ESC1000L FINAL
Features seen within a river valley change as you move along its course from the head towards the mouth of the river. Meanders first appear where?
Midway through its course
Complete this analogy: Bouncing is to sand as suspension is to_____________.
clay
Which way does ice flow in a glacier retreating uphill?
downslope
Depositional landforms that dominate where glaciers melt include __________.
drumlins
What are cross beds?
inclined layers in sediment or sedimentary rocks that reveal the direction of wave or wind transport
Complete this analogy: Sliding is to gravel as dissolution is to_____________.
ions
Scale on a topographic map __________.
tells you the ratio between distance on the map and distance on the ground
Which landform marks the furthest extent of an advancing glacier?
terminal moraine
Which ocean is Earth's largest?
the Pacific Ocean
What is the scientific definition of half-life?
the amount of time over which the number of parent isotopes decreases by half
What is the snowline?
the elevation above which snow persists throughout the year
What is suspended load?
the fine-grained particles that travel in the water column above the stream bed
Which is the best definition of glacial snow line?
the line dividing zones of accumulation and melting of ice at the surface of a glacier
What is the zone of wastage?
the part of a glacier where snow melting exceeds snow accumulation
What is dust?
the particles carried in suspension by wind
Which principle of relative age dating is important for determining the relative age of igneous rock that has intruded into overlying rock?
the principle of cross-cutting relationships
What is the cone of depression?
the shape that the water table takes on near a pumping well
What is the water table?
the top of the saturated zone beneath Earth's surface
Which of the following terms best describes long, sinuous bed forms that develop perpendicular to the prevailing wind direction in desert environments?
transverse dunes
A crystal that has a parent/daughter ratio of 25%/75% for its radioactive isotope has undergone radioactive decay for __________ half-lives.
two
What characteristic most directly DISTINGUISHES an angular unconformity from a nonconformity?
Angular unconformities separate rock layers along nonparallel surfaces.
Which two regions currently contain the world's last remaining ice sheets?
Antarctica and Greenland
How are debris avalanches and flows related?
Debris avalanches are large, rapid flows of rock.
Groundwater moving beneath the surface below the water table flows is which direction?
Downhill perpendicular to the topographic contour lines
How are satellites able to map the ocean floor?
Due to gravity, ocean water is attracted to the massive features on the sea floor, causing bulges and depressions on the ocean surface. Satellite altimeters can detect these changes in elevation.
Why does groundwater discharge to Earth's surface?
Earth's surface is irregular, and permeability decreases with depth within Earth.
How is a fall different from creep?
Falls occur rapidly and in areas with high slope, whereas creep occurs slowly in areas with low slope.
Five layers of rock are cut by two faults. Both faults cut through all five layers of rock. Fault A breaks through to the surface, whereas fault B does not. Which of the following statements about faults A and B is most accurate?
Fault A is younger than fault B, and both are younger than the five layers of rock.
The cross bedding in a preserved layer of sandstone dips (tilts downward) to the East. What can be inferred about the wind direction at the time of deposition?
From West to East
What is the principle of cross-cutting relationships?
Geologic features that cut through rocks must form after the rocks that they cut through.
Under what conditions will the front of a glacier remain stationary?
Glacial fronts remain stationary when melting and snow accumulation are equal.
Which of the following provides the best explanation for the abundance of desert areas in the low latitudes?
High-pressure systems in these regions prevent the formation of clouds that could carry water.
How does water get from the oceans onto land?
Ocean water evaporates to form gaseous water and moves into the atmosphere, where it condenses into liquid water and falls out of the atmosphere to land as rain.
What happens during radioactive decay?
Parent isotopes turn into daughter isotopes.
__________ are defined as a chain of glacial lakes where each lake flows into the next.
Pater noster lakes
How does an end moraine form?
Pieces of rock are transported to the front of a glacier as ice within the glacier moves.
Which of the following statements about relative and absolute age dating is most accurate?
Relative age dating places rocks and events in chronological order but does not provide information about absolute age.
What is the principle of original horizontality?
Sedimentary rocks are close to horizontal when deposited.
The principle of superposition ("younger on top") applies to __________.
Sedimentary rocks, Extrusive igneous rocks
How are slumps and slides related?
Slumps are a type of slide in the special case where the rupture surface is curved.
What would happen to the oceans if surface runoff and groundwater flow did NOT occur?
The oceans would become smaller.
Two containers hold the same radioactive isotope. Container A contains 1000 atoms, and container B contains 500 atoms. Which of the following statements about containers A and B is true?
The rate of decay of atoms (half-life) in container B is the same as the rate of decay of atoms (half-life) in container A.
How would a snow line on a glacier move as a glacial front is advancing?
The snow line would move downslope.
What would likely happen to a fence on a hill over time if the fence were built perpendicular to the hill's slope?
The top of the fence would likely bend uphill as creeping rocks moved under the fence and pushed the fence bottom downslope.
How does the water table change around a pumping water well?
The water table elevation decreases.
How would the water table be affected if Earth were made up of uniform, permeable material?
The water table would not exist.
What is an end moraine?
a ridge of debris deposited at the end of a glacier
Deserts in the North America occur where
air is sinking around the Tropic of Capricorn.
