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174 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is geology |
The study of the solid earth: its composition, history and the processes that shape it |
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Define a Rock From a mineral |
Rock - naturally occurring solid assemblage of minerals Mineral - all natural occurring inorganic substances |
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only about _____ minerals make up 90% of the earths crust |
10 |
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The components of a mineral are not seperable by ________ means a. biological b. physical c. chemical d. weathering |
Physical |
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What are the most abundant minerals in the earths crust |
Silicon and Oxygen |
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What are Alumino- silicate minerals called and what are they composed of |
Felsic Rich in aluminum, low in iron and magnesium |
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What are mafic minerals |
Ferro magnesium minerals rich in magnesium and iron |
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How can you tell between mafic and felsic materials by looking at them |
Felsic materials are light in color and weight Mafic minerals are dark in color and heavy in weight |
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In what two classifications are rocks based on |
Manner of formation Environment of formation ( above or below earths surface) |
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What are the three types of rocks |
Igneous Sedimentary metamorphic |
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How is igneous rock formed |
cooling and solidification of molten rock |
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About how much of the surface continents is made up of igneous rock |
18% |
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What is the difference between magma and lava |
Magma - molten rock in earths interior Lava - molten rock on earths surface |
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What are the three different types of igneous rock cooling and how do they have a different effect |
extrusive - above ground lava - rapid cooling and small crystals Intrusive - cool below the surface - slow cooling and large crystals In water - extremely fast cooling - no crystals creates glass Could have same composition but different name due to crystal size |
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What are thin layers of intrusive igneous rock, found nearly vertical in fractures called |
Dikes |
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What is the most abundant type of rock on the surface of earth |
Sediment 74% of surfaceq |
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How is sedimentary rock formed |
by accumulations of sediments or other deposits produced by weathering |
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What are the three types of sedimentary rock and how do they form |
Clastic - (clast broken fragment of rock) formed by sediments Chemically precipitaed - formed by dissolved solids organically deprived - form from organic materials (such as shells) |
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How are clastic rocks formed step by step |
Weathering breaks down rocks sediment transports water, wind, ice (gemorphic agents) and gravity Sediments accumulate in lowest part of landscape (lake seas valley) Compacion, recrystallization, cementation (lification) |
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What type of rock makes up the least of earths surface |
Metamporphic rock 8% of surface |
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What type of rock is formed under through the alteration of other rocks due to high temperature and preassure |
Metamorphic |
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What are the three grades of metamorphic rock and what do they create |
Shale (low grad) Schist - medium grade, shale exposed to more heat and pressure Marble (high grade) |
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As you go deeper into the earth the _____ and ______ increases |
temperature and density |
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What is the boundary between the crust and mantle |
Moho |
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The lithosphere contains many______ |
continent sized plates |
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What part of earths crust weighs the most and why |
The oceanic crust due to the weight of water |
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What is accretion |
formation of a new lithosphere continental rupture, rise and solidification of magma |
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What type of active plate boundary causes accretion |
Divergent or spreading boundaries |
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What is the result of orogeny |
The creation of mountains |
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What is a transform boundary |
two plates sliding past eachother |
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What is the disintegration dissolution and decay of fresh rocks and minerals called |
weatheringq |
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What is another name for physical weathering |
Mechanical weathing |
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What is regolith |
unconsolidated mineral, same location or place it integrated from a bigger rock, once it is moved or transported it is called eroded materialq |
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what is a result of rock decomposition |
A change in mineral composition and the creation of secondary minerals such as clay |
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Biological weathering is a combination of ____ and _______ |
Physical and chemical weathering |
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salt crystalization frost action Thermal expansion uplift preassure |
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How does salt crystallization work |
Salt crystals form in pours caused by dry weather |
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in what four ways can salt be introduced to salt |
precipitation sea water dust and volcanic gasses rock weathering |
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How is frost action produced |
freezing water leads to ice crystal growth and a 9% increase in volume creating a physical forceq |
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what is a universal solvent and another common one |
