Intro to Geology
What is the stream channel?
(Be able to label on map) A stream channel is the path for water and sediment flowing within the stream banks A stream channel constantly adjusts to changes in streamflow, sediment load, stream slope and vegetation.
What is the stream bed?
(Be able to label on map) the channel bottom of a stream, river or creek, the physical confine of the normal water flow. The lateral confines or channel margins are known as the stream banks or river banks
What is the stream bank?
(Be able to label on map) the terrain alongside the bed of a river, creek, or stream
What are estuaries?
(Drowned River Mouthes) Where the tide meets the stream AKA a delta the tidal mouth of a river -Quiet waters of estuaries are very rich in marine life -Cities and factories have badly polluted some estuaries
What are some other ways water could leave the watershed that would explain why the amount leaving the watershed and the amount entering?
- The water ends up somewhere else (tributaries) -Evaporation -Respiration -Transpiration -Watering Athletic Fields
Explain convection cells
-Cold air is denser than warm air -Dry air is denser than moist air -Warm air can hold more moisture than cold air
What are some causes of groundwater contamination
-Industry (solvents, lubricants, heat-exchange fluids) -Agriculture (herbicides, insecticides, fertilizers) -Fuels (Leaking Underground storage tanks) -The military (explosives, perchlorate) -Municipal Landfills -Septic Tanks
What are some challenges with groundwater?
1. Ground water depletion/availiability 2.Ground water caused Land subsidence 3.Groundwater contamination
What are the groundwater rules?
1. Groundwater moves from high potential to low potential (down gradient) 2. Groundwater flows across water table contours at right angles!!!!!!
Glaciers are dynamic systems
1. Mass is input as snow 2.Snow is transformed as ice 3. The ice flows (once it is thicker than 100 ft) 4. Mass leaves the glacier by melting, sublimination, and calving
What are 4 types of wind eroded Landforms?
1. blowouts 2. Desert Pavement 3.Yardangs 4.Ventifacts
Sand is dynamically supplied to beaches from several sources including
1. erosion 2. replenishment from sand stored seaward of the surf zone 3. carbonate remains of shelled marine organisms 4. and river sediment brought down to the ocean
Cool Dry Air sinks where?
30 degrees N/S
Where does cool, dry air sink near?
30 degrees N/S of the equator
How many people obtain their own water in the US; 98% of them drink __________
44 million people Raw groundwater
1 mile = ? feet
5280 feet = ? Miles
Qout = ?
= Qin
Qstream= ?
=VDW
Qprecipitation = ?
=VprecipitationAwatershed (To calculate the water entering the watershed)
If input ___ output, the glacier grows If input ____ output, the glacier shrink
>, < AKA - is larger than - is smaller than
What is a braided stream?
A braided river is one of a number of channel types and has a channel that consists of a network of small channels separated by small and often temporary islands called braid bars or, in British usage, aits or eyots. Braided streams occur in rivers with high slope and/or large sediment load.
What is evapotranspiration?
A combination of evaporation and transpiration
What is a meandering stream's cut bank (erosion)?
A cut bank, also known as a river cliff or river-cut cliff, is the outside bank of a water channel (stream), which is continually undergoing erosion. ... Given enough time, the combination of erosion along cut banks and deposition along point bars can lead to the formation of an oxbow lake.
What is discharge?
A flow, the speed of it - Abbreviation: Q
What is an aquitard?
A geological unit that DOES NOT yield economically significant quantities of water
What is a aquifer?
A geological unit that yields economically significant quantities of water
Fjord
A glacier melts and the ocean advances
What is a meandering stream?
A meander, in general, is a bend in a sinuous watercourse or river. A meander forms when moving water in a stream erodes the outer banks and widens its valley, and the inner part of the river has less energy and deposits silt.
What is a storm sewer?
A place that carries away excess storm water
What is a stream hydrograph?
A plot discharge over time
What is a meandering stream's point bar (deposition)?
A point bar is a depositional feature made of alluvium that accumulates on the inside bend of streams and rivers below the slip-off slope. Point bars are found in abundance in mature or meandering streams. ... A point bar is an area of deposition whereas a cut bank is an area of erosion.
