Erosion Vocabulary Flashcards
Erosion
The process by which, wind, water, ice or gravity transports soil and sediment from one location to another.
Weathering
The process by which rock materials are broken down by the action of physical or chemical processes.
Water Cycle
The continuous movement of water from the ocean to the atmosphere to the land and back to the ocean.
Evaporation
A type of vaporization of a liquid.
Condensation
The change of state from a gas to a liquid.
Precipitaion
Any form of water that falls to the Earth’s surface from the clouds.
Percolation
The process of a liquid slowly passing through a filter.
Runoff
The movement of land water to the oceans.
Tributary
A stream that flows into a lake or into a larger stream.
Watershed
The area of land that is drained by a water system.
Continental Divide
A drainage divide on a continent.
Deposition
The process in which material is laid down.
Delta
A fan-shaped mass of material deposited at the mouth of a stream.
Alluvial Fan
A fan-shaped mass of material deposited by a stream when the slope of the land decreases sharply.
Floodplain
An area along a river that forms from sediments deposited when the river overflows its banks.
Water Table
The upper surface of underground water; the upper boundary of the zone of saturation.
Sewage Treatment Plants
A facility that cleans the waste materials found in water that comes from sewers or drains.
Septic Tank
A tank that separates solid waste from liquids and that has bacteria that breaks down the solid waste.
Sea Stacks
Blocks of erosion-resistant rock isolated from the land by sea.
Sea Arches
Natural arches commonly form where cliffs are subject to erosion from the sea, rivers or weathering.
Sea Caves
A type of cave formed primarily by the wave action of the sea.
Wave-Cut Terraces
The narrow flat area often found at the base of a sea cliff.
Headlands
A narrow piece of land that projects from a coastline into the sea.
Beach
An area of the shoreline made up of material deposited by waves.
Glacier
A large mass of moving ice.
Glacial Drift
The rock material carried and deposited by glaciers.
Till
Unsorted rock material that is deposited directly by a melting glacier.
Stratified Drift
A glacial deposit that has been sorted and layered by the action of streams or melt-water.
