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Geomorphology Test 2
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Transparent brown stream water is generally a result of | dissolved organic material |
| A bloom of green algae generally turns the water | green |
| A bloom of Euglena turns the water | red |
| A bloom of diatoms usally turns the water | brown |
| Slimy black, red, and orange material usually comes from bacteria processing | iron and magnesium |
| Yellowish powder or dust on the water is probably | pollen |
| Floating green "cotten candy" is most likely | filamenteous algae |
| Bluish-green scum on the surface of the water is likely a bloom of | cyanobacteria |
| Often times, the addition of this is the reason for an algal bloom | phosphates |
| In Lake Sinclair, we often find the jelly-like blobs of this attached to submurged sticks | bryazoans |
| insolation | amount of incoming solar energy into the atmosphere |
| orographic barriers | land forms that diverts airflow upward or laterally |
| When was Pangea formed? | At the end of the Paleozoic Era |
| sedimentary sequence | blankets of sediment left behind because of transgressions and regressions of sea level, each distinguished by unconformities between the sequences |
| Explain the oxygen isotope ratio method for studying global climate change | Ratio of 18O and 16O in glacial ice indicates the atmospheric temperature in which the snow that made up the ice formed, the ratio is larger in snow that forms in warmer air but smaller in snow that forms in cooler air. |
| greenhouse periods | warmer periods in Earth's long term climate history |
| ice house periods | colder periods in Earth's long term climate history |
| sunspot cycle | the amount of energy produced by the Sun varies with this cycle, it involves the appearance of large numbers of sunspots about every 9 to 11.5 years |
| sunspot | black spots on the surface of the sun thought to be magnetic storms |
| Explain Milankovitch cycles | Change in the tilt of Earth's axis over a period of 41,000 years, the Earth's 23,000 procession cycle and changes in the eccentricity of its orbit over a period of 100,000 years together cause the amount of summer heat in high latitudes to vary |
| Explain changes in ocean currents that could affect climate change | the Younger Dryas may have resulted when a layer of freshwater from melting glaciers spread out over the North Atlantic and prevented thermohaline circulation in the ocean, thereby shutting down the Gulf Stream |
| Explain changes in surface albedo that could affect climate change | Regional-scale changes in the nature of continental vegetation cover and/or in the proportion of snow and ice on the Earth's surface would affect our planet's albedo, increasing albedo causes cooling and decreasing albedo causes warming |
| What are the six major changes that influence short term climate change? | Fluctuations in solar radiation and cosmic rays, changes in Earth's orbit and tilt, changes in volcanic emissions, changes in ocean currents, changes in surface albedo, abrupt changes in concentrations of greenhouse gas |
| True or false, Earth's past climate can be studied using fossils, isotopes, pollen assemblages, and growth rings in trees | True |
| True or false, the record shows that over geologic time, climate has not alternated between greenhouse and icehouse conditions | false |
| What are factors that lead to long term climate change? | positions of the continents, volcanic uplift of land, formation of materials that remove Co2 |
| orbital forcing | effect on climate of slow changes in the tilt of the Earth's axis and shape of the orbit |
| eccentricity | The orbital eccentricity of an astronomical body is the amount by which its orbit deviates from a perfect circle, where 0 is perfectly circular, and 1.0 is a parabola, and no longer a closed orbit. |
| Which planet influences our planet's eccentricity and its gravitational force is high enough to tug on Earth | Jupiter |
| Milankovitch cycles | orbital forcing moving from low eccentricity to high eccentricity, collective effects of changes in the Earth's movements upon its climate, |
| Approximately every how many years does the Earth's axis complete one full cycle of precession? | 26,000 |
| Describe the tilt of the Earth's axis | We wobble from 21.5 degrees to 24.5 degrees on a 41,000 year cycle |
| Describe the precession of equinox | 23,000 year wobble |
| Is it true that glacial advances appear to be happen when there is a cool summer? | Yes, the Earth will be a long way from the sun during the summer because of the wobble of the tilt. |
| Is it a combination or one single factor from Milankovitch cycles that cause hotter or colder environments than expected? | Combination |
| baseflow | ground water contribution to a stream |
| True or false, icy comets can add water to our closed system which is enough to raise global sea level 1 inch per million years | True, our hydrologic cycle is closed on the short term scale |