What is a good representation of groundwater flow?
A sponge
What is a beach?
A strip of sediment (usually sand or gravel) from the low-water line inland to a cliff or zone of permanent vegetation
Glacier
A thick mass of ice that originates on land from the accumulation, compaction, and recrystalization of snow (Any accumulation of ice that lasts all year long is a glacier)
What is an artesian well?
A well in a confined aquifer
Which of the following is incorrect? A. t=vL B. L=vt C.t=L/v D.L=tv
A. T=VL
Water always goes from __________ zone to ____ zone NO exceptions
Accumulation Zone to Ablation Zone
Beach Noursihment
Adding Sand to beaches
Streams are _____
Agents of Transport
What is the coast?
All the land near the sea Including beach and the strip just inland of it
Jetties
Along Inlets
What is the difference between alpine and contintental glaciers?
Alpine - Ice flows down a valley from high elevation accumulation zone (ZOne of accumulation at top) Contintental - Ice flows out in all directions from one or more accumulation zones (Zone of Accumulation in middle)
Confined Aquifer
An aquifer bounded above and below by confining beds
What is a meandering stream's owbow lake?
An oxbow lake is a U-shaped body of water that forms when a wide meander from the main stem of a river is cut off, creating a free-standing body of water. This landform is so named for its distinctive curved shape, resembling the bow pin of an oxbow.
What is groundwater?
Any water found underground Groundwater occupies pores between grains, and fractures and solution openings in rock
How do you determine the volume of water entering the watershed every year?
Area (ft^2) multiplied by the amount of rain each year (ft/yr)
As water ______, orbital motion will eventually __________ the sea bottom, causing ______________ in the __________
As water SHALLOWS, orbital motion will eventually IMPACT the sea bottom, causing WAVES TO PILE UP AND BREAK (TOPPLE FORWARD) in the SURF ZONE
Barchan Dunes
Average Dune
Name 5 aquifers
Basalt, Limestone, Sandstone, Conglomerate. Granite
Where is stream hydrograph's baseflow and runoff
Baseflow is at the bottom and the runoff/stormflow is the large mountainy things
Why is it called Outwash
Because it has been washed away by water
Breakwater
Beyond beach, parallel to shoreline
Shoreline
Boundary between sand and ocean
Breakwater
Breaks Wave energy, Offshore
Spits
Build out into the open water off a point of land
What is a sanitary sewer?
Carries water from bathrooms, homes, sinks, etc to be treated, filtered, and discharged
What does flooding do?
Cause property damage and threatens lives
What is bed load?
Coarse particles Material moved along stream bed describes particles in a flowing fluid (usually water) that are transported along the bed. Bed load is complementary to suspended load and wash load. Bed load moves by rolling, sliding, and/or saltating (hopping).
Hydrogeology
Considered with underground water
Why do deserts form at 30 degree and 90 degree N and S latitudes
Convection Cells split and wind goes in two different directions The cool, dry air goes south near 30 degrees N/S this means not much rain and subtropical deserts
Think of a glacier as as a _______________ It still moves forward even when it is _____________-
Conveyor Belt Shrinking
How can you find the area of the watershed?
Count the squares inside the dotted line (Only the ones with the center inside the dotted line) multiply that number by 250,000 or whatever the designated number is
Erosion of _____ and Depositon of _____
Cutbank; Pointbar
Inferences
Decisions about something based on observations made. High-quality inferences require a scientist to explain why and how observations support their inference.
Most drainage systems are....
Dendritic (having a branched form resembling a tree.)
Longshore Drift can cause
Depositional Features like Spits and Baymouth Bars
What are blowouts?
Depressions carved by wind
Where are braided streams found?
Desert or Glacier climates
Q means
Discharge
Wave energy decreases and it goes
Down toward bed
How to tell the direction of longshore drift
Draw an arrow on waters edge and then determine where on the compass that would be using North pointing arrow to determine what direction it is
Fjord
Drowned Glacially Cut Valleys a long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between high cliffs, as in Norway and Iceland, typically formed by submergence of a glaciated valley.
