The Solid Earth - Chapter 4: The Evolution of a Desert Landscape

Question 1

Deserts are characterized as having interior drainage because they lack permanent ____

Answer 1

streams

Question 2

T/F: Interior drainage implies a discontinuous pattern of intermittent streams that do not flow out of the desert to the ocean

Answer 2

True

Question 3

In the ____ stage of landscape evolution, relief is greatest for as erosion lowers the mountains and sediments fill the basins, elevation differences diminish

Answer 3

early

Question 4

The result of debris collected in a cone at the mouth of a canyon after runoff is an ______

Answer 4

alluvial fan

Question 5

Moving down the alluvial fan, the size of the sediment and steepness of slope ____ and merge with the basin floor

Answer 5

decrease

Question 6

When rainfall is abundant, streams may flow across the alluvial fans to the center of the basin with a shallow ___

Answer 6

playa lake

Question 7

After playa lakes are evaporated and infiltrated, the bed that remains is called …

Answer 7

playa

Question 8

An example of playa lake deposits that can be mined is ____ from Death Valley

Answer 8

borax

Question 9

A ____ is formed with time as the mountain front is worn back and a sloping bedrock platform emerges

Answer 9

pediment

Question 10

With the ongoing dissection of the mountain mass into an intricate series of ____ and divides, the local relief continues to diminish

Answer 10

valleys

Question 11

The steady retreat of the mountain front elarges the ___ over time

Answer 11

pediment

Question 12

By the late stages of erosion, the mountain areas are simply bedrock knobs above pediment and sediment basins, and these isolated erosional remnants are called _____

Answer 12

inselbergs