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100 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Mechanical |
when physical forces break solid rock into smaller sediments |
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Chemical |
when there is a chemical transformation of rock into other compounds |
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What is not an agent of erosion? |
Heat |
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What region is not likely to experience weathering via salt crystal growth? |
Subterranean cave passages |
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What environmental condition is reduced on a batholith in order to generate weathering via sheeting? |
Pressure |
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The most important agent of chemical weathering? |
Water |
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Which acid is commonly responsible for the dissolution of limestone? |
Carbonic |
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Which chemical weathering process is the primary method of weathering for feldspars? |
Hydrolysis |
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Rainwater will combine with which atmospheric gas in order to create carbonic acid? |
Carbon Dioxide |
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What are two chemical weathering products created in many metallic and coal mining regions and pose serious environmental hazards? |
Sulfuric acid; iron oxide |
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During hydrolysis, what commonly decomposes into clay minerals, silica, and soluble constituents? |
Feldspars |
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Which rocks will be the most resistant to weathering? |
Solid bedrock |
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Which climate contains the optimum environment for chemical weathering? |
Warm and wet |
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What kind of weathering occurs when differences in resistance or environmental factors produce uneven surfaces on rocks? |
Differential |
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The upper few feet of regolith that contains minerals and organic matter, water and air and is capable of sustaining life |
Soil |
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What is a common boundary where different part of a system interact? |
Interface |
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Soil develops in response to interactions between which Earth spheres? |
Biosphere, Atmosphere, Geosphere, and Hydrosphere |
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Which components of soil is usually in the greatest percentage? |
Mineral portion |
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Decayed remains of plant and animal life |
Humus |
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A soil that has bedrock as its parent material? |
Residual soil |
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A soil that has unconsolidated sediment as its parent material |
Transported soil |
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The primary source of organic matter in soils |
Plants |
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Eluviation |
Transportation of fine clay particles |
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Which horizons make up the solum? |
O, A, E, and B Horizons |
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Which horizons make up the topsoil? |
O and A Horizons |
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Term for stored-up energy released by earthquakes |
Seismic |
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Definition of the epicenter |
The location on the Earth's surface directly above the point of slippage |
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Definition of the focus |
The exact location on the fault where slippage occurs |
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Researcher who developed elastic rebound after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake |
H.F. Reid |
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The elastic rebound associated with earthquakes is an an example of what kind of deformation? |
Elastic |
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Smaller earthquakes of lesser magnitude that follow a major earthquake |
Aftershocks |
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Which tectonic boundary is associated with megathrust faults? |
Convergent |
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Slow, gradual displacement along a fault without the accumulation of significant strain? |
Fault creep |
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A measurement of displacement on the fault surface |
Fault slip |
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As of 2012, which of the following earthquakes has been observed to have the greatest fault slips? |
Tohoku, Japan |
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Records of seismic waves |
Seismograms |
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Instruments that sense earthquake waves and transmit them to a recording device |
Seismometers |
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Which seismic wave will be released first during an earthquake? |
P-waves |
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When going from a 5 to a 6 on the Richter Scale, what is the increase in amplitude of seismic waves? |
10 times |
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Which seismic waves will have the greatest amplitude on a seismogram? |
Surface waves |
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What is a seismic gap? |
Unusually quiet zones along typically active faults |
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Measures the total energy released during an earthquake by determining the average amount of slip on the fault, the area of the fault surface that slipped, and the strength of the faulted rock. |
Moment Magnitude Scale |
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Liquefaction will do what? |
Amplify the power of seismic waves |
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What does NOT contribute to the destruction from seismic vibrations? |
Proximity to water sources |
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As of 2012, which is the only ocean basin to have significant tsunami warning buoy coverage? |
Pacific Ocean |
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You are monitoring a seismograph in Seattle. One morning, your instrument records an earthquake approximately 2,000 km away. From that information, can you predict where the earthquake occurred? |
No, because you would need information from more than one seismograph to plot the epicenter. |
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What is the most dangerous location for a seiche to form in? |
Reservoir behind an earthen dam |
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Where is the zone of greatest seismic activity on Earth? |
Circum-Pacific Belt |
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Which plate boundary along the Circum-Pacific Blet is responsible for the majority of that belts earthquakes? |
Convergent |
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Which tectonic plates are responsible for the majority of seismic activity in the Alpine-Himalayan Belt? |
Eurasian, African, and Indian Plates |
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The downslope movement of rock, regolith, or soil under the direct influence of gravity |
Mass Wasting |
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Non-geologic term commonly used to describe a sudden event in which large volumes of material move down steep slopes |