Water and carbonic acid (carbonation) |
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What type of weathering results in karst topography? |
carbonation |
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A landslide is also known as |
Mass wasting |
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What can be a result of mass wasting |
forms a talus cone/ scree slope |
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What do landslides move on |
A slippage plain |
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What are the three functions and the outcome of water as a geomorphic agent |
erosion transportation deposition Result - new landforms |
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What is the role of rivers |
deepest part of landscape Drains water of land surface distributes water, sediment, and nutrients across landscape, shape landforms by erosion and sediment transport |
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What are the geomorphic agents |
Water - dominent agent in most landscapes wind - weakest Ice - alpine landscapes (stongest) |
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What is the role of overland flow |
Motion of thin surface layer on sloping ground precipitation rater greater than infiltration rate |
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What are the processes of water erosion |
rain splash erosion sheet erosion rill erosion gully erosion |
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How does rainsplash erosion work |
causes erosion by force of raindrop hitting ground - effective in areas with little or no vegatation |
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What does the erosion amount depend on for rain splash erosion |
kinetic energy and slope angle |
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sheet rills and gully erosion are all ______ _______ |
drainage basins |
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What is sheet erosion |
A thin layer of water flowing across a smooth surface |
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What are rills |
erosion process along small chanels called rills |
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what are rills a result of |
overland flow |
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What is a gully |
A deep V shaped channel carved by newly formed rills |
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What do gullys develop into |
streams |
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What is fluvial |
the running of water and its functions |
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What is the definition of a stream |
a long narrow body of flowing water occupying a channel and moving under the action of gravity |
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Streams are only fed by melt water and rain T or F |
F streams are fed by ground water the majority of the time |
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Where is the fastest velocity of stream water |
In the middle just under the surface (not exposed to wind) |
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How is stream discharge measured |
With a current meter that measures stream velocity |
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How is stream discharge estimated from water height (4 ways) |
Stage or water height measurements (continous) Discharge measurements stage - dischare relationship converging stage to discharge |
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What does a hydrograph represent
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plot of variation in the discharge of a stream overtime |
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When does flooding occur |
when stream discharge cannot be contained within the channel |
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Floods usually follow a flood peiod of every____ |
alternating year |
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What is stream competence |
The maximum particle size a river can move |
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The amount of sediment transported at a given discharge is known as |
stream load |
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What are the three types of sediment transportation |
dissolved load suspended load bedload |
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What is the dissolved load in a stream important for |
source of nutrients for chemical and biology of the stream |
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What type of stream transportation accounts for 90% of the stream load |
Suspended load |
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What is an achieved balanced stream called |
Graded stream |
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What type of channel patterns are there (three) |
straight meandering Braided |
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Strate channels are usually very ____ |
Rare(cover short distance, low gradient) |
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Meandering bends usually have a _____ sediment supply and fine particle size ______. ______ sediment transport dominates |
Low distribution suspended |
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material eroded outside the bend is called a _____. Material deopsited inside the bend are called____ |
cut bend point bar |
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What feature is a bow or cresent shape lake and forms when meanders within floodplains erode and cut off bends |
oxbow lake |
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What type of particle transport dominates in a braided channel |
Bedload transport |
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What is a braided channel |
A network of many interconnected channels seperated by bars |
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What is the name of a bench like landform carved in alluvium by a stream during degradation |
Alluvial terrances (formed by contiously new flood plains |
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What is a large body of sediment built by a stream flowing into a body of standing water called |
A delta |
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What are the two types of glaciers |
Alpine and continental |
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Today perennial ice covers _____% of the earths land |
11% |
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Where do glaciers form |
Anywhere where annual snow accumulation is greater than annual snow melt |
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what type of flow do glaciers have internally |
plastic flow |