| True or false, the hydrous materials in the mantle could hold up to 15x the amount that is currently on our surface | False, the mantle could hold up to 10x the water |
| True or false, rain that falls at a high elevation is important because of high potential energy | true |
| What are other sources of energy in the earth? | Rotational energy and internal energy |
| What are the types of rotational energy? | Gravitation(erosional landforms, mass wasting, tides, coastal geomorph) magnetic field |
| What is gravitation? | tendency for a free falling object at surface to be drawn to center of earth |
| What is the gravity? | net force of gravitation reduced by centrifugal force |
| Describe tides | they are caused by gravitation force of moon, sun, and other planets |
| Describe magnetic fields | It is composed of magnetosphere, van Allen radiation belts, solar radiation belts and cosmic rays, and aurora belts |
| Magnetosphere | formed when a stream of charged particles, such as the solar wind, interacts with and is deflected by the intrinsic magnetic field of a planet or similar body |
| How is the magnetic field formed? | Circulation of outer core around inner core |
| What are the components of geothermal heat? | Radioactive decay, convection/rotational/tidal friction, primordial heat |
| What is the geothermal gradient? | rate of increasing temperature with respect to increasing depth in the Earth's interior |
| What is the temperature gradient of the geothermal gradient? | 30 degrees Celsius per kilometer |
| What is the signification geomorphic energy of coastal geomorphology? | Flood tides and ebb tides erase themselves, storm events as the result of wind patterns |
| Flood tide | tide coming in |
| Ebb tide | tide going out |
| spring tide | usually high tide |
| neaptide | unusually low tide |
| cosmic ray | particles, debris from fission or fusion outside solar system |
| Discuss "arms of the galaxy" | Busy areas where dense packing of stars, high cosmic rays, when Earth moves through these it gets bathed in more radiation |
| True or false, solar winds distort our magnetosphere | True |
| Discuss primordial heat | heat left over from Earth's formation, kinetic energy changed to heat energy by collision of material during building of the earth |
| True or false, rock is more of an conductor than an insulator | False |
| Peridotite | Ultramafic rock making up the mantle of the lithosphere, melting of peridotite during subduction happens because of volatiles |
| Discuss volcanic energy | It is a very small amount of geothermal energy |
| stratovolcanos | very high and conical, narrow shield, viscous, explosive, built up by layers of ignimbrite, tuffs, ash and pumice |
| Ignimbrite | the deposit of a pyroclastic density current, or pyroclastic flow, a hot suspension of particles and gases that flows rapidly from a volcano, driven by a greater density than the surrounding atmosphere |
| yardangs | ridges that have been cut from sediments that are being folded by tectonic collision, carved by wind erosion that occur by moving in one direction for an extensive period of geologic time |
| saltation | when a particle is transported by water or wind and plays a role in erosion by bouncing along the ground for some time but is eventually deposited back into the sediments, KE of one grain is high enough to change the KE of another grain and move it |
| Yardang fields | hollowed out grooves between features, the exhumed part of what used to be laucustrine deposits |
| loess deposit | extremely fine grained silicate materials which have been deposited by windblown erosion, no stratification visible |
| paleosol | soil that has been preserved by burial underneath other sedimentary deposits, tell us what climate was there because of vegetation and can be dated using OSL or cosmogenic radiation |
| stadial | little advances in overall glacial advance |
| interstadial | superimposed retreats in glacial advance |
| glacial | glacier is moving southward |
| interglacial | glacier is retreating, moving north |
| forearc basin | depression that forms between subduction zones and volcanic mountains |
| theolitic lavas | lavas enriched in magnesium and iron, low in potassium |
| hyaloclastites | basaltic clastic glass deposits, look like brecia, lava pours into water and shatters and then lithified |
| extensional basin | forearc basin which forms if there is normal faulting in the basin after subduction, often followed by flows of basaltic lava into the region |
| terrace | forms when base level drops, abandoned flood plains left behind when a stream incises |
| alluvium | alluvial deposit terraces |
| strath | bedrock terraces |
| Calc-alk lavas | felsic lavas, high in calcium and potassium |
| clinker | metamorphic rock which forms by ignition and sequential baking of shallow coal bed deposits and the surrounding rock bodies like shale and siltsone |
| glacial maximum | greatest extent to which glaciers in one age covered a landscape |
