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GEOL 101: FINAL EXAM
Angle of repose |
the steepest angle of descent or dip relative to the horizontal plane to which a material can be piled without slumping
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Dissolution |
of gases, liquids, or solids into a liquid or other solvent is a process by which these original states become solutes (dissolved components |
Exfoliation |
A mechanical weathering process which removes protuding overlying layers and esposing the weathered down dome of the underlying layers |
Landslides |
a rapid movement of a large mass of earth and rocks down a hill or a mountainside. Little or no flowage of the materials occurs on a given slope until heavy rain and resultant lubrication by the same rainwater facilitate the movement of the materials |
Liquefaction |
a phenomenon in which the strength and stiffness of a soil is reduced by earthquake shaking or other rapid loading. |
Mass movement |
is movements of masses of bodies of soil, bed rock, rock debris, soil, or mud which usually occur along steep-sided hills and mountains because of the pull of gravity
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Mass wasting |
also known as slope movement or mass movement, is the geomorphic process by which soil, sand, regolith, and rock move downslope typically as a mass, largely under the force of gravity, but frequently affected by water and water content as in submarine environments and mudslides |
Scarp |
a very steep bank or slope; an escarpment |
Slope stability |
the potential of soil covered slopes to withstand and undergo movement.
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Solifluction |
a gradual mass wasting slope process related to freeze-thaw activity, occurring in periglacial environments. |
Soil creep |
a long term process. The combination of small movements of soil or rock in different directions over time are directed by gravity gradually downslope.
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Flow |
Movement of soil and regolith that more resembles fluid behavior. Water, air and ice are often involved in enabling fluidlike motion of the material.
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Slump |
A slipping of coherent rock material along the curved surface of a decline
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Fall |
occurs where regolith cascades down a slope, but is not of sufficient volume or viscosity to behave as a flow. Result from undercutting by water as well as from undercutting by waves
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Base level |
the lowest point to which it can flow, often referred to as the 'mouth of the river' |
Braided stream |
A stream consisting of multiple small, shallow channels that divide and recombine numerous times forming a pattern resembling the strands of a braid
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Canyon |
a deep ravine between pairs of escarpments or cliffs and is the most often carved landscape by the erosive activity of a river over geologic timescales.
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Capacity |
The total amount of material a stream is able to carry under given conditions |
Cut bank |
he outside bank of a water channel which is continually undergoing erosion. |
Delta |
is a fan of braided streams and sediment formed when a river discharges into a larger body of water |
Drainage basin |
an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain, melting snow, or ice converges to a single point at a lower elevation, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another waterbody |
Ephemeral streams |
a wetland, spring,stream, river, pond or lake that only exists for a short period following precipitation or snowmelt.
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Floodplain |
an area of land adjacent to a stream or river that stretches from the banks of its channel to the base of the enclosing valley walls and experiences flooding during periods of high discharge
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Gradient
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grade measured by the ratio of drop in elevation of a stream per unit horizontal distance, usually expressed as feet per mile or metres per kilometre. |
Meander |
a bend in a sinuous watercourse or river forms when moving water in a stream erodes the outer banks and widens its valley, and the inner part of the river has less energy and deposits silt |
Oxbow lake |
U-shaped body of water that forms when a wide meander from the main stem of a river is cut off, creating a free-standing body of water |
Point bar |
depositional feature made of alluvium that accumulates on the inside bend of streams and rivers below the slip-off slope |
Tributary |
a freshwater stream that feeds into a larger stream or river
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Turbulent flow |
a flow regime characterized by chaotic property changes |
laminar flow |
occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption between the layers |
Valley |
a low area between hills, often with a river running through it |
Waterfall |
a place where water flows over a vertical drop in the course of a stream or river |
Groin |
a rigid hydraulic structure built from an ocean shore (in coastal engineering) or from a bank (in rivers) that interrupts water flow and limits the movement of sediment
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Jetty |
structure, such as a pier, that projects into a body of water to influence the current or tide or to protect a harbor or shoreline from storms or erosion. |
Lagoon |
a shallow body of water separated from a larger body of water by barrier islands or reefs |
Tombolo |
deposition landform in which an island is attached to the mainland by a narrow piece of land such as a spit or ba
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Upwelling |
oceanographic phenomenon that involves wind-driven motion of dense, cooler, and usually nutrient-rich water towards the ocean surface, replacing the warmer, usually nutrient-depleted surface water.