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How much of the worlds fresh water is held inside glaciers |
75% |
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What role do glaciers play in the global energy balance |
they have a high albedo (very reflective) |
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What are the four types of alpine glaciers |
Valley glaciers Cirques piedmont glacitier tidewater glaciers |
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Name the four types of continental glaciers |
Ice sheets, ice caps, ice fields, ice shelf |
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The difference between continental and alpine glaciers is mostly between _____ and ____ |
Width and age |
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what type of glacier is a bowl shaped pit located at the head of a valley erooded during times of more extensive glaciation |
A cirque |
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What is a piedmont glacier |
a glacier formed by coalescing (growing, fusing together) valley glaciers, no confining valleys |
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What is a valley glacier |
Rivers of ice confined in valleys, transports debris downstream |
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What type of glacier terminates in a body of water |
a tidewater glacier |
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What type of glacier is less than 50,000 km2 in area |
ice sheets |
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What type of glacier is more than 50,000km2 and covers the peaks of mountains |
ice caps |
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what type of glacier is not large enough to form a dome over peaks |
Ice fields |
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What is an ice shelf |
ice sheet attatched to land extending over sea, floats on water |
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What is firn |
old granular snow on earths surface that has survived one summer |
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what is the part of a glacier that is located at higher elevation where snow falls and does not melt |
zone of accumulation |
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What it the zone of ablation |
part of a glacier in a warmer area where melting occurs |
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What is the equilibrium line of a glacier |
The line which moves up and down the mountain based on climate |
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What are the three main components of glacial ablation |
Melting sublimation calving (breakdown of ice into bergs) |
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What is glacier mass balence |
change in mass of glacier over time (total accumulation - total ablation) |
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what tare the types of glacial landscapes |
pre- glacial (area not effected by ice in a long time) |
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Glaciated landscape |
Change in v shape valley to a u shaped valley due to erosion |
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post glacial landscape |
state of most glaciers on earth |
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What are the types of glacial erosion |
ice push - glacier acts like bulldozer pushing rock loose Pucking - blocks of bedrock loosened along fractures. frozen onto ince and pulled out (removal of fractured rock) Abrasion - results in striations, grooving, glacial polish |
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What is an arete |
steep sided sharp edge ridge formed by glaciers on multiple sides |
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what is a col |
low areas or passes through that once had glaciers on either side |
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What erosional feature is a jagged peak the has survived glacial erosion all around it (multiple cirques on all sides) |
A horn |
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What is a small lake that occupies the rock baisn in a cirque called |
A tarn |
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What is is till |
Unsorted materials deposited by glaciers |
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What is a moraine |
glacial deposited sediment piles or landforms |
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Name the depositional landforms |
drumlin Esker kettle Kame Outwash plain |
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What is a drumlin |
a low hill created by a glacier |
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what is an esker |
chanells formed by movements of water underneath glaciers |
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What is dead ice away from main glacier melts called that causes a hole in the ground |
Kettle Kettle lake (if empty called kettle if full called kettle lake) |
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What is a kame |
accumulation at end of glacier like a delta |
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What is the area in front of a glacier where deposition occurs |
Outwash plain |
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What are features of a preglacial landscape |
Pingos ice wedges patterned ground perma frost |
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how are pingos made |
they are pushed up by frost heaving, circular, ice cored ground |
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What defines perma frost |
Ground that has been frozen for atleast two years |
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What are the two types of permafrost |
continous - all areas frozen except for under rivers and lakes Discontious - slopes facing sun or insulated by snow may thaw seasonally |
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what is an ice wedge |
vertical wall like body of frozen ice, tapering downward in perma frost |
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Where else is patterned ground found |
on mars |
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What do stone polygons show |
frost heaving |
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What is an ice age |
Aseries of glaciations and interglaciations spanning 1 to 3 million years |
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What are the stages of an ice age |
Glacaiation - cold phase with substantial glacial formation interglaciation - warm phase during ice age with large continental glaciers absent Deglaciation - widespread recession during warming trend |
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What is the difference between soil and dirt |
