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Alfisols
Moderately weathered, form under boreal or broadleaf forests, rich in iron and aluminum (productive, less than mollisols)
Andisols
Form in volcanic ash and defined as containing high proportions of glass and amorphous collodial materials, including allpohane, imogolite and ferrihydrite
Aridisols (Latin for Dry)
Form in an arid or semi-arid climate
Entisols
Do not show any "significant" soil profile development. Minimal soil horizons.
Gelisols
Soils of very cold climates which are defined as containing permafrost within two meters of soil surface
Histosols
Consist primarily of organic materials
Inceptisols
Form through alteration of parent material
Mollisols
Form in semi-arid to semi-humid ares, typically under a grassland cover (productive)
Oxisols
Best known for their occurrence in tropical rain forest
Spodosols
Typical soils of coniferous or boreal forests
Ultisols
Commonly known as red clay soils
Vertisols
High content of expansive clay
Volcanoes
A mountainous land form at the end of a magma conduit, which rises from below the crust and vents to the surface. Magma rises and collects in a magma chamber deep below effusively or erupting explosively and forming composite shield, or cinder-cone volcanoes.
Composite Volcanoes
Composite volcanoes are steep-sided volcanoes composed of many layers of volcanic rocks, usually made from high viscosity lava, ash and rock debris (Mt. Rainier and Mt. St. Helens)
Shield Volcanoes
Shield volcanoes are volcanoes shaped like a bowl or shield in the middle with long gentle slopes made by basaltic lava flows. Basalt lava flows from these volcanoes are called flood basalts. The volcanoes that formed the basalt of the Columbia Plateau were shield volcanoes
Lava Domes
Formed when erupting lava is too thick to flow and makes a steep-sided mound as the lava piles up near the volcanic vent. The eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980 was caused in party by a lava dome shifting to allow explosive gas and steam to escape from inside the mountain.
Anticline
Upwards folding of a landscape
Anticlinal ridge
The ridge from the formation of an anticline
Syncline
Downwards folding of a landscape
Synclinal Valleys
The valleys formed from a the formation of a syncline
Igneous Rock
Rocks that are solidified from a molten or partially molten state (extrusive or intrusive)
Sedimentary
Wind, water, ice and chemicals break down existing rock into sediment that is then transported and deposited by wind, water, and glaciers (Shale, sandstone, limestone, and conglomerate)
Metamorphic
Rock type that has been altered by heat, pressure, and/or the chemical action of fluids and gases (Foliated - has a definite planar structure or Nonfoliated - Massive without structure)
Pleistocene
Geological epoch which lasted from 2,588,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the world's recent period of repeated glaciations
Equilibrium Line
Boundary between the zone of accumulation and zone of ablation
Zone of Accumulation
Accumulation zone is the area above the firn line, where snowfall accumulates and exceeds the losses from ablation (melting, evaporation and sublimation)
Zone of Ablation
Area referring to the low-altitude area of a glacier or ice sheet below firn with a net loss in ice mass due to melting, sublimation, evaporation, ice calving, aeolian processes like blowing snow, avalanche, and any other ablation
Glacial Advance
The weight of new snow on their very tops adding enough weight so that the icy glacier is pushed downhill
Glacial Retreat
Occurs when more material ablates from the terminus than is replenished by flow into that region
Moraines
Any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris (soil and rock) which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past glacial maximum

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