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Hot springs |
a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally heated groundwater that rises from the Earth's crust |
Perched aquifer |
A type of unconfined aquifer that sits above another unconfined aquifer because water infiltrating from the surface is trapped or 'perched' on a shallow aquitard.
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Percolate |
percolation refers to filtration of water through soil and permeable rocks |
Alluvial fans |
cone-shaped deposit of sediment crossed and built up by streams |
Bajada
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consists of a series of coalescing alluvial fans along a mountain front. |
Butte |
an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top
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Deflation |
lifting and removal of fine, dry particles of silt, soil, and sand by the wind. |
Desert pavement |
a desert surface covered with closely packed, interlocking angular or rounded rock fragments of pebble and cobble size. |
Desert varnish |
orange-yellow to black coating found on exposed rock surfaces in arid environments. |
Lag deposit |
the deposition of material winnowed by physical action
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Playa |
a desert basin with no outlet which periodically fills with water to form a temporary lake
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Rain shadow |
a dry area on the lee side of a mountainous area (away from the wind). The mountains block the passage of rain-producing weather systems and cast a "shadow" of dryness behind them. |
Talus |
as the pile of rocks that accumulates at the base of a cliff, chute, or slope
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1. Ventifacts |
a stone shaped by the erosive action of windblown sand. |
Wadi |
a valley, ravine, or channel that is dry except in the rainy season.
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Yarding |
a streamlined protuberance carved from bedrock or any consolidated or semiconsolidated material by the dual action of wind abrasion by dust and sand, and deflation which is the removal of loose material by wind turbulence
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Ablation |
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
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1. Arête |
a sharp mountain ridge. |
Basal sliding |
is the act of a glacier sliding over the bed due to meltwater under the ice acting as a lubricant.
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Cirque |
a bowl-shaped depression on the side of or near mountains |
Erratic |
is a piece of rock that differs from the size and type of rock |
Esker |
a long, winding ridge of stratified sand and gravel, examples of which occur in glaciated and formerly glaciated regions of Europe and North America
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Firn |
granular snow, especially on the upper part of a glacier, where it has not yet been compressed into ice. |
Fjord |
a long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between high cliffs, as in Norway and Iceland, typically formed by submergence of a glaciated valley. |
Glacial polish |
is a characteristic of rock surfaces where glaciers have passed over bedrock, typically granite or other hard igneous or metamorphic rock |
Glacial striation |
are scratches or gouges cut into bedrock by glacial abrasion |
Glacial valley |
formed by the process of glaciation. It has a characteristic U shape, with steep, straight sides and a flat bottom
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Glacier |
a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight
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Hanging valley |
a shallow valley carved by a small glacier and thus the elevation of thevalley floor is "hanging" high above the elevation of the valley floor carved out by the larger glacier |
Horn |
results when glaciers erode three or more arêtes, usually forming a sharp-edged peak |
Kame |
an irregularly shaped hill or mound composed of sand, gravel and till that accumulates in a depression on a retreating glacier, and is then deposited on the land surface with further melting of the glacier. |
1. Loess |
a loosely compacted yellowish-gray deposit of windblown sediment of which extensive deposits occur, e.g., in eastern China and the American Midwest. |
Moraine |
any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris
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Outwash |
material carried away from a glacier by meltwater and deposited beyond the moraine. |
Permafrost |
a thick subsurface layer of soil that remains frozen throughout the year, occurring chiefly in polar regions. |
Piedmont glacier |
occur when steep valleyglaciers spill into relatively flat plains, where they spread out into bulb-like lobes |
Tarn |
a small mountain lake. |
Till |
unsorted material deposited directly by glacial ice and showing no stratification
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