TEST #3 Flashcards
If you were to examine the longitudinal profile of a typical river, you would probably find that the gradient is
steepest near the head
What is the longitudinal profile of a stream?
The cross-sectional area from the headwaters to the mouth
___ is the maximum load of solid particles a stream can transport per unit time
Capacity
Streams will tend to lengthen thanks to ____ erosion
Headward
What is the mouth of a stream?
The location where one stream flows into another body of water
The percentage of the total volume of rock or sediment that consists of pore space is:
Porosity
Which of the following uses the largest percentage of the Earth’s groundwater?
Irrigation
___ is a term used to describe how the water table around a pumping well becomes lowered and roughly conical in shape as water is take from the subsurface.
Cone of Depression
Which of the following is not an example of groundwater erosion?
Karst topography
A typical rate of groundwater flow for many aquifers is approximately ____.
4 cm/day
Where is the larges mass of ice on earth today located?
Antartica
Although we know that the total amount of ice is shrinking, at the present time what percentage of the earth’s land surface is currently covered by glacial ice?
10%
How does an alpine glacier modify the valley through which it moves?
All of these (deepens it, widens it, straightens it)
A ___ forms when a block of ice is buried in drift and subsequently melts, creating a pit
Kettle lakes
The tilt of Earth’s rotational axis is ____.
varying between 22 and 24.5 from the vertical over the course of 41, 000 years
Which of the following deposition/erosion scenarios will develop when a groin is constructed on the beach?
Deposition on up current side and erosion on down current side
The vertical distance between trough and crest is called the wave ____
height
When are waves affected by the seafloor, that is, when do waves begin to “feel bottom”?
When water depth is equal to one-half the wave length
When waves reach shallow water, they are often bent and tend to become parallel to the shore. This process is termed:
refraction
What generated tides on the earth?
Gravitational attraction of the moon
It is an exceptionally cold winter’s day and one of your classmates makes a comment writing-off the idea of global warming. What is the scientifically correct analysis of that?
Your classmate is incorrect. Weather is a short-term phenomenon and we cannot make conclusions about the climate based on a single-day temperature readings
Sea level rise is a combination of _____ and _____ as the climate becomes warmer.
Melting ice and thermal expansion
_____ is the study and reconstruction of past climates through the use of proxy data.
Paleoclimatology
How will explosive volcanic eruptions affect global temperatures?
Temperatures will lower
Which process has been largely responsible for increasing the amount of CO2 in the last 200 years?
Burning of fossil fuels
What was the approximate increase in global temperature during the 20th century?
0.8 degrees celcius
____ are often the best-preserved, most easily identifiable plant remains in sediments and can be used to interpret the paleoclimate
Pollen
Which coastline will be more significantly impacted by sea level change, the Pacific Coast or the Atlantic Coast and why?
The Atlantic Coast, as it has a gently sloping shoreline
What is produced when carbon dioxide dissolves in seawater?
Carbonic Acid
Which two gases make up the majority of the atmosphere?
Nitrogen and Oxygen
