Lecture 2

Question 1

What is physiography?

Answer 1

Practice that describes the land and topographic features of an area. the controls of terrain and stream channels

Question 2

Why is physiography important to BC and restoration?

Answer 2

BC has a wide range of physiographic features. the physiographic setting of an area allows for the discussion of its geophysical system functioning

Question 3

WHat is topography dependant on?

Answer 3

Geology and Climate. plate tectonics and glaciation largely determine the landscape features and its rock types and surficial soils.
Climate drives the hydrological cycle and influences weathering and earosion of rocks and sediment transfer

Question 4

What are the 4 major physiographic divisions of BC?

Answer 4

Mountain ranges
Plateaux
lowlands
highlands

Question 5

What are important consequences of tectonic activity?

Answer 5

1. Development of major physiographic zones
2. The exposure of different rock types at earths surface, each with:
   different limnologies
   susceptibility to weathering
   Resistance to erosion
   structural properties

Question 6

What are the 4 major types of materials at earths surface?

Answer 6

Rock, Sediment, organic Matter, water

Question 7

describe a rock:

Answer 7

A solid, cohesive aggregate of grains composed of one or more minerals

Question 8

Decribe sediment

Answer 8

Generally unconsolidated inorganic materials derived from weathering/erosion of rocks. deposited after transport by water, ice, air, or gravity

Question 9

Define organic matter

Answer 9

Deposits of mainly dead and decaying matter from organisms. this material includes upper horizons of soil, peat, shell beds, organic muds. also includes coal and oil shales.

Question 10

Describe water

Answer 10

70% of earths surface covered by ocean. only 3 percent of all earths water is fresh water.

Question 11

What are the 3 most abundant elements on earth?

Answer 11

Oxygen, silicon, and aluminum

Question 12

What is a mineral?

Answer 12

Any naturally occuring, inorganic, solid substance possessing a definite chemical composition and characteristic atomic structure.

Question 13

what are most common mineral rocks composed of?

Answer 13

silicates, composed of silicon and oxygen… 2 most abundant elements

Question 14

What are felsic minerals?

Answer 14

Composed of felspars and silicate. usually light in color. (quartz)

Question 15

What are Mafic Minerals?

Answer 15

common igneous rocks, usually dark green or black. (Basalt)

Question 16

What is an Igneous rock?

Answer 16

Rock formed by crystallization of molten material

Question 17

What is sedimentary rock?

Answer 17

Deposition and cementation of eroded rock/mineral particles

Question 18

What are metamorphic rocks?

Answer 18

Physical or chemical change of existing rock by application of heat/pressure, ususally due to tectonic movements of earths crust

Question 19

What kind of characteristics can you use to identify rock types?

Answer 19

Hardness, Cleavage (direction of fracture), Composition, colour, luster (Sheen)

Question 20

What is an intrusive rock? (plutonic)

Answer 20

Magma cools slowly below the surface- large crystals grow.

Question 21

What is an extrusive rock? (volcanic)

Answer 21

Magma cools rapidly above the surface- forms small crystals

Question 22

What is a batholith?

Answer 22

Large body of igneous intrusions

Question 23

What is a clastic sedimentary rock?

Answer 23

inorganic rock and mineral fragments. can be stratification (layering) or Sorting (how uniform the particle sizes are in the rock) (sandstone, mudstone, shale)

Question 24

What is Precipitate sedimentary rock?

Answer 24

Chemical precipitation of inorganic compounds from solution or as hard parts of organisms (shells)(limestones, dolomite)

Question 25

What are Fossils and Organic Sedimentary rock

Answer 25

Fossils are preservations of hard parts of organisms sandwiched between layers of sediment. Organics are fragments of tissues of organisms the for peat moss, and can harden into coal

Question 26

What are some examples of metamorphic rocks?

Answer 26

Slate, schist, marble, quartzite, Gneiss
limestone under heat and pressure can turn into marble
Sandstone to quartzite

Question 27

How do sedimentary rocks form?

Answer 27

When rock fragments (clasts) are deposited or chemically precipitated into large water bodies. often deposited into horizontal layers and beds. tectonic activity then distorts the horizontal beds producing faults and jointing planes.

Question 28

What are some Glacial Depositional features?

Answer 28

Outwash features in mountain valleys, terraces and glacial damned lake deposits, terminal moraines.
Plateaus have abundant ablation moraines, eskers and kettles.

Question 29

What are moraines?

Answer 29

Commonly reffered to as tills. primary deposits left by glaciations. Basal tills are deposited under, and in contact with, the ice (non-sorted, not bedded, massive) dense, consolidated, cohesive.
Ablation till is material origionally picked up and moved by the glacier. coarser textured, less cohesive, higher porosity, higher bearing strength

Question 30

What are outwash deposits?

Answer 30

Found along plains, terraces, deltas and alluvial fans.
Their material propoerties make them highly erodible, leading to slope stability problems. (landslides and gullies) typically composed of fine textured silts and clays, low permeability with low bearing strength.