Exam 1 Flashcards
What is the lithosphere primarily made up of?
Rocks
What is the pedosphere primarily made up of?
soil and its interactions with rocks, air, water, and living things
What are the six key roles of soil in the ecosystem?
- Supporting plant growth
- Recycling waste products of society and nature
- A modifier of the atmosphere (think carbon cycle)
- Providing habitat for an enormous diversity of organisms
- Functioning as construction material of support for buildings
- Controlling the flow of water through the hydrologic cycle
What is the Solum made of?
The O, A, E, and B horizons
What is the Regolith made of?
The Solum (O, A, E, B) and the C horizon
How long does it take for 1 inch of soil to form?
500 years
What is the ideal soil?
50% solid material (45% mineral and 5% organic) and 50% pore space (25% air and 25% water)
What are the different soil particle sizes?
Coarse fragments, Sand, Silt, Clay (CSSC)
How big is a coarse fragment?
> 2 mm
How big is a sand particle?
2-0.05mm
How big is a Silt fragment?
0.05-0.002mm
How big is a Clay fragment?
<0.002mm
What is Humus?
the portion of the soil organic matter that is well
decomposed, colloidal, and relatively
resistant to further microbial attack
How much of a soil’s dry weight is Soil Organic Matter?
1 to 6%
What greatly influences nearly all soil properties and uses?
Soil organic matter
Why is does water act differently in soil?
-the interactions with soil particles (Adhesion and cohesion)
-Water in soil has many substances dissolved in it
How many elements are considered to be essential to all plants?
17
How many of the essential elements to plants are supplied by soil water
14 of 17
How is soil air different from atmospheric air?
it is generally several times more concentrated in C)2 than normal air
How does soil support plant growth?
-deeper soils can allow for deep roots that stabilize a plant
-denser or compacted soils can limit root growth
-Aluminum is toxic to plants and can stunt growth
-soil texture can dictate water holding capacity, fertility, and treatability of conaminants
-porosity can allow for gas exchange
What is the law of the minimum?
if one growth factor is deficient a plant is limited to that growth factor even if all other factors are met.
What is Fauna?
Animal life
What is Flora?
plant life
What role do animals play in regards to soil?
They turn/plow the soil
What role do microorganisms play in regards to soil?
they regulate carbon in the soil and oceans
What are all of the Parent Materials?
-Residual materials (saprolite)
– Colluvial deposits
– Alluvial deposits
– Marine sediments
– Lacustrine sediments
– Glacially transported
– Wind transported (eolian)
– Organic deposits
– Volcanic Deposits
(Really Cool Animals Make Lively Gardens With Outstanding Vegetation)
What is saprolite?
-formed from
rocks weathering into a softer material
-Is the C horizon and often called “rotten rock”
What is crustal warping?
geologic forces,
acting over time, can result in
different parent materials being
pushed into the zone of weathering. (think about the layers of soil bending closer to the surface)
What are minerals?
-The eight major elements, combined with the trace amounts of other elements bond
to form minerals
How many minerals are there?
more than 3,000 minerals classified
What are the major classifications of minerals?
- Silicates
2.Precipitates
3.Secondar minerals
What are silicates?
-major classification of minerals
-minerals that crystallize from cooling magma [e.g. quartz (SiO2)].
Also referred to as primary minerals
What are precipitates?
-major classification of minerals
-minerals that
precipitate from fluids
o Evaporites such as halite (i.e.,
rock salt) precipitate from water
What are secondary minerals?
formed from the result of primary minerals weathering [e.g. hematite (Fe2O3]
What are rocks?
– crystals of different kinds of
minerals [or]
– broken pieces of crystals [or]
– broken pieces of rocks
What are the three rock classifications?
igneous
sedimentary
metamorphic
What is extrusive igneous rock?
when magma exits and cools outside of, or very near the Earth’s surface.
What is Intrusive igneous rock?
when great globs of molten rock rise but is trapped below the earth’s surface
What is sedimentary rock?
rocks formed
from sediment or organic deposits
What are the types of sedimentary rock?
Continental, Transitional, and marine
What are the different classifications of sedimentary rock?
Clastic, Chemical, and Biologic
What is lithification?
the process by which
sediments become compacted and
cemented together into a sedimentary
rock.
What is Clastic sedimentary rock?
formed from broken fragments of
pre-existing rocks or mineral
What is chemical sedimentary rock?
– Precipitation from an aqueous
solution (such as limestone or
dolostone)
– Evaporation of an aqueous
solution (such as halite or gypsum)
What is Biologic sedimentary rock?
biologic precipitation or
accumulation of organic material.
-Ex: Coal and limestone
What is marine sedimentary rock?
– This banded sedimentary rock
formed over 2.2 billion years ago in
ancient oceans.
– The banding is a geologic record of
our atmosphere during that
period.
What is metamorphic rock?
rocks that developed in environments where heat and pressure are intense and extreme.
What are the two types of metamorphic rocks?
- contact metamorphism
- regional metamorphism
What are contact metamorphic rocks?
-when
a rock is exposed to hot magma
inside the Earth.
-The intense heat of the magma alters
the rock, often causing its minerals to
recrystallize into new or larger
mineral crystals than the older rock.
What are regional metamorphic rocks?
occurs
during the formation of mountain
ranges.
What is metamorphism?
the
rearrangement of mineral crystals in
the original rock .
metamorphism results in what rock classifications?
- foliated and
- non-foliated
What are metamorphic foliated rocks?
rocks that have
minerals that have been flattened
and pushed down into parallel layers
What are metamorphic non-foliated rocks?
metamorphic rocks that don’t display layers
Sedimentary rocks are formed by:
a) Magma cooling at the earth’s surface
b) Magma cooling inside the earth’s crust
c) Sediments getting compacted and cemented together
d) Heat and pressure rearranging the chemical composition
c) Sediments getting compacted and cemented together
What are colluvial materials?
parent material that
moves downhill slopes by gravity
what is an alluvial deposit?
soil forming materials can be easily moved by water.
What are some examples of alluvial deposit landscapes?
Floodplains, Alluvial fans, oxbows, and terraces
What is an alluvial fan?
fan-shaped deposits of water-transported material.
What are marine sediments?
can be found on
land where ocean bottoms previously existed
(e.g., North Carolina Coastal Plain)
