystalline quartz.
chert (light color), flint (dark), jasper (red), and agate (banded)
The name applied to a number of dense, hard chemical sedimentary rocks made of microcrystalline quartz.
Chert
Enumerate the two sedimentary rock varities of coal.
Lignite and Bituminous
Why is anthracite considered as a metamorphic rock?
Because Anthracite forms when sedimentary layers are subjected to the folding and deformation associated with mountain building
What minerals are the most common cementing agent in sedimentary rocks?
Calcite, Silica, and Iron Oxide
A mica-like mineral formed by the metamorphism of iron- and magnesium-rich silicates.
Chlorite
The physical breakdown (disintegration) and chemical alteration (decomposition) of rocks at or near Earth’s surface
Weathering
The transfer of rock and soil downslope under the influence of gravity
Mass wasting
The physical removal of material by mobile agents such as water, wind, or ice
Erosion
Refers to the upward or outward movement of the ground surface (or objects on, or in, ground) caused by formation of ice in soil.
Frost heave
It takes place, at least in part, due to the great reduction in pressure that oc curs when the overlying rock is eroded away in a process called unloading.
sheeting
Formula for carbonic acid
H2CO3
A layer of rock and mineral fragments produced by weathering.
Regolith
Refers to the combination of mineral and organic matter, water, and air—the portion of the regolith that supports the growth of plants.
Soil
A soil component that refers to the decayed remains of animal and plant life (organic matter).
Humus
It emphasizes the physical and chemical properties of the soil profile and is or ganized on the basis of observable soil characteristics.
Soil Taxonomy
In soil taxonomy, what is the broadest category of soils? About how many sub-categories does it consist?
Order - 12 soil orders
How about the most specific category? How many sub-categories?
Series - more than 19,000 soil series
Refers to a soil order that are characteristically dry soils in arid regions.
Aridosols (aridus = dry, solum = soil)
These are soils with only the beginning or inception of profile development.
Inceptisols (inceptum = beginning, solum = soil)
What are the three zones of river system?
sediment production, sediment transport, sediment deposition
Sediment acquired by a stream is transported through the channel network along sections referred to as
Trunk streams
The slope of a stream channel expressed as the vertical drop of a stream over a specified distance
Gradient
The volume of water flow ing past a certain point in a given unit of time.
Discharge
Streams that exhibit flow only during wet periods
Intermittent streams
Streams carry water only occasionally, after a heavy rainstorm.
Ephermeral streams
Defined as the speed at which a particle falls through a still fluid.
Settling velocity
Flat grains sink through water more slowly than do spherical grains. TRUE OR FALSE?
TRUE
The term used to describe the skipping and jumping of sediments along the stream.
Saltation
The maximum load of solid particles a stream can transport per unit of time.
Capacity
A measure of a stream’s ability to transport particles based on size rather than quantity.
Competence
These are channels in which the streams are actively cutting into solid rock.
Bedrock channels
These are channels where bed and banks are composed mainly of unconsolidated sediment or alluvium.
Alluvial channels
These are steep segments where bedrock is exposed which are developed by bedrock channels.
Steps
These are relatively flat segments where alluvium tends to accumulate developed by bedrock channels.
Pools
How are meandering streams formed?
Meandering channels develop where the load consists largely of fine-grained particles that are transported as suspended load in deep, relatively smooth channels.
How about braided streams?
Braided channels form where a large proportion of the stream’s load consists of coarse material (sand and gravel) and the stream has a highly variable discharge.
Consists of not only the channel but also the surrounding terrain that directly contributes water to the stream.
Stream valley
Refers to rivers that exhibit meandering channels that flow in steep, narrow valleys.
Incised meanders
the percentage of the total volume of rock or sediment that consists of pore spaces
Porosity
ability of a material to transmit a fluid
Permeability
The average temperature of a geothermal gradient.
2°C per 100 meters (1°F per 100 feet) deep
Intermittent fountains in which columns of hot water and steam are ejected with great force, often rising 30 to 60 meters (100 to 200 feet) into the air.
Geysers
The most famous geyser in the world.
Old Faithful in Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park
How do geysers occur?
Geysers occur where extensive underground chambers exist within hot igneous rocks
A downward-growing stalactite and an upward-growing stalagmite may join to form a?
Column
One of the best-known and most distinctive regions of tower karst development can be found in?
Tower Karst in Li River in the Guilin District of southeastern China.
Thousands of relatively small glaciers exist in lofty mountain areas, where they usually follow valleys originally occupied by streams.
Valley/Alpine Glacier
These are enormous masses of ice that flow out in all directions from one or more snow-accumulation centers and completely obscure all but the highest areas of underlying terrain.
Ice Sheets
They form where two tributary glaciers come together. They are generally surficial features on the ice and often consist of rock that has fallen from a rockwall where the glaciers converge.
Medial Moraine
About 18,000 years ago, glacial ice not only covered Greenland and Antarctica but also covered large portions of
North America, Europe, and Siberia
What is the thickness of ice sheet and total covered area of Greenland and Antarctica?
