8th Science Word Scramble
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Term | Definition |
Weathering | The process by which rocks are broken down by the forces of nature |
Physical weathering | the breakdown of large rocks into fragments by physical forces such as ice temperature and grit |
Physical weathering does not change the ___ ___ of the minerals that compose a rock | chemical composition |
Ice wedging | occurs when rainwater r melted ice soaks into tiny cracks in a rock and freezes |
Exfoliation | the process of weathering which involves the breaking or peeling away of rock in layers |
At the base of the mountain or cliff the broken fragments collected in huge piles of rock are called ___. | talus |
Chemical weathering | When minerals in a rock react chemically with air or water, the minerals may weaken or even dissolve away causing the rock the crumble |
The main agent of chemical weathering is ___. | water |
Carbonic acid | A weak acid produced when carbon dioxide in the air dissolves in rain or groundwater |
Oxidation | A process in which the oxygen in air and water reacts with minerals like calcium and form new compounds |
Chemical weathering changes the ___ of the original mineral(s). | composition |
Chemical weathering is usually a(n) ___ process. | slow |
Erosion | Once rocks have undergone weathering physical processes like wind or running water may carry away the rock fragment by this |
Caves | networks of underground cavities |
The process of erosion often begins with ___. | rain |
Runnoff | The excess water that occurs during a heavy rain in which more water falls than the ground can evaporate. |
___ is a major source of runoff. | Snow |
Rills | Narrow shallow cuts in the soil |
Gully | A channel in the ground that cannot be repaired by ordinary cultibation |
The process of that forms gullys | Gullying |
Ravine | What a gully forms into if the process of gullying is not stopped; fills wildly with water in rainstorms but dries up quickly |
Of all the forces of erosion, ___ ___ has the greatest effect on the earth's surface | running water |
Rivers | Large streams that carry water form the mountains to the sea |
Headwaters | the source of a river; brooks and streams that are in mountainous or northerly areas |
Load | The material carried by a stream |
River sediments are said to be ___, or arranged into layers according to their size. | sorted |
River system | Consists of all the streams that merge and flow toward the sea as a large river |
The region of land drained by a river system | Drainage basin (aka. water-shed) |
Drainage divide | Separates two adjoining drainage basins |
Great Divide | The western drainage divide of the Mississippi River Drainage Basin |
Eastern Continental Divide | The eastern drainage divide of the Mississippi River Drainage Basin |
Tributaries | Numerous streams that continue to feed into the river at various points along its course |
The level or early level land that borders a river and is covered by water in flood time | floodplain |
levees | natural ridges that form along the edges of a river's channel |
Meanders | winding looping curves in a river |
When a meander is bypassed and becomes cutoff from the rest of the river it forms a crescent shaped body of water known as a(n) ___ ___. | oxbow lake |
Delta | a fa shaped or triangular depsoit extending from mouth of river to sea; forms when rives reach the ocean and deposits a load of sediment |
The sediments are left on the plain in a delta-like deposit called a(n) ___ ___. | alluvial fan |
Large caves formed from limestone | caverns |
Dripstone | Calcium carbonate deposited by water droplets |
Stalactite | dripstone that hangs from the ceiling |
Stalagmite | dripstone that is on the fllor |
Column | Dripstone formation that occurs when a stalactite and stalagmite form |
A large funnel-shaped depression in the ground | sinkhole |
karst | Regions of the earth's surface where limestone is exposed and abundant |
___ and ___ continually change the shape of the shoreline. | Waves, currents |
Beaches | gently sloping coasts covered by sand or pebbles |
Beaches are among the most ___ ___ of all shoreline features | rapidly changing |
Bars | ridges of sand or gravel that waves and currents build |
The body of water lying between the barrier island and the coast | sound |
Promontories | high ridges of rock and land that project out into the sea along deep-water shorelines |
A vertical face of rock | sea cliff |
Sea caves | Sea archesIndentations in a sea cliff |
Sea arches | narrow formations of rock that arch out into the water from the coastforms form the continued erosion of sea caves |
Glacier | A thick ice sheet that slowly moves under its own weight |
Continental glacier | vast sheets of glacial ice that cover immense areas of relatively flat land |
