GEO 155: FINAL EXAM
118 Cards in this Set
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Where would you find gelisol and what would a profile look like?
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Where would you find gelisol and what would a profile look like?
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Where would you find spodosol and what would a profile look like?
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Subpolar climates
O - distinct and big
A - minimal
E - lost clay
B - gained clay
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Where would you find ultisol and what would a profile look like?
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Southeast US (Florida)
Horizons are all normal
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Where would you find mollisol and what would a profile look like?
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Midwest
A - thick
E - maybe lost some clay
B - maybe gained some clay
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Where would you find aridisol and what would a profile look like?
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Southwest (Arizona, New Mexico)
A - weak
Other horizons are normal
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Which soil-forming factors account for the differences between soil types?
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Climate
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What are some characteristics of entisols?
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New soil
Weak A horizon
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What are some characteristics of vertisols?
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Absorbs water well
Consists of clay
In wet and dry climates
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What are some characteristics of inceptisols?
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Young soil
Weakly developed horizons
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What are some characteristics of histosols?
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Found in wetlands
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What are minerals?
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Naturally occurring, inorganic, homogenous solids with consistent chemical structure
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How does igneous rock form?
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Cooling of molten rock
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What are extrusive igneous rocks?
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Form when molten erupts out of earth's surface
Cools rapidly
Tiny crystals
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What are intrusive igneous rocks?
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Form beneath earth's surface
Cools slowly
Large crystals
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How does sedimentary rock form?
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From the remains of older rocks
Usually found at the bottom of the ocean
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What is clastic sedimentary rock?
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Forms from rock and mineral fragments
Ex: sandstone or shale
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What is chemically precipitated sedimentary rock?
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Forms when dissolved materials precipitate out to form a new solid
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What is organic sedimentary rock?
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Forms from the plant or animal debris
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How does metamorphic rock form?
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When pre-existing rocks are subjected to extreme temperature and pressure
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What is foliated metamorphic rock?
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Layered
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What is non-foliated metamorphic rock?
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Not layered
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What is the hydrologic cycle?
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Circulation of water in the atmosphere
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What can happen to water from precipitation once it reaches earth's surface?
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Infiltration or overland flow
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What are the roles of substrate, topography, vegetation, climate, and land use in influencing overland flow or infiltration?
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Substrate - fine: overland flow, coarse: infiltration
Topography - steep: overland flow, flat: infiltration
Vegetation - less: overland flow, more: infiltration
Climate - freezing soils: overland flow
Land Use - logging, pasture, urbanization: overland flow, straight-row plowing: over…
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What is the drainage basin or watershed of a stream?
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Where the water eventually ends up
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What are the 3 routes of water from slopes to streams and what is the speed of each one?
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Overland flow (fast)
Infiltration (medium)
Groundwater (slow)
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What is the recurrence interval of a flood?
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The estimated likelihood of a flood occurring
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What is meant by "50 Year Flood"?
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The recurrence interval is 50 years
There's a 2% chance of having one in any given year
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What is a short-term hydrograph?
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Used for short-term events, like a storm
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What are the parts of a short-term hydrograph?
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Amount of precipitation
Amount of water
Base flow
Flood peak
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What are the characteristics of a short-term hydrograph in an environment with high overland flow?
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High flood peak due to high overland flow
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What is an annual hydrograph and how can they reflect climate?
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Shows the amount of water present in a year
High quantity of water reflects a climate that has a lot of rainfall
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What is fluvial geomorphology?
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How rivers shape landforms
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What is sediment?
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Fine mineral matter that is transported and deposited by way of air, water, or ice
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What is bedload?
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Particles roll or bounce along the bottom of a river
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What is suspended load?
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Small rocks are suspended in the water
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What is a dissolved load?
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Material dissolved in the water and being carried along
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What is alluvium?
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Particles deposited by a river
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How does the shape of a stream channel tend to reflect the type of sediment it transports?
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Narrow - suspended load
Wide - bedload
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What does it mean if a stream is in equilibrium?
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The stream's energy is equal to its workload
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What is stream erosion?
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Caused by an increase in energy and decrease in workload (energy>workload)
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What is aggradation?
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Sediment builds up in a river
Caused by a decrease in energy and increase in workload (workload>energy)
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How are most valleys created?
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Degradation and stream erosion
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What is a stream terrace?
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Where a stream used to be
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What is an alluvial fan?
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Mass of alluvium deposits
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What did you learn from the video about Mississippi River floods?
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Was a 500 year flood
Upper Widwest was most affected
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What is a glacier?
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Large accumulation of snow and ice that develops on land
Slowly moves under the pressure of its own weight and the pull of gravity
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How does a glacier form?
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Accumulation of snow and ice due to cold temperatures
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Where can glaciers be found?
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Used to be in North America
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What was the Pleistocene?
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Most recent ice age
Ended about 11,700 years ago
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What is the zone of accumulation?
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Snowfall > snowmelt
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What is the zone of ablation?
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Snowmelt > snowfall
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What is the equilibrium line of a glacier?
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Snowfall = snowmelt
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What is glacial drift?
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Erosion and transportation of sediment by glaciers
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What is glacial till?
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Unsorted pieces of rock that occur when ice melts
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What is glacial outwash?
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Sorted pieces of rock that move with running water from a glacier
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How can you tell the difference between glacial drift, till, and outwash?
