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131 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What are four shore stabilizers?
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Jetties
Groins Breakwater Seawall |
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What is a jetty?
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A river or dock carried out in pairs from river banks into deep water
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What is a groin?
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Juts out into a body of water perpendicular to the shoreline that is built to restore an eroding beach.
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What is a breakwater?
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Constructed into sea to protect the coast from the force of waves.
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What is a seawall?
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Constructed along the shore to protect land from waves and tides. Usually cement.
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What is the difference between Emergent coasts and Submergent coast?
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Emergent coasts have raised beach features while submergent are "drowned valleys".
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What is the difference between the Pacific and Atlantic coasts?
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The Atlantic and Gulf Coasts are gently sloping plains while the Pacific is narrow steep cliffs and mountain ranges (causes more rapid erosion).
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What is a spit?
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A deposition landform off coasts. One end connects to the land while the other extends into the sea.
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What is a baymouth bar?
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A sound bar that completely closes a bay, sealing it off from the main body of water.
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What is a tombolo?
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A ridge of sand that connects an island to the mainland or to another island.
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What is a barrier island?
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A narrow strip of sand that is parallel to the mainland coast.
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What is a sea arch? (headland feature)
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An arch formed by wave erosion when caves on opposite sides of a headland unite.
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What is a sea stack? (headland feature)
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An isolated mass of rock standing just offshore, produced by wave erosion of a headland.
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What is a barrier island?
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A narrow strip of sand that is parallel to the mainland coast.
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What is a wave-cut platform? (headland feature)
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A bench or shelf along a shore at sea level, cut by wave erosion.
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What is a sea arch? (headland feature)
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An arch formed by wave erosion when caves on opposite sides of a headland unite.
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What shoreline features are caused by wave erosion?
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Wave-cut cliffs
Wave-cut platform |
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What is a sea stack? (headland feature)
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An isolated mass of rock standing just offshore, produced by wave erosion of a headland.
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What is a wave-cut platform? (headland feature)
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A bench or shelf along a shore at sea level, cut by wave erosion.
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What shoreline features are caused by wave erosion?
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Wave-cut cliffs
Wave-cut platform |
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What is a wave-cut cliff?
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A seaward-facing cliff along a steep shoreline formed by wave erosion at its base and mass wasting.
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What is wave refraction?
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A change in direction of waves as they enter shallow water. The portion in shallow water is slowed, which causes the waves to bend.
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What is beach drift?
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The transportation of sediment in a zigzag pattern along a beach.
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What are two types of waves?
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Wave of oscillation
Wave of translation |
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What is a wave of oscillation?
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A wave that forms advances as the water particles move in circular orbits.
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What is a wave of translation?
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The turbulent advance of water created by breaking waves.
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What does the height, length, and period of a wave depend on?
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Wind speed, length of time wind has blown, the fetch (distance that the wind has traveled across open water).
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What are the 3 measurements of a wave?
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Height, length, period.
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What is wave height?
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The vertical distance between the trough and the crest of a wave.
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What is wavelength?
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The horizontal distance separating successive crests or troughs.
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What is a wave period?
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The time interval between the passage of successive crests at a stationary point.
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What is a crest?
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The top of the wave.
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What is a trough?
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The low area between the waves.
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What is a bed load?
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sediment moved along the bottom of a stream by moving water or particles moved along the ground surface by wind.
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What is saltation?
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Transportation of sediment through a series of leaps or bounces.
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What is a suspended load?
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The fine sediment carried with the body of flowing water or air.
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What is a glacier?
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a thick mass of ice that originates on land from the accumulation, compaction, and recrystallization of snow
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Types of glaciers?
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Valley (alpine) - mountain glacier
Ice sheets - continental glacier |
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What are the two basic types of glacier movement?
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Plastic flow and basal slip
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What is plastic flow?
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Glacial movement that occurs within the glacier, below a depth of 50 meters, where the ice isn't fractured.
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What is basal slip?
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Glacial movement in which the ice mass slides over the surface below.
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What is the rate of glacial movement?
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Several meters per day. An average of 800 per year.
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What are the two primary was of glacial erosion?
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Plucking and abrasion
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What is plucking?