Ice caps | smaller ice sheets |
Valley glaciers | "rivers of ice" that slowly flow down form mountainous regions into valleys |
Crevasses | deep cracks and fissures in the surface of a glacier |
cirque | a huge bowl shaped depression |
A sharp ridge that divides two cirques | arete |
When three or more cirques cut into a mountain peak, they transform it into a sharp, steeple shaped point called a(n) ___. | horn |
Sometimes glaciers carve out valleys along the coastline; as the glacier melts, the valley fills with seawater, creating a ___. | fjord |
Large hard rocks pushed along by the glacier produce deep grooves and scratches called ___ in the bedrock. | striae |
Till | Formed when a glacier partially melts, or retreats, during warmer weather, the huge quantities of these broken rocks that it carries are dumped on the rcok |
Maraine | An accumulation of till left by a retreating glacier |
When a glacier advances again in the winter, it may overrun its old moraines, smoothing the till into low hills called ___. | drumlins |
As the glacier melts, streams of water called ___ often develop beneath it washing sand gravel and other sediments from beneath the ice; these deposits are called ___. | meltwater, outwash |
Kettles | Large holes left form the melting of huge hunks of glacial ice lodged in till or otuwash |
Kettle lake | Forms when a kettle fills with water |
Terminal moraines | Piles of debris left at the front of the glacier |
Snout | the front of the glacier |
Lateral moraines | piles of debris left along the side of the glacer |
Ground moraines | Piles of debris from the bottom of the glacier |
Medial moraines | Piles of debris left by the middle of a retreating glacier |
Glaciers were once much more ___ than they are now. | extensive |
Ice Age | A period of widespread glaciation |
Glaciers and cold weather did not cover the ___ ___ during the Ice Age. | entire earth |
Aeolian process | Features such as sandstone arches and uniquely shaped rocks are the result of this process |
Wind transports sediments by what three methods? | 1. Suspension 2. Saltation 3. Creep |
Suspension | Carries fine particles over long distances |
Saltation | Bigger particles that are lifted for a short distance and then dropped abruptly |
Creep | when the wind cannot lift the particles so they are rolled in short bursts through this process |
The most important effect of wind erosion is ___. | deflation |
Deflation | The removal of loose particles of sand and soil by the wind |
Blowouts | The wind often forms these shallow depression where material has been blown away |
Sandstorms | Typically carry coarse sand particles and fine particles of dry soil and occur in deserts |
Dust storms | Carry only dust |
Areas where soil is blown away are ___, but areas where the soil is deposited are ___. | harmed, improved |
A huge deposit of clay and silt | Loess |
Sand dunes | huge heaps of loose windblown sand common is deserts and near beaches |
Windward side of a dune | The side of the dune that faces the wind |
Leeward side | The side facing away from the sind |
Crescentic dunes | Most common dune; the points face away from the wind |
Parbolic dunes | arch-shaped and superficially similar to crescentic dunes except that the open end of the arch points to the windward instead of leeward side |
Tranverse dunes | Resemble ocean swells or wives lie in straight lines perpendicular to the direction of the winds |
Star dune | look like a pyramid with several out reaching arms |
Abrasion | The eroding action of windblown sand |
When rock is loosened by weathering it is subject to what? | erosion by gravity |
Mass wasting | The process in which gravity causes the down-slope movements of rock soil volcanic ash snow or ice |
Soil creep | The slow down-slope movement of soil and rock fragments; the most g widespread form of slow mass wasting |
Mudflows | Rapid movements of loose water saturated soil |
A mass of ice and snow abruptly dislodging from a mountain face forms a(n) ___. | avalanche |
Landslides are what? | Sudden slides of huge masses of rack or soil down a slope |
Debris slide | Involves rock fragments and other loose materials found in coarse soil |
Earth slide | Made of fine soil and small pebbles |
A landslide consisting primarily of bedrock | a rock slide |
Rock fall | Form of mass wasting that occurs when individual rock fragments abruptly break off the sides of a steep cliff |
Terracing | The modifying of a smooth slope into a series of level stair-like steps |
Strip croppimng | to plant alternate strips of erosion prone crops with strips of erosion preventing crops |
Breakwater | Objects designed to reduce the force of waves |
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nelsonclan
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