Greenland (1.7 million sq. km area, 1500m thick); Antarctica (13.9 million sq. km area, 4300 m thick)
The largest ice shelf in Antarctica
Ross and Ronne-Filchner Ice Shelves
Type of Glacier that completely bury the underlying landscape, but they are much smaller than the continental-scale features.
Ice caps
Type of Glacier that occupy broad lowlands at the bases of steep mountains and form when one or more valley glaciers emerge from the confining walls of mountain valleys.
piedmont glaciers
These are large, relatively flat masses of floating ice that extend seaward from the coast but remain attached to the land along one or more sides.
ice shelves
These are tongues of ice flow down valleys, extending outward from the margins of these larger ice masses. Ice caps and ice sheets feeds to this type of glacier.
outlet glaciers
As a glacier moves, internal stresses cause large cracks to develop in the brittle upper portion of the glacier, called the zone of fracture.
crevasses
Flow is greatest in the _______ of the glacier because of the drag created by the walls and floor of the valley.
center
A 3300-kilometer- (2600-mile-) long range mountain that separates the West Antarctic Ice Sheet and the East Antarctic Ice Sheet.
Transantarctic Mountains
The highest peak in Antarctica at 4892 meters (16,050 feet).
Vinson Massif
the breaking oficechunks from the edge of a glacier.
ice calving
Refers to the balance or lack of balance between accumulation at the upper end of a glacier and loss at the lower end.
glacial budget
The pulverized rock produced by the glacial gristmill is appropriately called
rock flour
When the ice at the bottom of a glacier contains large rock fragments, long scratches and grooves called __________ may be gouged into the bedrock
glacial striations
After the glacier has melted away, the cirque basin is sometimes occupied by a small lake called
tarn
materials deposited directly by the glacier
till
sediments laid down by glacial meltwater
stratified drift
Boulders found in the till or lying free on the sur face are called ________ if they are different from the bedrock below
glacial erratics
Refers to a material left behind by a moving glacier. They are are simply layers or ridges of till.
Moraines
A broad, ramplike accumulation of stratified drift is built adjacent to the downstream edge of most end moraines.
Outwash plain (ice sheet); valley train (confined to mountain valley)
form when blocks of stagnant ice become buried in drift and eventually melt, leaving pits in the glacial sediment.
Kettles
streamlined asymmetrical hills composed of till
Drumlins
sinuous ridges composed largely of sand and gravel
eskers
steep-sided hills that, like eskers, are composed of sand and gravel
kames
Synonymus period to “Ice Age”
Quaternary
About what percentage of Earth’s land surface was affected by glaciers during the Quaternary period?
30%
Where were ice sheets more extensive during the Ice Age: the Northern Hemisphere or the Southern Hemisphere? Why?
Northern Hemisphere - The primary reason is that the Southern Hemisphere has little land in the middle latitudes, and, therefore, the southern polar ice could not spread far beyond the margins of Antarctica.
A sedimentary rock formed when glacial till becomes lithified.
tillite
Aside from Quaternary Ice Age, what other eras and periods were dated to have evidences of Ice Age?
Precambrian (600million years & 2 billion years); Paleozoic (250 million years)
Who formulated the Milankovitch cycle? What is his nationality?
Serbian scientist Milutin Milankovitch
Who supported the hypothesis of Milutin Milankovitch?
J. D. Hays
What are the two gases that contributes to the occurrence of Ice Age?
CO2 and Methane (these greenhouse gases are important indicators of ice age sincethey trap radiation emitted by Earth and contribute to the heating of the atmosphere. Thus lesser amounts of them would mean lower temperature hence Ice Age).
yearly precipitation is less than the potential loss of water by evaporation.
dry climate
arid is to desert; semi-arid is to _____
steppe
A marginal and more humid variant of the desert and represents a transition zone that surrounds the desert and separates it from bordering humid climates.
Steppe
the lifting and removal of loose material by wind
deflation
depression or hollow formed by wind erosion on a preexisting sand deposit, formed together with an adjoining sand accumulation (depositional lobe, blowout dune, or garmada) for which sand is derived from the depression or other sources
blowout
The thickest and most extensive deposits of loess on Earth occur in?
western and northern China (blown from desert basins of central Asia)
Solitary sand dunes shaped like crescents and with their tips pointing downwind
Barchan dunes (limited supply of sand + flat and hard surface w/o vegetation)
In regions where the prevailing winds are steady, sand is plentiful, and vegetation is sparse or absent, the dunes form a series of long ridges that are separated by troughs and oriented at right angles to the prevailing wind.
Transverse dunes
Form scalloped rows of sand oriented at right angles to the wind
Barchanoid dunes
These are long ridges of sand that form more or less parallel to the prevailing wind and where sand supplies are moderate
Longitudinal dunes
Form where vegetation partially covers the sand. The shape of these dunes resembles the shape of barchans except that their tips point into the wind rather than downwind.
Parabolic dunes
These are isolated hills of sand that exhibit a complex form.
Star dunes
