Soils final exam Flashcards
What are the two main geologic materials found in the earth’s crust?
rocks and minerals
What is the area called where two tectonic plates rub together?
Boundaries
What is the reason people that live in the Pacific North West have issues with boundaries?
Active faults
What type of rock is Gneiss?
Metamorphic
What is the region of the world called where 75% of all volcanoes and 90% of earthquakes occur?
ring of fire
What type of plate boundary do we experience in the Pacific Northwest?
Convergent
What is the process called that is responsible for the breakdown of rocks into smaller pieces of rock and individual minerals?
weathering
What are the four major components of soil?
minerals, air, water and organic matter
From largest to smallest name the three types of particles that make up what is called soil.
Sand, silt and clay
What type of soil particles feel smooth when you rub them between your thumb and fingers?
silt or clay
What is the best type of soil for growing plants?
loam
Decaying plants and animals make up which important non-mineral component of soil?
Humus
What do worms like to eat?
soil
What type of organism is found in soil that can be used to make antibiotics?
bacteria
What is worm poop called?
castings
Mass wasting and erosion are forms of mechanical or physical weathering?
True
The physical breakdown and chemical alteration of rock at or near the Earth’s surface is called?
Weathering
Salt crystal growth (i.e when sea spray or salty groundwater penetrates crevices and pore spaces in rocks) is a form of chemical weathering.
False
Dissolving and oxidation are two forms of chemical weathering.
True
Chemical reactions in which a compound like iron loses electrons is called oxidization or oxidizing.
True
Quartz is a compound that is extremely unstable and weathers easily even when exposed to the Earth’s surface.
False
Marble and limestone are examples of types of rocks that contain the element calcite.
True
The rocks and minerals in warm and moist climates tend to experience more physical/mechanical weathering than chemical weathering.
False
The greater the amount of precipitation a climate has the greater the amount of chemical weathering.
True
Briefly explain why some types of rock formations end up weathering into columns or “hoodoos” over long periods of time
It is caused by differential weathering, not all rock that happens to be in the same area is made of the same stuff. So, because of that different kinds of roc will weather and wear away at different rates and be impacted by different kinds of chemical weathering eventually forming hoodoos.