Soil is alive dirt is not |
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What are the components of soil |
mineral matter organic matter soil air soil water |
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What is the differance between regolith and bed rock |
bed rock is unaffected by weathering regolith is close enough to the surface to be effected |
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What is pedogenisis |
soil formation |
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What are soil forming factors |
geology climate vegatation topogreaphy land use time |
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The parent material of soil is___ |
regolith |
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The stepts to the soil forming process are |
enrichment removal translocation transformtation |
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What is soil enrichment |
direct deposition of material by geomorphic factors |
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what is soil loss |
erosion and leaching seeping water dissolves soil salt moss it to other location |
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What is the transport of soil particles up and down from one horizon to another |
Translocation |
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What is the difference between eluviation and illuviation |
eluviation - washing out materials is re-moved from top to bottom in horizon - loss Illuviation washing in - material moves into a horizon - gain |
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What is soil transformation |
transformation of material withing soil/ biological and chemical process (IE decomposition) |
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In a soil diagram what do the following stand for O A Ae B C R |
O - organic matter A - surface soils Ae stand of elluviation B - sub soil (grains material /illuviation) C - parent material R - bed rock |
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What are measurable characteristics identified and used to asses and classify soil |
color texture chemistry structure moisture |
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What does red soil indicate |
iron oxides |
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is a soil is black what does that mean |
lots of organic material (humus) |
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clay minerals are what color of soil |
brown |
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Salts and calcium have what color of soil |
whiter |
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What are the three textures of soil |
Coarse texture (large size) fine texture Loam |
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what is loam |
a very small particle sized soil that is good for farming |
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What does soil particle size effect |
content such as sand silt and clay affects the water holding capacity |
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Soils can be ____ and ____ |
acidic and alkaline |
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What is ped |
A unit of aggregartion peds held together by clay |
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What are the types of peds |
prismatic granular |
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Why is it that when water is still present plants can wilt |
the water is bounded to clay too strongly to be taken in by plants |
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What are two soil classification systems |
U.S. natural resouces service (12 main types) National soil survey of canada (10 types) |
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What are three soils you have to know for this test |
Cheroznemic podzolic organic soils |
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Chermonzeric soil is found where |
grasslands well drained, high fertillity and lots of organic material |
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What defines organic soil |
more than 30% organic matter |
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What is podzolic soil where is it found |
develops beneath coniferous and boreal forests by leaching off overlaying layers dominates west BC low to medium fertillityq |
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What is ecology |
THe study of interrelationships between organisms and their support systems |
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What type of ecosystems are not PRIMARILY (but still a bit) based on solar energy |
deep oceans dark caves |
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What are the types of organisms in an environment |
producers consumers decomposers |
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What are the to types of food chains |
Terrestrial aquatic |
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What is causing a rupture in the nitrogen cycle |
Fertilizer use, deforestation, burning fossil fuels |
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what is biogeography |
The study of geographic pattern of the distribution of living organisms and the factors efficting distribution |
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What factors effect species distrbution |
enironmental stresses latitudinal gradients altintudinal gradiants |
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What is a geographic niche |
combination of all the habitats and organism can survive |
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What is an ecological niche |
specific area of niche an organism can survive well |
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What is ecological niche |
The combination of physical , chemical, bilogical conditions nessecary for growth of a given species Includes how an organism interacts with other species |
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What is a functional adaption |
helps an organism survive in its changing environment |
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What is a reproductive adaption |
help organism sucessfully reproduce |
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What is a xerophyte |
Adapted to living in drought has wax coating on leaves needle like leaves or spines light colorred and water filled |
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What type of xeric animals are there |
nocturnal animals which live in cool burrows during the day |
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What adaption to limited do organism contain |
climbing (vines) Grow in canopy of other trees(epipytes) Dark green leaves with red underside (red reflects light back to leaves |