| stream piracy | name for a process that occurs when a stream with relatively higher base level is in essence captured by the flow of another stream with lower base level and diverts its runoff from its original groundwater |
| groundwater sapping | groundwater exits a bank or hillslope laterally as seeps and springs and erodes soil from the slope |
| barbed tributaries | tributaries flowing backwards into a trunk |
| elbows of capture | abrupt changes of stream course |
| karst | geologic formation shaped by the dissolution of a layer or layers of soluble bedrock, usually carbonate rock such as limestone or dolomite,[1] but has also been documented for weathering resistant rocks like quartzite given the right conditions |
| headward erosion | The stream erodes away at the rock and soil at its headwaters in the opposite direction that it flows, can increase the energy in a system and can be caused by positive pore pressure at the headwall of a stream |
| geomorphic threshold | process increases until critical stress is exceeded and system is fundamentally changed |
| equifinality | land-forms that have been formed by completely different processes but look very similar |
| terrane | rock type in an area |
| terrain | lay of land |
| Examples of physical deformation | anticline, sincline, monocline |
| geologic trinity | structure, process, time |
| extrensic | increased water velocity results in erosion, changes from outside the system |
| intrinsic | slope loses strength due to chemical weathering, changes inside the system |
| oxbow lakes | leftover meanders that have been dammed by silt and debris, abandoned by river channel\ |
| What are the things responsible for long term Cenozoic Climate Change? | shifting tectonic plates, fluctuating atmospheric CO2, increased chemical weathering, volcanism, biologic evolution, changes in ocean circulation, variations in Earth's orbital pattern |
| True or false, the Cenozoic Era occurred at the beginning of the Phanerozoic Eon | False, the Cenozoic occurred at the END of the Phanerozoic |
| What are the epochs making up the Cenozoic Era? | Paleocene, Eocene, Miocene, Pliocene, Pleistocene |
| Describe the shifting of tectonic plates during the Cenozoic and how it affected climate change | The evolvement of Pangaea occurred during this era. A hot deep-water basin created the gulf stream. The Laramide Orogeny formed. During the Mesozoic, Pangea broke apart. During the Cretaceous, the eroding of Appalachians formed the GA kaolin deposits. |
| What major event occurred during the Mesozoic | The breakup of Pangaea |
| SMOW | Standard mean ocean waters of glaciers today using ratio of 18O to 16O |
| PDB | Peedee River Bolynmnites used as standard from the Cretaceous ratios of 18O to 16O as a way to describe if levels are depleted or elevated to the common standard |
| ephemeral | refers to a stream that carries water only during or shortly after rainfall events |
| thalweg | literally means "valley way". it refers to the deepest part of the stream cross section, the low flow channel of the stream |
| point bar | characterized by gravel or larger sized sediments; stream is shallow and swift at low flows |
| incise | erosive excavating and transporting of bed material downstream |
| aggrade | the rising of a stream bed due to sediment deposition |
| intermittent | refers to a stream that carries water during the "wet season" |
| graded stream | a stream whose channel maintains its dimensions and profile overtime, does not aggrade or degrade. |
| the width of a stream generally increases downstream in proportion to the square root of __________ | stream discharge |
| in relation to stream profile, channel slope is inversely related to | sinuosity |
| fluvial | refers to landforms created by streams |
| point bar | a cresent-shape depositional feature with coarse material located on the inside bend of a meander |
| pool | located on the outside of the meander bend or the bottom of a step, pools are deep flat areas in the stream created by scour |
| reach | a relatively short defined length of stream |
| floodplain | a relatively flat alluvial feature adjacent to the stream channel that is formed during the present climate |
| knickpoint | a bedrock outcrop that creates an abrupt change in the longitudinal profile of a stream controls the streambed elevation |
| scour | erosive action of water in streams by excavating and transporting bed and bank materials downstream |
| watershed | the land area that drains water to a given stream, lake, estuary, or ocean |
| colluvial features | landforms that are not well developed by the river. sediments are typically angular and jagged |
| aggradation | the rising of a stream bed due to sediment deposition |
| degradation | the lowering of a streambed by scour and erosion. |
| Describe Tertiary paleogegraphy of North America | The Cordilleran Region along the west coast was home to the Laramide Orogeny which formed due to subduction tectonics. The Appalachian region displayed passive tectonics and coastal plain and and the Gulf of Mexico had passive tectonics with sedimentation |
