Unit 4: The Hydrosphere

Front 1

_____: is the general term for the clay, silt, sand, gravel, and mineral fragments deposited by running water as sorted or semi-sorted sediment on a flood plain, delta, or streambed.

Back 1

Alluvium

Front 2

_____: Ridges form drainage divides that define every drainage basin. They are lines that control into which basin runoff water from precipitation drains.

Back 2

Drainage Divide

Front 3

____: is a level below which a stream cannot erode its valley.

Back 3

Base Level

Front 4

_____: It is the rate of elevation decline from its headwater to its mouth. This decline is far from linear.

Back 4

Stream Gradient

Front 5

______: ranging in size from tiny to vast.

Back 5

Drainage basin

Front 6

______: stream flow volume past a point in a given unit of time.

Back 6

Stream discharge

Front 7

____: the work of the wind—erosion, transportation, and deposition.

Back 7

Eolian

Front 8

_____: in arid climates a prominent land form is an alluvial, which occurs at the mouth of a canyon where it exists into a valley.

Back 8

Alluvial fan

Front 9

______: deflation works with rainwater to form a surface resembling a cobblestone street.

Back 9

Desert pavement

Front 10

_____: Large glacial outwash deposits of fine grained clays and silts.

Back 10

Loess

Front 11

____: As runoff water evaporates, salt crusts may be left behind on the desert floor.

Back 11

Playa

Front 12

___: a continuous apron may form if individual alluvial fans coalesce into one sloping surface.

Back 12

Bajada

Front 13

_____: Seawater is a solution, and the concentration of dissolved solids is this.

Back 13

Salinity

Front 14

____: particles pm the beach also are moved along this, shifting back and forth between water and land with each swash and backwash of surf.

Back 14

Beach drift

Front 15

_____: named for its devastating effect when its energy is focused in harbors.

Back 15

Tsunami

Front 16

_____: melting on the surface, internally and at its base; ice removal by deflation (wind); the calving of ice blocks; and sublimation.

Back 16

Ablation

Front 17

_____: is the lowest elevation where snow can survive year-round; specifically, it is the lowest line where winter snow accumulations persist throughout the summer.

Back 17

Snowline

Front 18

______: a glacier in a mountain range is this.

Back 18

Alpine glacier

Front 19

_____: this scooped out erosion landform at the head of a valley is a cirque and this is the glacier that forms in the area.

Back 19

Cirque glacier

Front 20

______: describes frost wreathing and freeze-thaw rock shattering in the Carpathian Mountains. Periglacial regions occupied more than 20% of the Earth’s land surface and include features formed under no glacial conditions.

Back 20

Periglacial