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Pieces of bedrock are lifted out of place by a glacier. Occurs when melting water penetrates the cracks and joints of bedrock beneath a glacier and freezes.
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What is abrasion?
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The grinding and scraping of a rock surface by the friction and impact of rock particles carried by water, wind, and ice.
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Types of glacial drift (deposits)
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Till and saturated drift
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What is till?
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Unsorted sediment deposited directly by a glacier.
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What is saturated drift?
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sediments laid down by glacial meltwater = till + imported rocks
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What are landforms made of till?
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Moraines and drumlins.
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What is a moraine?
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A mass of rocks and sediment deposited by a glacier, typically as ridges at its edges or extremity.
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What is a drumlin?
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A streamlined symmetrical hill composed of glacial till. The steep side of the hill faces the direction from which the ice advanced.
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What landforms are made from saturated drift?
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Kames and Eskers
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What is a kame?
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A steep sided hill composed of sand and gravel, originating when sediments collected in openings in stagnant glacial ice.
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What is an esker?
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Sinuous ridge composed largely of sand and gravel deposited by a stream flowing in a tunnel beneath a glacier near its terminus.
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What water body is formed by a glacier?
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Kettle lake
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What is a kettle lake?
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a shallow, sediment-filled body of water formed by retreating glaciers or draining floodwaters.
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What causes a glacier to form?
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Large scale: millions of years of Plate tectonics
Small scale: Thousands of years of variations in Earth's orbit. |
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What is The Milankovitch hypothesis?
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Periodic variations in the earth's position relative to the sun as the earth orbits affect the distribution of the solar radiation reaching the earth and causes climatic changes to have profound impacts on the abundance and distribution of organisms
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What are some landforms created by glacial erosion?
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glacial trough, truncated spurs, hanging valleys, crique, fiords, aretes, horns
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What is a glacial trough?
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A mountain valley that has been widened, deepened and straightened by a glacier. U-shaped.
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What is a truncated spur?
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Triangular-shaped cliff produced when spurs of land that extend into a valley are removed by the force of a glacier.
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What is a hanging valley?
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Valley that enters a glacial trough at a considerable height above the floor of the trough.
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What is a cirque?
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An bowl shaped basin at the head of a glacier valley produced by frost wedging and plucking.
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What is a fiords?
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Steep-sided inlet of the sea formed when a glacial trough was partially submerged.
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What is a arete?
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A narrow, knifelike ridge separating two adjacent glacier valleys.
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What are some common features of karst topography?
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Irregular terrain
Sinkhole or sinks Disappearing streams |
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What is a sinkhole?
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a depression produced in a region where soluble rock has been removed by groundwater.
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What is karst topography?
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Landscapes that have been shaped mainly by the dissolving power of groundwater.
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What is an artesian well?
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A well in which the water rises above the level where it was initially encountered.
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What are two types of artesian wells?
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Flowing
Nonflowing |
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What is a flowing artesian well?
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A well in which the water flows freely at Earth's surface because the pressure surface is about ground level.
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What is a non flowing artesian well?
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A well in which the water doesn't rise to the surface because the pressure surface is below ground level.
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What can the pumping of wells cause?
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Drawdown (lowering) of the water table,
Cone of depression in the water table, Subsidence, Saltwater contamination |
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What is the cone of depression?
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A cone shaped depression in the water table immediately surrounding a well.
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What are the factors influencing storage & movement of groundwater?
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Permeability and Porosity
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What is permeability?
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The measure of a material's ability to transmit water.
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What is porosity?
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The volume of open spaces in rock or soil.
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What are the factors influencing the storage of groundwater?
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Porosity
Specific yield Specific retention |
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What is the specific yield?
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The portion of water that will drain under the influence of gravity.
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What is the specific retention?
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The water that is retained as a film on particle and rock surfaces and in tiny openings.
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What is an aquitard?
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Impermeable layers that hinder or prevent water movement.
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What is an aquifer?
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Permeable rock strata or sediment that transmit groundwater freely.
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What landforms help in the distribution of groundwater?
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Zone of Aeration
Water table Zone of Saturation |
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What is the zone of aeration?
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The subsurface sediment above the water table containing air and water.