| What occurred during in the Cordilleran Region that has significance in the formation of the Rocky Mountains? | The erosion of the Rockies and significant volcanism from the subduction of the Pacific and Falleron plates and also the faulting of the Rockies and formations of basins along the west coast |
| What is a major geographic and geologic feature in the Midwest that was formed largely due to subduction, erosion and uplift | The Basin and Range area |
| What are some major basaltic deposits in the continental US? | These are flood basalts from fissure eruption. The major deposits are the Columbia River Basalts and the basalts which contain Snake River Plain, Caldera and Yellowstone |
| True or false, flood basalts in the Columbia River Gorge spread over an area of 500,000 km2 and are up to 500 m thick | True |
| True or false, the Cascade Range Mountains are not actively forming today | False, they are actively forming. |
| Discuss the building of Mt. Mazama | Rocks about the magma body collapsed after small eruptions to form a caldera |
| Caldera | cauldron-like volcanic feature usually formed by the collapse of land following a volcanic eruption |
| Discuss the exposure of the Sierra Nevada batholiths | Granitic batholiths intruded into the area and were uplifted in the Pliocene and faulted which accelerated erosion of the strata above |
| Discuss important biological evolution which affected climate change | Carbonate secreting organisms evolved during the late Mesozoic, deciduous angiosperms and grass |
| Describe the specific impacts that the evolution of carbonate secreting organisms had on climate change | These organisms increased the amount of calcium carbonate which was available for weathering by metamorphism and volcanism, enormous beds of chalk were deposited quickly and recycled quickly which changed the speed of recycling of CO3s and storage time |
| forams | large group of amoeboid protists with reticulating pseudopods, fine strands of cytoplasm that branch and merge to form a dynamic net |
| True or false, the boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary is named for the evolution of chalk | True, the KT boundary is easily recognized by the increase in chalk beds |
| Describe the specific impacts that expansion of deciduous angeosperms had on long term climate change | The decay of leaf litter weathers potassium, magnesium and calcium three to four times faster than the rate of evergreen leaf litter, this is consuming CO@ much faster and the Earth's atm cooled by 10 degrees |
| Describe the specific impacts of grass upon global climate change | During the Eocene and Oligocene, grass began to cover South America and grass expanded to the rest of the world during the Oligocene. It decreased weathering and erosion and increase of carbon sink |
| What is directly proportional to the percolation of water/slope? | Chemical weathering |
| True or false, salt accounts for about 35% for the weight of the ocean | False, salt accounts for 3.5% of the weight of the ocean |
| thermohaline circulation | part of the large-scale ocean circulation that is driven by global density gradients created by surface heat and freshwater fluxes |
| halocline | cline caused by a strong, vertical salinity gradient within a body of water. Because salinity (in concert with temperature) affects the density of seawater, it can play a role in its vertical stratification. |
| pynocline | sharp change in density with depth within a body of water |
| Sargasa Sea | saltiest part of the Atlantic Ocean |
| True or false, salt concentrations allow for variations in density | True |
| True or false, water is least dense at 4 degrees celcius | False, water is most dense at 4 degrees celcius |
| What is the average depth of the ocean | 13000 feet |
| True or false, the melting of Greenland may block the Gulf Stream and cause the freezing of Europe | True |
| Discuss the circumpolar current | an ocean current that flows from west to east around Antarctica. An alternative name for the ACC is the West Wind Drift. It keeps warm ocean waters away from Antarctica, enabling that continent to maintain its huge ice sheet. |
| What is a modern example of Gulf Stream influence on glaciation and precipitation? | Panama Express |
| How many major periods of glaciation have there been since the Archean | 4 |
| Discuss the rise of fall of ocean levels for the last 20,000 years | Levels rose almost 100 m until about 8000 years ago where they have remained stable |
| Psychrosphere | The cold deep layer of the ocean, 100-700 meters (330-2300 feet) below the surface, where the water temperature is typically less than 10°C (50°F). |
| Describe ice shelves | Glaciers that form on land but eventually extend to ocean and lie very high above and very low below ocean surface |
| How many glacial advances have there been in the last 3 million years? | 30 |
| morain | any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris (soil and rock) which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past glacial maximum |
