Geo 401 Final

Front 1

What is a reservoir?

Back 1

Any place on the earth that stores water. Natural reservoirs include oceans, rivers, groundwater, glaciers, the atmosphere and biosphere. p. 402

Front 2

This is 99.96% of all water on the earth.

Back 2

What is salt water?

Front 3

What does the 'hyrdrologic cycle' do and how does it relate to 'residence time'?

Back 3

The hydrologic cycle models the movement of water from one reservoir to another (means and amount). By knowing the flux and reservoir size, one can determine residence time, the amount of time a molecule spends in each reservoir.

Front 4

What drives the 'hyrdologic cycle'?

Back 4

The hyrdologic cycle is driven by solar energy.

Front 5

What is the 'latent heat of vaporization'?

Back 5

The amount of heat required to turn water into vapor. Note: The same amount of energy is released when vapor condenses back into water.

Front 6

What is the general correlation between energy consumption/release and phase changes in water?

Back 6

As energy is consumed (ice -> water -> vapor), therefore, as energy is released (vapor->water-> ice).

Front 7

What is ground water?

Back 7

That part of the subsurface water that is in the zone of saturation. Ground water occupies the spaces between minerals and rock fragments.

Front 8

What is porosity (in terms of its relation to ground water)?

Back 8

Defines the amount of water a volume a rock can hold. Porosity increases with increased sorting. It is INDEPENDENT of grain size. Varies from 1-60%.

Front 9

Describe permeability.

Back 9

Defines the resistance to the movement of a fluid, and is controlled by the pore size and connectivity.Permeability decreases with decreasing grain size, porosity, and sorting.

Front 10

Give an example of a rock with high porosity/permeability and low porosity/permeability.

Back 10

High: Gravel
Low: Unfractured shale

Front 11

What does the water table define?

Back 11

The water table defines the border between the saturated and unsaturated zone. Also defined as where the pressure head of the water is equal to atmospheric pressure.

Front 12

How does groundwater "move"?

Back 12

It can be moved by a gravity and pressure difference along a 'head gradient'. Groundwater will always move from a high head to a low head, not necessarily from high elevation to low elevation(i.e. downhill).

Front 13

How can the water table be 'recharged'?/How can the water table be lowered(discharge)?

Back 13

Recharging can occur after storm events as water travels through the unsaturated zone and raises the water table. Increased evaporation or withdrawal pumping lowers the water table(discharge). The zone where the water table drops from pumping is called a 'drawdown'.

Front 14

1.What are aquifers? 2.Aquitards? 3. Confined and unconfined Aquifers?

Back 14

1. Aquifer: Rock sufficiently permeable to allow the conduction of groundwater.
2. Aquitards are confining beds that retard but do not prevent the flow of water to or from an aquifer.
3. Unconfined have an upper and lower boundary defined by the water table. Confined (artesian) have an upper limit that is a confining layer (some impermeable rock probably).

Front 15

Where do springs form?

Back 15

They form whenever the land surface intersects the water table. Therefore, their flow rate is a function of the water table's gradient (elevation/distance).

Front 16

What is a perched aquifer?

Back 16

It's basically a mini aquifer above another aquifer. Picture in presentation shows it best.

Front 17

What is a karst aquifer and what common rock type readily has them?

Back 17

Aquifers that form from rocks that are soft enough to dissolve and form caverns. Limestone often creates karst aquifers. Sink holes are the result of karts that have caved in.

Front 18

What does it mean if an aquifer is being 'mined'?

Back 18

It means the pumping has exceeded the recharge rate. The resource will eventually be depleted.

Front 19

Describe turbulent vs. laminar fluid flow. Which type carries more sediments? Are faster and deeper streams usually turbulent or laminar?

Back 19

Laminar: Flow lines are parallel and do not mix.
Turbulent: Flow lines cross and mix chaotically. Most rivers and streams are turbulent. Turbulent flows carry more sediment than laminar flows and are usually created in deeper, faster streams.

Front 20

Sediment Transport: Suspended Load/Bed (traction) Load/ Saltation.

Back 20

Suspended: fine grained, carried by suspension due to turbulence.
Bed Load: coarser grained stuff, rolls and slides along the bottom.
Saltation:(spanish saltar - to jump) sediment transported by intermittent jumps. This is the transition between bed and sediment modes.

Front 21

valley, Channel, Flood Plain.

Back 21

Valley the entire area from ridge to ridge. Channel is the area actually occupied by a stream. Flood plane are the areas on either side of the channel that flood when the channel overflows.

Front 22

Where is the fastest flow on a meander?

Back 22

The fastest flow is on the outside. The slower inside flow results in deposition (a point bar).

Front 23

How are deltas created?

Back 23

When a river enters a static body of water and sediment is deposited as the velocity decreases.

Front 24

What is deflection (with respect to winds)?

Back 24

Process by which strong winds gradually lower the elevation of the ground by removing dry sand and finer grained particles.