Convection Cells: Explain the graphic
Dry, dense air of HIGH PRESSURE in desert areas is blown by wind ----> to a non-desert area that is less moist and dense and of LOW PRESSURE this rises -----> the warm, moist air is less dense, so it rises and as it rises it cools, causing moisture to precipitate ----> it then becomes cool, dry air so it is more dense and begins to sink ----> it now returns to the dry, dense HIGH PRESSURE desert air and then the cycle continues
How do we get groundwater?
Dug Driven Drilled
How do dunes form?
Dunes form when wind blows sand into a sheltered area behind an obstacle. Dunes grow as grains of sand accumulate. Every dune has a windward side and a slipface
Shorelines are...
Dynamic, high-energy places
What are the two kinds of coasts
Emergent and Submergent
Water ______, _____, & ____ sediment in desert regions
Erodes, transports, and deposits
What occurs on shorelines
Erosion and Deposition
____ of cutbank and ____ of pointbar
Erosion and deposition
Breaking waves exert a great _______ _____ and can create 3 things...
Erosive force Wave-cut Cliffs, Stacks, Arches
What role does groundwater play in the Hydrologic cycle?
Evaporation, Transpiration, etc
Alpine (Mountains, Valleys) Glaciers
Exist in mountainous areas Ice flows down a valley from high-evevation accumulation zones
Conditional (ice sheet) glaciers
Exist on a larger scale than valley glaciers Two major continental glaciers are present over Greenland and Antarctica Ice flows out in all directions from one or more accumulation zones
Deflation
Fancy talk for fine=grained sediments removed by wind
How would you find the slope of the landfill?
Find the distance between
What is suspended load?
Fine particles Fine particles carried long distances suspended by the water is the portion of the sediment that is carried by a fluid flow which settle slowly enough such that it almost never touches the bed. It is maintained in suspension by the turbulence in the flowing water and consists of particles generally of the fine sand, silt and clay size.
Submergent can cause
Flooding and damage
How do you calculate stream discharge (Q)
From velocity, width, & depth (VWD)
Glacial outwash is deposited by ____
Galcial streams
What is calving
Glacier turns to iceburgs
Slightly more than 2% of the world's water is tied to _______ If they melted, sea level would ________________________ This is _________ to occur for millions of years More likely: Sea Level may rise ______________- by 2100
Glaciers Rise up to 330 ft Not lIkely 0.18 - 0.59
Subtropical Deserts are a result of what?
Global Circulation patterns
Glaciers are capable of what?
Great erosion and sediment transport
What is a critical component of the hydrologic system?
Groundwater
Groundwater typically flows approximately 1ft/day. How many miles an hour is that?
HELPPPPP Q4 on A3
What are 6 drilling methods?
Hand Auger Auger Direct Push Cable Tool Mud Rotary Bucket Auger
Alpine Glacier Landforms
Hanging Valleys Pater Noster Lakes Cirques Tarns Fjords Are^tes Horns Moraines
What is a divide?
High Ground splitting a watershed
What is sublimination?
Ice turning to water vapor
Where does water leave the groundwater flow system?
In discharge Areas (Where the water ends up)
Where does water enter the groundwater flow system?
In recharge Areas (Percipitation /Rain)
ZOne Accumulation
Input Precipitation Accumulation
Shoreline Restoration Strategies
Jetties Groins Sea Walls Break Waters Beach Nourishment
Groins
Keeps sand from moving down shore
Jetties
Keeps sand out of water way for boats,
What is the equation to find length?
L=VT
Kettle
Lakes left behind - originally ice blocks
What is a flood plain?
Land covered by water when a stream overflows its banks (Be able to label)
Overpumping can cause
Land to sink lower
Eolian
Landscape influenced by wind; wind's ability to change the landscape
Plucking
Lifting of Rocks
Tarn
Little Lakes - 1st of many Poter Noster Lakes
What direction is the wind blowing in a sand dune?
Look at image
What do braided streams have?
