Question | Answer |
List the three steps/phases in the formation of glacial ice. | glacial ice forms from compaction. ablation, distrubution. |
how accumulation or ablation causes a glacial to advance or retreat? | greater accumulation the glacier grows and terminus advances. lower accumulation the glacier shrinks, terminus retreats |
hanging valley? | type of u shape valley, suspended some feet from valley floor. |
tarn? | glacier eroded lake |
cirque? | half bowl, steep on three sides. |
horn? | peak formed by scour erosion. tends to be pointy |
arete? | knife edge ridge, seperates one valley from another. thin narrow ridge |
u-shaped valley? | they have a characteristic U shape, with steep, straight sides and a flat bottom. |
moraine? | a mass of rocks and sediment carried down and deposited by a glacier, typically as ridges at its edges or extremity. |
till? | unsorted material deposited directly by glacial ice and showing no stratification |
outwash? | material carried away from a glacier by meltwater and deposited beyond the moraine. |
what is crevases? | a deep open crack, especially one in a glacier. |
what is sea level? | is an average level of the surface of one or more of Earth's oceans from which heights such as elevations may be measured. |
what is porosity? | the ability of a rock to hold water. a simple percentage, how much of the rock is actually rock. |
what is permeability? | how easily water can go through the rock. the ability to transmit water. |
what is Water Table? | simply the upper surface of the zone of saturation. not fixed in time. wet periods=high water table |
what are the subsurface groundwater zones? | water table, saturated zone, unsaturated zone, confined aquifer, unconfined aquifer. |
saturated zone? | the area in an aquifer, below the water table, in which relatively all pores and fractures are saturated with water |
unsaturated zone? | the portion of the subsurface above the groundwater table. |
confined aquifer? | more reliable, seperated from surface by confining layer. deeper. fewer fructuations recharge must pass through aquitard |
unconfined aquifer? | recharge easily gets in fluctuates weather |
what is an aquitard? | slows down water flow, low permeability. |
groundwater contamination? | Due to slow movement, contaminated groundwater is much more difficult to address than contaminated surface water. |
origin of caves? | naturally ocurring underground chamber. groundwater dissolves rock leaving caves. occurs in soluable rock like limestone |
three necessary elements to make a cave? | soluble rock (gypsum, dolomite,limestone), groundwater pressure, and fractures |
artesian wells? | wells that flows to surface naturally |
karst? | areas of soluble rock with caves, sinkholes, and dry spring beds. problem with karst theres nothing to slow down water. vulnerable to contaminent no filtration |
recharge? | any activity that brings water to the ground |
subsidence? | gradual large scale sinking of ground due to removal of boyount ground water |
aquifer? | is a body of rock or sediment through which water passes easily |
discharge? | removal of water from the ground |
sinkhole? | result of rock being dissolved. it is sudden and it is a local collapse |
confing layer? | is a layer of sediment or rock which has low permeability. It does not allow water to easily pass through it, so it can protect the water beneath it from contamination. |
cone of depression? | inversion of water table. water flows down in a cone shape |
what is a desert? | are defined by lack of precipitation, running water is still the dominant agent shaping their landforms. |
internal drainage? | Drainage in a closed basin and not reaching the sea |
mesa? | an isolated flat-topped hill with steep sides |
playa? | an area of flat, dried-up land, especially a desert basin from which water evaporates quickly. |
bajada? | a broad slope of alluvial material at the foot of an escarpment or mountain. |
What is the dominant agent of land sculpture in deserts? | running water is still the dominant agent shaping their landforms. |
What is the dominant rock structure (orientation) in the Colorado Plateau? | streams erode the horizontal rock,result is horizontal-top landforms, such as buttes/mesas and plateaus, separated by canyons |
List two reasons that wind is more effective in deserts than humid regions. | it's stronger, there is less vegetation, and wind cant pick up wet sediments. |