Term | Definition |
How does moving water cause erosion? | It is taken up by plants or goes into a runoff. |
Runoff | When water moves over the land, it carries particles with it. |
Rills | Tiny grooves in the soil, formed by runoffs. |
Gully | A large groove, or channel, in the soil that carries runoff after a rainstorm. |
Stream | A channel along which water is continuously flowing down a slope. |
Tributary | A stream or river that flows into a larger river. |
What land features are formed by water erosion? | Through erosion, a river creates valleys, waterfalls, flood plains, meanders, and oxbow lakes. |
Flood plain | The flat, wide area of land along a river. |
Meander | A loop like bend in the course of a river. |
Oxbow lake | A meander that has been cut off from the river. |
What land features are formed by water deposition? | Deposition creates land forms such as alluvial fans and deltas. |
Delta | Sediment deposited where a river flows into an ocean or lake builds up a land form. |
Alluvial fan | A wide, sloping deposit of sediment formed where a stream leaves a mountain range. |
Ground water | Underground water. |
Stalactite | A deposit that hangs like an icicle from the roof of a cave. |
Stalagmite | A cone shaped of this material from the cave floor. |
Karst topography | Landscape such as a sinkhole. |
Glacier | Any large mass of ice that moves slowly over land. |
How do glaciers form and move? | Glaciers can form only in an area where more snow falls than melts. |
Continental glacier | A glacier that covers much of a continent or large island. |
Ice ages | When continental glaciers covered much of Earth's surface. |
Valley glacier | A long, narrow glacier that forms when snow and ice build up high in a mountain valley. |
How
do glaciers cause erosion and deposition? | The two processes by which glaciers erode the land are plucking and abrasion. |
Plucking | When a glacier flows over the land, it picks up rocks. |
Till | The mixture of sediments that a glacier deposits directly on the surface. |
Mormaine | The till deposited at the edges of a glacier forms a ridge. |
Kettle | A small depression that forms when a chunk of ice is left in glacial till. |