Erosion Vocabulary

Question 1

Erosion

Answer 1

The process by which, wind, water, ice or gravity transports soil and sediment from one location to another.

Question 2

Weathering

Answer 2

The process by which rock materials are broken down by the action of physical or chemical processes.

Question 3

Water Cycle

Answer 3

The continuous movement of water from the ocean to the atmosphere to the land and back to the ocean.

Question 4

Evaporation

Answer 4

A type of vaporization of a liquid.

Question 5

Condensation

Answer 5

The change of state from a gas to a liquid.

Question 6

Precipitaion

Answer 6

Any form of water that falls to the Earth’s surface from the clouds.

Question 7

Percolation

Answer 7

The process of a liquid slowly passing through a filter.

Question 8

Runoff

Answer 8

The movement of land water to the oceans.

Question 9

Tributary

Answer 9

A stream that flows into a lake or into a larger stream.

Question 10

Watershed

Answer 10

The area of land that is drained by a water system.

Question 11

Continental Divide

Answer 11

A drainage divide on a continent.

Question 12

Deposition

Answer 12

The process in which material is laid down.

Question 13

Delta

Answer 13

A fan-shaped mass of material deposited at the mouth of a stream.

Question 14

Alluvial Fan

Answer 14

A fan-shaped mass of material deposited by a stream when the slope of the land decreases sharply.

Question 15

Floodplain

Answer 15

An area along a river that forms from sediments deposited when the river overflows its banks.

Question 16

Water Table

Answer 16

The upper surface of underground water; the upper boundary of the zone of saturation.

Question 17

Sewage Treatment Plants

Answer 17

A facility that cleans the waste materials found in water that comes from sewers or drains.

Question 18

Septic Tank

Answer 18

A tank that separates solid waste from liquids and that has bacteria that breaks down the solid waste.

Question 19

Sea Stacks

Answer 19

Blocks of erosion-resistant rock isolated from the land by sea.

Question 20

Sea Arches

Answer 20

Natural arches commonly form where cliffs are subject to erosion from the sea, rivers or weathering.

Question 21

Sea Caves

Answer 21

A type of cave formed primarily by the wave action of the sea.

Question 22

Wave-Cut Terraces

Answer 22

The narrow flat area often found at the base of a sea cliff.

Question 23

Headlands

Answer 23

A narrow piece of land that projects from a coastline into the sea.

Question 24

Beach

Answer 24

An area of the shoreline made up of material deposited by waves.

Question 25

Glacier

Answer 25

A large mass of moving ice.

Question 26

Glacial Drift

Answer 26

The rock material carried and deposited by glaciers.

Question 27

Till

Answer 27

Unsorted rock material that is deposited directly by a melting glacier.

Question 28

Stratified Drift

Answer 28

A glacial deposit that has been sorted and layered by the action of streams or melt-water.