Unit 5 Flashcards
Landforms, Weathering, Erosion, Deposition, and Mass Wasting
The breaking down of rock du to mechanical or chemical processes.
Weathering
Breaking up of rock by physical forces.
Mechanical/Physical Weathering
Wearing away rocks by changing it’s chemistry.
Chemical Weathering
A collection of mechanical weathering debris at the base of a mountain.
Talus Slope
Wearing away by scraping or rubbing; often refers to a kind of weathering.
Abrasion
A chemical change in which a substance combines with oxygen, as when iron oxidizes, forming rust.
Oxidation
Any one of several processes by which gravity moves sediment downhill.
Mass Movement/ Mass Wasting
Small pieces of material that have broken off of rocks and have been deposited.
Sediment
Water that flows over the ground surface rather than soaking into the ground.
Runoff
Wide valley through which a river flows.
Flood Plain
A loop like bend in the course of a river.
Meander
A meander cut off from a river.
Oxbow Lake
A wide, sloping deposit of sediment formed where a stream leaves a mountain range.
Alluvia Fan
A region in which a layer of limestone close to the surface creates deep valleys, caverns, and sinkholes.
Karst Topography
Depression in Earth’s surface formed when a cave collapses or bedrock is dissolved by acidic rain or moist soil.
Sinkhole
A type of erosion in which soil and sediments move slowly downhill.
Creep
Mass movement that occurs when Earth materials in a landslide rotate and slide along a curved surface.
Slump
The process by which water, ice, wind, or gravity moves weathered rock or soil.
Erosion
Process in which sediment is laid down in new location.
Deposition
The land area that supplies water to a river system.
Watershed
A stream or smaller river that feeds into a river.
Tributary
A long continuous ridge built by people along the banks of a stream to contain the water during times of high flows.
Levee
A landform made of sediment that is deposited here a river flows into an ocean or lake.
Delta
A large mass of moving ice and snow on land.
Glacier