Many anastomising channels Chocked by boulders "Flashy" flow
Shoreline are high energy enviornments with a dynamic balance between ________ and _______
Mass Added and Erosion
What is load?
Material carried by the stream
Where are meandering streams found?
Moist climates like PA/Nj/DE
Beach nourishment makes
More beach and sand area
Star Dune
Multiple Direction Wind
How do you calculate the slope of the water table
NEEDS WORK
How do you determine the direction of the steepest slope
NEEDS WORK
Would you build your home on a flood plain?
No, it will get washed away
Are homes next to meandering rivers a good idea?
No, the water design is constantly changing with cutbanks and point bars
What direction from Point A to Point B N - E - S - W -
North = 0 degrees East = 90 degrees South = 180 degrees West = 270 degrees
Sea Wall
On Shore, Disapates Wave energy Protects Houses etc
Sea Walls
On beach, parallel to shoreline
Groins in geology
On beaches, perpendicular to shoreline
Hanging Valley
One valley leading into another
Unconfined Aquifers
Open to the atmosphere through permeable material, nothing to seperate from atmosphere
Parabolic Dune
Opposite of what you expect
What is an uplifted marine terrace?
Originally formed just offshore from the beach face)
Zone of Ablation
Output Evaporation/Melting/Calving Sublimination and Evaporation
Esker
Outwash deposited under river
Horns in a Glacier
Peak
How do glaciers erode land?
Plucking and Abration
Why does groundwater flow?
Pressure & Gravity Potential Energy & Aquifers
Qstream + Qet = ?
Qprecipitation
What is the water budget?
Qprecipitation - Qet - Qloss = Qstream
Qet=?
Qprecipitation - Qstream
How do you calculate the water leaving the watershed?
Qstream = VDW (Velocity, Depth, Width)
How do you calculate the number of cubit feet of water that leave the watershed every year?
Qstream multiplied by seconds in a year (31,556,000)
What equation would you use to find how rapidly, on average, something has changed over time?
R = (Delta Sign(Change))T / T
How do rainshadow deserts form
Rain is deposited in areas like mountains and is hence unable to reach the area beyond Rain shadow deserts are formed because tall mountain ranges prevent moisture-rich clouds from reaching areas on the lee, or protected side, of the range. As air rises over the mountain, water is precipitated and the air loses its moisture
How much does a glacier move?
Rates up to several meters a day (although usually more like 0.1 to 1 m/year)
Waves break as they ___________. This can ___________.
Reach shore Move Materials
Yardangs
Remnants of soil left behind by wind
Baymouth Bars
Ridges of sediment that cut bays off from the ocean
Glacial Erratics
Rocks deposited by a glacier that otherwise wouldn't be present
What are desert pavements?
Rocks left behind after wind carries fines away
Abrasion
Rocks within the ice acting like sandpaper to smooth and polish the surface below
What is the primary agent of erosion?
Running water
Where does a stream get it's water from?
Runoff & ground water (baseflow)
Kame
Sand accumulation at bottom of hole beneath a mountain
Saltation
Sand transportation Sediment transport by wind and supplied to dune systems (jumping, lifting force)
Ventifacts
Sandblasted rocks
What is an emergent shoreline?
Sea level lowers with respect to land
Submergent Shorline
Sea level rises with respect to land
Name a Aquitard
Shale
Meandering streams are a...
Single Channel
Surges
Some glaciers exhibit extremely rapid movements called...
What is a hydrologist?
Someone who studies water and the water cycle
Outwash
Sorted, Stratified (Sorted) sediments transported by glacial meltwater then deposited (usually boulders, cobbles, and sand)
Are^te
Steap Ridge
How can desertification be reduced?
Stop climate change, deforestation, and overgrazing
Movement of sediment tends to....
Straighten out coastlines
Drumlin in Glaciers
Stream Line Hills
What is Q stream?
Stream discharge / flow rate of the stream (volume / time or ft^3/s)
What is the difference between a submergent and an emergent shoreline?
Submergent - Sea Level rises with respect to land Emergent - Sea Level Lowers with respect to land
Where does 63% of the nation's drinking water come from?
Surface Water
What is the equation to find Time?