Front 25

What is desert pavement?

Back 25

A surface of gravel too large for wind to transport, concentrated by the selective removal of finer grained sediment.

Front 26

Transverse dunes?

Back 26

Oriented normal to prevailing unidirectional winds. Form in arid regions with abundant sands.

Front 27

Linear dunes?

Back 27

Parallel to prevailing wind direction. Long and straight. Because of their orientation WITH the wind, they grow much larger in size than transverse dunes.

Front 28

Crescent shaped dunes?

Back 28

Form in areas of limited sand supply and unidirectional winds. Move downwind over a flat surface of pebbles or bedrock.

Front 29

Is desert weathering primarily physical or chemical? What is the result of chemical weathering in desert environments?

Back 29

Primarily physical. Some chemical: mostly the oxidation of mafic minerals. This results in a 'desert varnish', a mixture of clays and iron/manganese oxides.

Front 30

What factors contributed to the dust bowl of the 1930s?

Back 30

Extended drought. Over-grazing. Over-plowing. Use of sod as a building material.

Front 31

What is loess?

Back 31

Wind blown dust deposits.

Front 32

What are 'playas' and how do they relate to evaporites?

Back 32

Deserts usually have poor drainage systems and so, after rainfall, the rain will remain deposited in land depressions forming lakes. These lakes then evaporate leaving a bed of salt deposits (evaporites). These dry lake beds are called playas.

Front 33

What causes ocean tides?

Back 33

Ocean tides are the result of the sun and moon's gravitational pull on the ocean. These can be classified as solar or lunar tides.

Front 34

Explain spring tides and neap tides.

Back 34

Spring tides: the sun and moon are aligned (so their gravitational pulls are working together).
Neap: The moon is 90 degrees from the sun. (So the sun is pulling one way and the moon is pulling perpendicular to it.)

Front 35

Why are the waves on Lake Travis smaller than those on the coast?

Back 35

Wave height increases with increasing wind speed, duration, and distance over which the wind blows.

Front 36

What is a beach and what three zones can they be broken into?

Back 36

The area along the coast that is affected by waves. Zones are offshore, foreshore, and backshore.

Front 37

What factors affect the eustatic sea level?

Back 37

The volume of the ice caps (as they melt the sea level rises), and temperature (water expands as it heats up).

Front 38

Mid-Atlantic Ridge? Rift valley? Fracture Zone?

Back 38

A high elevation region in the vicinity of a rift valley due to hot buoyant rock. Each ridge segment is separated by a fracture zone. Site of new seafloor generation by seafloor volcanism. See SLIDES.

Front 39

What is a glacier?

Back 39

A body of ice flowing under its own weight and not entirely melting during the summer.

Front 40

What are the two types of glaciers?

Back 40

Valley glaciers (alpine glaciers).
Continental glaciers (ice sheets) Continental glaciers may undergo motion via ice streams, controlled by features on their lwer boundary or perimeter.

Front 41

Describe glacier movement in terms of the two types of glaciers.

Back 41

Plastic flow is dominant in valley glaciers and results in high erosion.
Basal slip is dominant in thick continental glaciers, lubricated by wet sediments; this type of movement results in less erosion.

Front 42

What is the snow line?

Back 42

The elevation above which snow doesn't completely melt in summer.

Front 43

What is glacial flour?

Back 43

Large quantities of finely ground rock contained in the glacial melt water.

Front 44

Does the melting of floating ice cause the sea level to rise?

Back 44

FUCK NO! It only rises if the melted ice is on land.

Front 45

What are Cuestas?

Back 45

Asymmetrical ridges formed in tilted and eroded rocks of different strengths.

Front 46

What is a hogback?

Back 46

A narrow ridge formed in steeply dipping or vertical beds of hard strata.

Front 47

How does acid rain form?

Back 47

Acid rain forms when sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide (both released from the burning of fossil fuels) combine with water vapor to produce sulfuric and nitric acid.

Front 48

How do chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) destroy the ozone?

Back 48

Not sure.

Front 49

What is Davis's Theory of landscape Evolution?

Back 49

Davis believes that uplift occurs in rapid, short-lived pulses and was followed by a long period of gradual erosion. This gives rise to the concept (now discredited) of landscape stages of "Youth", "Maturity", and "Old Age".

Front 50

What is Penck's Theory of Landscape Evolution?

Back 50

Penck believed that uplift gradually increased and decreased over long periods of time, and that erosion acts concurrently to eventually wear down mountains.

Front 51

What is Hack's Theory of Landscape Evolution?

Back 51

Hack believed that uplift and erosion rates can be sustained over lond periods of time, resulting in balance, or dynamic equilibrium. Under such conditions, landscapes need not follow a predetermined pattern.

Front 52

What is maturation?

Back 52

The breakdown of organic matter into a liquid or gas).

Front 53

What is a trap?

Back 53

A reservoir beneath impermeable rocks (often shales)