| True or false, classic nomenclature is based upon position of glacial morains | true |
| True or false, the last period of interglaciation occurred approximately 125000 years ago | true |
| True or false, we are currently in a period of super glaciation | true |
| Discuss ratios of tree and grass pollen and its implications for understanding climate | domination by grass pollen indicates arid climates and helps to verify data from geologic climate data, trees indicate wetter climates |
| geomorphic process | bestows destinctive features on the landscape and develops characteristic assemblages of landscapes from which the origin of the forms can be identified |
| equilibrium system | a system in which a delicate balance between opposing forces exists such that any change in the variables that control the system produce a change in one or more of the other variables to generate a new balance |
| graded | streams that transport as much load as they are capable of carrying without either eroding or depositing it |
| graded slopes | equilibrium of hill slopes |
| steady state equilibrium | occurs under conditions that change very little with time |
| dynamic equilibrium | small variations about a changing average condition |
| This type of equilibrium is characteristic of graded streams and graded slopes in the cycle of erosion where the rate of erosion of streams slowly changes as topographic relief of an area diminishes with time | dynamic equilibrium |
| declining equilibrium | rate of change declines with time to successively lower rates |
| positive feedback | occurs when a change in the input variable causes magnification of change in the direction of initial adjustment |
| An example of this type of feedback is the bend of a stream meander causes the water to enhance erosion on the outside of the bend which causes the bend to enlarge which in turn causes accelerated erosion to eh outside of the bend until meanders intersect | positive feedback |
| weathering | disentigration and decomposition of rocks and minerals at the earth's surface as a result of physical and chemical action |
| true or false, rocks are inherently less stable at the surface and thus are vulnerable to the attack of the atmosphere, hydrosphere and biosphere | True |
| True or false, the geomorphic fate of any mineral aggregate does not largely depend on its physical and chemical properties but rather on the atmosphere in which it is located | false |
| How is the topography of arid climates generally characterized? | Angularity and sharp breaks in slope, steep cliffs with accumulations of loose debris at the base and extensive exposure of bedrock |
| How is topography of humid climates generally characterized? | Smooth, rolling hills with gently rounded slopes covered with deep accumulation of weathered material and little exposure of bedrock |
| mechanical weathering | disintegration or breaking up of rock by physical processes without changes in chemical or mineral composition, brought about by stresses originating within rocks and stresses applied internally |
| internal stress | disruptive expansion when the overburden is removed from the rocks that have been under high confining pressure at depths |
| unloading | the release of pressure brought about by removal of overburden |
| True or false, high confining pressure from the weight of overlying rock compresses rocks elastically to a smaller volume without permanent deformation because the confinement also increases with strength of the rocks | True |
| sheeting joints | also known as exfoliation joints, breaks rocks into sheet like slabs or broad overlapping lenses |
| exfoliation | weathering process in which the spalling of fresh rock surfaces into sheets that are gradually removed |
| exfoliation domes | thought to have been developed by concentric exfoliation of granite resulting from physical expansion upon unloading |
| frost wedging | expansion of ice being frozen in a confined space thus exerts great pressures against the sides of materials enclosing the ice |
| colloidial packing/plucking | small fragments are pulled off from rock surfaces by soil colloids in contact with them as the soil colloids dry and shrink |
| tafoni | also known as stone lace, forms by evaporation of sedimentary rocks which push out grains on host rock surface |
| efflorescence columns | ice crystals that grow in soil and fluff up the ground, causes severe weathering of soils and is a locally important mechanism for soil erosion |
| talus cones | cones of debris that have a similar appearance to alluvial fans but form from the sudden collapse of sediments that have been gradually eroded insitu |
| Explain differential expansion and why it is important in granitic rocks | When quartz and plagioclase feldspars are heated and cooled in repeated cycles due to local climate patterns, the quartz particles expand three times as much in volume as feldspar particles due when heated, this results in the loosening of grains overtime |
