Question | Answer |
What is weathering? | The chemical and physical process that breaks down rock at earth's surface. |
What is erosion? | The process by which water, ice, wind, or gravity. |
What is uniformitarianism? | The geologic principal that the same geologic process that operate today operated in the past to change earth's surface. |
What is mechanical weathing? | The type of weathing in which rock is physically broken into smaller. |
What is an abrasion? | The grinding away of rock by other rock particles carried in water, ice, or wind. |
What is ice wedging? | Proces that splits rock when water seeps into cracks, then freezes and expands. |
What is chemical weathering? | The process that breaks down rock through chemical changes. |
What is oxidation? | A chemical change in which a substance combines with oxygen, as when iron oxidizes, forming rust. |
What is permeable? | Characteristics of a material that is full of tiny, connected air spaces that water seeps through. |
What is soil? | The loose, weathered material on earth's surface in which plants can grow. |
What is bedrock? | The solid layer of rock beneath the soil. |
What is humus? | Dark-colored organic material in soil. |
What is fertilty? | A measurment of how well soil supports plants growth. |
What is loam? | Rich, fertile soil that is made up of loam about equal parts of clay, sand, and silt. |
What is soil horizon? | The layer of soil that differs in color and texture from the layers above and below it. |
What is the topsoil? | Mixture of humus, clay, and other minerals that forms the crumbly, top most layers of soil. |
What is the subsoil? | The layer of soil beneath the topsoilthat contains mostly clay and other materials |
What is the litter? | The loose layer of dead plants leaves and stems on the surface of the soil |
What is a decomposre? | Soil organism that breaks down the remains of organisms and and digest them |
What is sod? | A thick mass of grass and soil |
What are natural resoures? | Anything in the enviroment that humans use |
What is the Dust bowl? | The area of the great plains where wind erosion caused soil loss during the 1930s |
What is soil conservation? | The management of of soil to prevent its destuction |
What is contour plowing? | Plowing fields along the curves of a slope to preventsoil loss |
What is conservation plowing? | Soil plowing method in which the dead stalks from the previous year's crop are left in the ground to hold the soil in place |