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What is the zone of saturation?
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The zone where all open spaces in sediment and rock are completely filled with water.
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What is a water table?
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the upper level of the saturated zone of groundwater.
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What are the parts of the Hydrologic cycle?
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Precipitation
Evaporation Infiltration Runoff Transpiration Atmospheric advection |
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What is precipitation?
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Rain, snow, sleet, or hail that falls to the ground.
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What is evaporation?
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lose or cause to lose liquid by vaporization leaving a more concentrated residue
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What is infiltration?
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The movement of surface water into rock or soil through cracks and pore spaces.
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What is gradient?
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a drop in elevation between two points over the distance between same points
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What are the three types of loads?
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Bed load
Suspended load Dissolved load |
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What's a dissolved load?
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The portion of a stream's load carried in solution.
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How much of the Earth's water is stored in the ocean?
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97%
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What type of water makes up the least amount of water on the planet?
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Groundwater
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What is runoff?
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Water that flows over the surface and immediately evaporates.
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What is transpiration?
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Water that soaks into the ground and is absorbed by plants and later released into the atmosphere.
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What is a drainage basin?
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The land area that contributes water to a stream.
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What are the two types of streamflow?
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Laminent and turbulent
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What is laminar flow?
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Water that moves in roughly a straight line path parallel to the stream channel.
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What is turbulent flow?
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Water moves in an erratic fashion characterized by a series of horizontal and vertical swirling motions.
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What factors influence flow velocities of streams?
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Channel slope or gradient, channel size and shape, channel roughness and amount of water flowing
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What is capacity?
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the maximum load of solid particles a stream can transport per unit time.
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What is competence?
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A measure of a stream's ability to transport particles based on size rather than quantity.
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What is an oxbow lake?
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a curved lake produced when a stream cuts off a meander.
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What is a base level?
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The lowest elevation to which a stream can erode its channel.
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What is the ultimate base level?
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the lowest level in which stream erosion could lower the land.
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What is temporary base level?
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The level of a lake, resistant rock layer or any other base level that stands above sea level.
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What is a floodplain?
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The flat, low-lying portion of a stream valley subject to periodic inundation.
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What is an alluvial fan?
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fan shaped deposits that accumulate along steep mountain fronts
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What is the zone of accumulation?
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The part of a glacier characterized by snow accumulation and ice formation.
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What is the zone of wastage?
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The part of the glacier beyond the snow line where annually there is a net loss of ice.
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What is a lateral moraine?
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A ridge of till along the sides of a valley glacier composed primarily of debris that fell to the glacier from the valley walls.
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What is an inselberg?
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an isolated mountain remnant characteristic of the late stage at a given locale based on the amount of damage.
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What is a bajada?
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an apron of sediment along a mountain front created by the coalescence of alluvial fans.
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What is a playa?
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The flat central area of and undrained desert basin.
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What is deflation?
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The lifting and removal of lose material by wind.
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What is a blowout?
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A depression excavated by wind in easily eroded materials.
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What is desert pavement?
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a layer of course pebbles and gravel created when wind removes the finder material
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What are types of desert erosion?
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Deflation, blowouts, desert pavement.
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What are ventifacts?
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a cobble or pebble polished and shaped by the sandblasting effect of wind
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What are yardangs?
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a streamlined, wind-scuplted ridge having the appearance of an inverted ship's hull that is oriented parallel to the prevailing wind,
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What are dunes?
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a hill or ridge of wind-deposited sand
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What are cross beds?
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structure in which relatively thin layers are inclined at an angle to the main bedding
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What is a barchan dune?
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A solitary sand dune shaped like a crescent with its tips pointing down
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What is a transverse dune?
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a series of long ridges oriented at right angles to the prevailing winds
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What is a star dune?
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an isolated hill of sand that exhibits a complex form and develops where wind directions are variable
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What is a loess?
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deposits of windblown silt, lacking visible layers, capable of manning a nearly vertical cliff
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What is mass wasting?
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the downslope movement of rock, regolith, and soil under the direct influence of gravity
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What is a creep?
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a type of mass wasting that involves the gradual downhill movement of soil and regolith
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What are the slow types of mass wasting?
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creep and solifluction
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