| True or false, mechanical weathering is the dominant process in warm, wet environments | False, mechanical weathering is the dominant process in cool, dry environments |
| sapprolite | intensively chemically weathered rock, still has characteristics of rock but is products of weathering that have not been removed from the rock |
| chemical weathering | liberation of ions and compounds from rocks which change the composition of the rocks |
| Kaolin is formed by the breakdown of what type of rock | feldspars |
| regolith | loose debris produced by weathering |
| What is the interval of the sunspot cycle which is part of Milankovitch cycle? | 9.5 to 11.5 years |
| True or false, we are currently undergoing a rapid increase of CO2 and methane in our atmosphere | True |
| What are some factors driving short term climate change? | sunspot cycles, insolation, volcanic emmisions and albedo, greenhouse gasses, cosmic rays |
| What is an example of volcanic decisions impacting albedo and causing short term climate change? | The volcanic eruption at Tambora caused a year without a summer because the atmosphere was blanketed with ash which reduced albido of glacial caps and increased the temperature by 1 degree for 2 years in Phillipines but reduced temperatures in the NH |
| Discuss comsic ray affects on short term climate change | As our Earth changes spacing relative to sun over time, it bathes in cosmic rays in some parts of the galaxy which increases condensation nuclei in the atmosphere which increases albido which causes global cooling |
| True or false, solar rays decrease cosmic ray influence | true |
| cosmic rays | subatomic particles which are debris created during fusion reaction in stars |
| True or false, 98% of ocean water is currently 16O | True |
| True or false sea levels will rise about 7.5 meters if all the ice in the world were to melt | False, sea levels would rise 75 m globally |
| Can transgressions and regressions of coastal deposits be used to correlate relative dates of glaciation? | Yes, transgressions and regressions should match relative dates of glaciation (Stadial and interstadial) |
| Discuss how 18O/16O ratio is used to study climate changes over time | preferentially lighter molecules move from liquid to gaseous state, if more 16 is in the atmopshere then there is depletion of 18, 18 condenses and falls first, 16 falls out last and is taken farther inland, during cold times 16 will be in glaciers |
| How did the breakup of Pangea affect global climate? | there was an opening between SA and Antarctica which allowed for circumpolar current but it also brought about the closing of the Isthmus which had previously been where waters between the Atlantic and Pacific were mixing and formed the Gulf Stream |
| What was most affected by the circumpolar current that caused the thermal isolation of Antarctica? | This changed the energy budget of the global climate by increasing albido and causing a threshold crossing |
| How did the Pliocene uplift and the closing of the Isthmus of Panama affect global climate? | This closing established a strong Gulf Stream which brings warm water to the Atlantic and fog to Western Europe, that precipitation is thought to have caused the last glaciation of Europe and later the melting of that glacier which now warms WEu |
| True or false, 99.7% of energy in geomorphic systems can be accounted for by 30% reflected as albido and 70% into atmosphere | |
| True or false, most of the earth's evaporation and precipitation occurs over oceans | True |
| Give some specific numbers about precipitation and evaporation in the hydrologic cycle | 7x as much water evaporates from ocean than from land and 4x as much water precipitates over ocean than it does land |
| angle of incidence | the angle at which sunlight shines onto the earth's surface that affects how much area a specific amount of solar energy reaches |
| How much incoming energy is lost to space by albido? | 30% |
| How much energy is absorbed by surfaces on the Earth and in the Earth's atmosphere? | 70% |
| How much incoming solar energy is absorbed by land and sea? | 50% |
| How much incoming solar energy is absorbed by atmosphere and clouds? | 20% |
| During which phases of the moon are neep tides usually experienced? | the 1st and 3rd quarters |
| When are spring tides observed? | Full moons and new moons |
| Where are 50 foot tides experienced in some parts of the year? | Bay of Fundi, Alaska |
| intermontane | between a mountain region |
| playa | dry lakes |
| radius of curvature | wavelength sinuosity |
| Did the Basin and Range area close and bring North America closer together or did it open and push western NA further apart? | It opened and pushed W-NA further apart after the Mesozoic |
| What causes climate shifts? | Milankovitch cycles- orbital forcing |
| abrasion | stones grinding together |
| what are the four main ways that bedrock will break up? | joint block separation, granular disintegration, shattering, exfoliation |