Geology Exam 3 Review Flashcards
A thick mass of ice that forms over hundreds and thousands of years by the accumulation, compaction, and recrystallization of snow.
glacier
A measure of the volume of water that flows through an aquifer, using the hydraulic gradient, conductivity, and cross-sectional area
Darcy’s Law
Area that lies above the water table
Unsaturated Zone
What’s the difference between mass wasting and erosion?
Mass wasting doesn’t need a transport medium
What is one of the two major flow mechanisms in a glacier?
Basal slip
Location of the world’s largest ice sheet
Antarctica
Contains the next highest percentage of Earth’s freshwater, after ice sheets and glaciers
groundwater
Streams that transport suspended sediment in broad, sweeping bends
meandering streams
Pulverized rock resulting from glacier abrasion
rock flour
An internal process that triggers mass wasting by dislodging rocks and unconsolidated materials
earthquake
The ability of a material to transmit a fluid, which depends on the connectivity between pores
permeability
During the last glacial maximum, _____ was 100 meters lower than present level.
Sea level
Which processes return water to the atmosphere?
Evaporation and transpiration
What is the boundary between the North American and Pacific plates in California?
San Andreas strike slip fault
A sudden event in which large quantities of rock move downhill
landslide
What are upfolded or arched sedimentary layers with the oldest strata in the center?
anticlines
The imaginary line separating one basin from another
divide
The concept of floating crust in gravitational balance?
isostasy
Type of flow in which water moves quickly in an erratic fashion
turbulent flow
What happens to sea level when water is stored in expanding ice sheets and continental glaciers.?
Drops
What is the largest usage of groundwater in the United States?
Agriculture and Irrigation
What’s the boundary between saturated rock below and unsaturated rock above?
Water Table
Another name for frozen seawater, not the same as a glacier
sea ice
Faults that have an angle less than 45 degrees, so the overlying plate moves almost horizontally
thrust faults
Which process is not part of the hydrologic cycle?
Calcium Carbonate dissolution
The percentage of open spaces in a rock or sediment
Porosity
What’s the name of large circular downwarped structures?
Basins
Unconsolidated granular particles assuming a stable slope
angle of repose
Which material has the best slope determined by the angle of repose?
Dry sand
How does the gravitational force pulling a particle downslope vary with the inclination of the slope?
Decreases with lessened slopes
The rock surface above the fault, the block that moves
hanging wall
A factor that does not affect mass wasting
Geologic age
What type of faults do tensional forces cause?
Normal faults
Which cycle describes the movement of water throughout the Earth’s atmosphere?
Hydrological Cycle
What the name of the process when a glacier enters the sea?
Calving
Which is not a contributor to the formation of glaciers:
- Plate Tectonics
- Eccentricity of the Earth
- Earth’s Orbit
- Comets
comets
What is the gradual movement of soil and regolith downhill?
soil creep
Patterns that streams follow; could be dendritic, radial, rectangular, or trellis
drainage patterns
The force that deforms rocks
Stress
Coarse sands, gravel, and boulders that move along the stream bed by saltation (skipping or jumping).
bed load
What structure do the Black Hills of South Dakota have?
Dome