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Drift: carries sediment with it
Till: creates sediment
Outwash: washes sediment away
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What causes a glacier to retreat?
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Ablation > accumulation
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What causes a glacier to advance?
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Accumulation > ablation
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What is a terminal moraine?
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Marks the farthest point a glacier reached
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What is a recessional moraine?
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When a glacier stops and creates a moraine
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What is a ground moraine?
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Forms moraines in valleys
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What is a lateral moraine?
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Forms moraines on the sides of valleys
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What are landforms associated with continental glaciation?
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Drumlins
Kettle
Kame
Esker
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What are landforms associated with alpine glaciation?
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Cirque
Arete
Horn peak
Tarn
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How can you estimate the direction of glacial movement from drumlins?
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The skinny side is the direction that the glacier is going
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What do glacial features look like on a topographic map?
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Cirque - looks like a C
Arete - V on a mountainside
Horn peak - much higher than the land around it
Tarn - little body of water
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What is physical weathering?
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Breakdown of rock naturally
Ex: frost shattering
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What is chemical weathering?
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Chemical change to the rock
Ex: limestone being broken down by acids
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What is frost shattering?
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A liquid freezes and expands
Ex: beer exploding
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How does limestone get weathered?
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Interaction with an acidic fluid
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How do dolines and caves form?
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Water escapes below the surface, creating underground caverns
Dolines - limestone caverns eventually collapse creating a sinkhole
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What is sheet erosion?
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Erosion by overland flow
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What is undercutting?
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Rockfall that leads to a steep cliff
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What is mass wasting?
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Erosion not carried by water
Ex: landslides and creep
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What is a creep?
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Slow mass movement creating a slope
Water soaks into particles causing them to move up. When the water is no longer soaking a hillside, the particles move down a little farther than where they were before
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What is the type of erosion that results in steep cliffs?
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Undercutting
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What is the difference between how sheet erosion and creep shape slopes?
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Sheet erosion makes a steep slope
Creep makes a gradual slope
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What is the difference between the erosional processes shaping the Chadron and Brule formations in the Dakota Badlands?
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Chadron Formation: coarse, infiltration, creep, little hills
Brule Formation: fine, overland flow, sheet erosion, sharp peaks
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What is the inner core?
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Nickel and iron
Solid
Extreme pressure
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What is the outer core?
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Nickel and iron
Liquid
Slightly less pressure than inner core
Reason why we have a magnetic north
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What is the mantle?
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Thickest layer
Between outer core and crust
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What is the asthenosphere?
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Upper mantle
What the continents sit on
Solid but flows
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What is the uppermost mantle?
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Made of rigid hot rock
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What is the lithosphere?
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Crust and upper mantle
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What is the difference between oceanic and continental crust?
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Oceanic crust is thicker
Ocean (mafic) rocks are darker and denser than continental (felsic) rocks
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What is the continental drift theory?
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Alfred Wegener
All continents were once one supercontinent
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What is the plate tectonic theory?
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Francis Bacon
Earth's crust is divided into plates that glide over the mantle
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What was Pangea?
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Supercontinent
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What was Thelassa?
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Water mass (same time as Pangea)
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How are island arcs formed?
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Oceanic-oceanic convergence
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How are oceanic trenches formed?
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Oceanic-oceanic convergence
Occurs by subduction
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How are rift valleys formed?
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Continental-continental divergence
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Where is volcanism likely to exist?
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Along plate boundaries
Ex: Ring of Fire
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What is an effusive eruption?
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Just molten
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What is an explosive eruption?
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Smoke and ash cloud
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What is a shield volcano?
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Made by basaltic lava flows
Vent is shaped like a bowl
Long, gentle sides (kind of like a shield)
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What is a cinder cone?
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Made of a loose pile of rocks
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What are composite cones?
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Composed of alternating layers of hardened lava, volcanic ash, and rock fragments
Lava comes out from areas other than the vent, too
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What is a lava dome?
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Magma piles up thick and high around the vent
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What is a caldera?
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A volcanic crater, usually formed after an eruption leading to a collapse of the vent of the volcano
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What are nuée ardentes?
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Rapidly moving cloud of gas, ash, etc. from a volcanic eruption
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What are lahars?
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Mudflow on the slopes of a volcano
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What kind of plates may lead to deformation from tension, compression, or shear?
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Tension: divergent plates
Compression: convergent plates
Shear: transform plate
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What are the basic types of faults?
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Reverse
Normal
Strike-Slip
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What is a reverse fault?
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Arrows moving towards each other
Plate on the left falls below
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What is a normal fault?
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Arrows moving away from each other
Plate on the right falls below
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What is a strike-slip fault?
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They move next to each other
Ex: photo of road after SF earthquake
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What are fault scarps?
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Looks like a steep step
Caused by slip on the fault
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What are horsts?
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Raised block of crust lying between two faults
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What are grabens?
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Block of crust lying between two faults and displaced downward
Ex: rift valley
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What is anticline?
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Upward folding of a landscape
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What is syncline?
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Downward folding of a landscape
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What are monoclines?
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One fold
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What are hogbacks?
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A long mountain range caused by erosion of a synclinal ridge
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What is a cuesta?
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Ridge with a gentle slope on one side and a steep slope on the other
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What are mesas?
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Plateau
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What are buttes?
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Like a mesa but steeper and narrower
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GEO 155: Exam 2