Fan-shaped cones deposited at the mouth of a canyon in a desert are known as _____________.
alluvial fans
What glacial feature is circled in Figure 1?
arête
Where is most of Earth's freshwater found?
as ice at Earth's surface
Erosional/depositional processes that dominate in the Basin and Range province of North America produce alluvial fans, which may evolve into _____.
bajadas
What are the three types of loads carried by streams?
bed load, suspended load, dissolved load
Where do glaciers form?
in places where more snow falls in the winter than melts away in the summer
Which method is not a technique currently used by ocean scientists to map the topography of the ocean floor?
magnetometer
All types of unconformities represent missing time periods, or gaps in the geologic record. Nonconformities represent an erosional surface on __________ overlain by younger layered rocks.
metamorphic/igneous rocks
What is mass movement?
movement of material under the influence of gravity alone
Features that are "cross-cut" by another geologic feature must be __________ the cross-cutting feature.
older than
Which of the following dune types would you expect to exhibit an arced shape that opens in the upwind direction, but where the slip face occurs on the downwind side of the dune?
parabolic
The original source of groundwater is
precipitation
How can pieces of rock in contact with a stream bed move?
rolling, sliding, bouncing
How do pieces of rock move under the influence of wind?
rolling, sliding, bouncing, suspension
Which of the following are part of the bed load?
sand and gravel
The term glacial till describes
sediment picked up as the glacier erodes rocks upstream, then dropped by melting ice as an unstratified mass deposit.
Range zones for fossils allow geoscientists to determine the age of sediments in which they are found. Fossils with _____ range zones are better index fossils for figuring out precisely how old rocks are.
short
Topographic contour lines __________.
show elevation above sea level
A topographic profile __________.
shows changes in elevation from a side-looking perspective
What property of a piece of material will most directly determine how it is carried by wind?
size
What feature is responsible for creating eskers?
streams that flowed below, in, or on the glacier
Which of the following deserts is not considered a low-latitude or subtropical desert?
the Patagonian Desert
The initial power source for the water cycle is
the Sun.
When will a cone of depression stop enlarging?
when the amount of water flowing toward the well equals the amount of water being pumped out of the well Submit
How much of Earth's surface water exists in the oceans?
Almost all of Earth's surface water exists in the oceans. Submit
A container holds 100 atoms of an isotope. This isotope has a half-life of 1.5 months. How many total atoms will be in the container after 3 months?
100 atoms
When was the last time North America had major ice sheets?
18,000 years ago
A container holds 100 atoms of an isotope. This isotope has a half-life of 1.5 months. How many atoms of the radioactive isotope will be in the container after 3 months?
25 atoms
In the list below, indicate in which of the environments fossilization is likely to occur. Note that fossils contain organic matter.
A swamp, The ocean floor, In a floodplain
Which of the following statements is the best explanation for the occurrence of the Great Basin Desert in the western United States?
The Great Basin Desert exists because it is a rain shadow desert.
What would happen to atmospheric water if Earth were mostly covered with land?
The atmosphere would contain less water.
Cross beds are a preserved record of what?
The deposition of sand on the leeward side of a dune.
How would you expect the front of a glacier to move if it undergoes a period of net accumulation, followed by net wastage, and finally a period of net accumulation?
The glacier's front would move forward, backward, and then forward again.
What does the hydrologic cycle describe?
The hydrologic cycle describes how liquid and gaseous water move between the ocean, atmosphere, and land.
A fault (F) breaks three layers of sedimentary rock (S). An igneous intrusion (I1) has broken through the bottommost layer of rock. A second igneous intrusion (I2) has moved up the fault and pooled on top of the uppermost layer of rock. Which event would be considered the youngest?
The intrusion of I1 or I2 is the youngest event. Without more information, we cannot know which igneous rock is youngest.
What is the best way to describe the shape of a glacial valley?
U-shaped
Glacial erosion carves the V-shaped valley typical of mountainous regions into __________.
U-shaped glacial troughs
How does the use of water by humans affect the water table?
Use of water by humans increases discharge, resulting in lowered water tables.
Why do desert dunes migrate?
Wind erodes material on the windward side of the dune and deposits it on the leeward side of the dune.
What is the principle of superposition?
Within a sequence of rock layers formed at Earth's surface, rock layers lower in the sequence are older.
Will plucking occur if a glacier is NOT advancing?
Yes, because glacial ice is still moving inside the glacier even if the glacier's front is not advancing.
Which of the following would produce a LOWER water table?
a decrease in the amount of recharge to groundwater, an increase in the amount of discharge to surface water
The Great Basin located in the western United States is what type of desert?
a middle-latitude desert
What does the term unconformity mean?
a missing rock layer in a sequence that represents a period of erosion or nondeposition
Which list best describes the events that would lead to the layering of sedimentary rocks in this diagram?
deposition, erosion, deposition, erosion, deposition
Which of the following are classifications describing how rock and other material move downslope?
fall, slide, slump, creep, flow
Which type of mass movement event requires the addition of water?
flow
When pumping removed groundwater from an aquifer in the Santa Clara Valley
ground subsidence can occur as grains pack more closely together.
What glacial feature is circled in Figure 2?
horn