Landslide |
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Location most likely to see large-scale, rapid mass wasting |
Rocky Mountains |
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Which factor does not influence mass wasting? |
Geologic age |
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Angle of repose |
the steepest angle at which a material remains at rest |
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Sediment size that has the steepest angle of repose |
Gravel |
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Which of the following with NOT oversteepen a slope and lead to mass wasting? |
a. Costal erosion b. Quarrying c. Construction d. NONE OF THE ABOVE. |
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Most stable slope composition |
Solid bedrock |
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Fastest form of mass wasting |
Rockfall |
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Slowest form of mass wasting? |
Creep |
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The crescent shaped mark found at the top of a slump block? |
Scarp |
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Which mass-wasting process, generated on Nevado del Ruiz, destroyed the city of Armero in 1985? |
Lahar |
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What combination of factors was responsible for the Vaiont Dam disaster in Italy in October 1963? |
Heavy rains and the drawing down of the reservoir led to a landslide that filled the reservoir and displaced the water |
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Sedimentary environment of deposition that will be controlled in part by debris flows |
Alluvial fan |
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Which of the following types of flows will have the largest particle sizes? |
a. Debris flow b. Mudflow c. Quick Clary D. Earthflow |
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Which factor exerts the greatest control over the velocity of debris flows and the distance they will travel? |
Water content |
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Infiltration |
water soaking into the ground |
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Describes teh path water takes as it moves between the land, the ocean and the atmosphere |
Hydrologic Cycle |
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An elevational point that divides an entire continent into large drainage basins |
Continental divide |
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The area at the headwaters of a stream where most of the sediment is derived |
Sediment Production |
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Not one of the three zones of a river system |
Sediment Capacity Zone |
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The wetted perimeter of a stream
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The amount of flow in contact with the banks and bed of the channel |
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Longitudinal profile |
The cross-sectional area from the headwaters to the mouth |
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How will channel velocity change along the longitudinal profile of a stream? |
Velocity will start low and gradually increase toward the mouth due to increasing discharge downstream |
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What is the mouth of a stream? |
The location where streamflow ends |
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Which bed would be easiest for a stream to erode? |
Lined with silt |
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Which particle size is most likely to make up a stream's suspended load? |
Silt |
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Which part of a stream's sediment load moves the slowest? |
Bed Load |
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The maximum load of solid particles a stream can transport per unit time |
Capacity |
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A measure of a stream's ability to transport particles based on size rather than quantity |
Competence |
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What is NOT one of the three basic stream channel morphologies? |
Bedrock channel |
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A stream that consist of a complex network of converging and diverging channels that weave around channel bars |
Braided stream |
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A stream that is in equilibrium and is neither eroding or depositing material, but simply transporting it |
Graded stream |
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What percentage of Earth's liquid freshwater is in the form of groundwater? |
94% |
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The point in the subsurface where 100% of the pore spaces are filled with water |
Zone of Saturation |
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How will the water table respond if it is a wet spring? |
Water table will rise |
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Permeability |
Ability to transmit water |
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In order for an aqufier to be useful for human consumption, what kind of porosity and permeability should it have? |
High porosity, high permeability |
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19th Century scientist who developed the equation that determines the discharge of an aqufier |
Henri Darcy |
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Term used to describe how the water table around a well becomes lower as water is taken from the subsurface |
Drawdown |
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Term used to describe the hypothetical line the water in a confied aquifer would rise to if it weren't trapped |
Potentiometric surface |
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Which of the following regions is famous for its artesian wells? |
Western South Dakota |
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What mineral substance makes up most geyser deposits? |
Sinter |
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Term for bacteria that are found in the high temperature, chemical-rich geothermal features like Octopus Pool at Yellowstone National Park |
Extremophiles |
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Which region inspired the term karst topography? |
Republic of Slovenia, in the former Yugoslavia |
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Which acid is responsible for most karst topography? |
Carbonic |
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Which of the following scenarios will be able to maintain the steepest angle of repose? |
Dry sand |
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A piece of gravel is resting on a slope. Which of the following best describes how the gravitational force pulling the gravel downward will vary with the inclination of the slope? |
Gravitational force will decrease as the slope angle decreases |
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A stream is flowing over a hill composed of clay-rich soil. The stream us eventually blocked to create a small pond in order to free land downhill for construction. What will happen to the strength and cohesion of the soil in the area around this pond? |
Strength and cohesion will decrease |
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A stream is cutting into a valley wall. Which of the following is the most likely trigger for a mass-wasting event? |
The stream erodes the toe of the slope, which results in the slope becoming over steepened |