T= L/V
What is a Poter Noster Lake?
Tards that are strung together; like rosary beads
When was the most recent series of ice ages?
The Pleistocene Epoch
A continental glacier system (Ice Sheet)
The ZOne of accumulation is in the middle and flows out at snowlines to the zone of wastage/Ablation
What is Speleogenesis?
The creation of caves by water (Causes sinkholes and large craters in the ground
Terminal Moraine
The end of the moraine
Where is the most solar radiation thorough out the year>?
The equator
Desertification
The expansion of deserts 10 million acres of agricultural land become deserts annually Caused by climate change, overgrazing, and deforestation
What is a watershed?
The land area that drains to a stream
What is a water table?
The level below which the ground is saturated with water, the water level top
What is Wave Height?
The vertical distance between the crest (top) and trough (bottom) of the wave
How do you find the slope of a water table?
This is the distance between the countour line at the first place to the next contour line. So take the first number and subract it from the second - this is your change from the drop and will be deltaZ Next calculate the steepnedd with the measuring bar - So the number from the above instructions is then used to decide how far the distance truly is. So this number from the key is the length So subtract the first number from the second and than USE TAN-1 - put TAN-1(the number from the above problem) into your calculator and that is your answer
How does a glacier move?
Through the zone of accumulation to the zone of abberation
Suspended Load
Transports silt and clay Portion of the sediment that is carried by a fluid flow which settles slowly enough that it never touches the bed
What is TCE?
Tricholorethene Can cause cancer Max contaminant level is 5 ug/L -Insdustrial degreasing agent -Anesthetic -IN WCU's water in large amounts
True or False Sea level is currently rising for the past 15,000 years as a result of the ending of the last ice age Sea Level has raised about 130 meters so far
True
What are the two types of Aquifers?
Unconfined Aquifers & Confined Aquifers
Till
Unsorted, Unstratified (Not in layers) Material that is depostited directly by ice when it melts (a mixture of all grain sizes including cobbles, sand, silt, and clay)
How do you find the distance between Point A and Point B?
Use a paper and the measure bar to mark the distance multiple times, then place against point A & B.
What is the equation to find Volume?
V= L/T
How do you solve rate problems
V=T/L and its other variations NEEDS WORK
How do I find Q?
VWD
At the equator what kind of air rises and heads north/south?
Warm, moist tropical air rises and heads north/south
What are effective agents in erosion of deserts?
Water and Ice
In glacial retreat water does what?
Water goes from accumulation zone to ablation zone
Erosional and Depositional Landforms and what are they
Wave Cut Cliffs Stacks Arches Spits Barrier Islands
Wave height is a key factor in determining what/
Wave height
Longshore Current
Waves hit the coast line at a slight angle, pushing water and sediments parallel to the coastline in the form of a longshore current
What is an emergent coast?
When Sea level is lowering in respect to land Typically elevated by tectonic forces -Uplift has occurred more rapidly than rise in sea level -Uplifted Marine Terraces
What is a submergent coast?
When sea level is rising with respect to land
What is infiltration?
When water absorbs into the ground
How are desert pavements formed?.
When wind removes clay, silt, and sand from the desert floor, leaving pebbles behind
Loess
Wind Blown Silt A Wind depositional landform Soil left behind by wind Stands vertically typically and usually takes a yellow brown color
Longitude Dune
Wind goes towards the dune in both dirctions
Barchanoid Dune
Wind is as you expect
Transverse Dune
Wind is as you expect
What is the slope at point A?
With a Protractor
Can groundwater flow uphill?
Yes, by pressure
Continental Glacier
Zone of Accumulation in the middle with ablation on the outsides
How are ordinary ocean waves created?
`Wind blowing over the surface of water
Geology is
a science based on Observations and Inferences
What is a point bar?
an alluvial deposit that forms by accretion on the inner side of an expanding loop of a river.
What is the flood plain?
an area of low-lying ground adjacent to a river, formed mainly of river sediments and subject to flooding. (Be able to label on map)
What is a watershed?
an area or ridge of land that separates waters flowing to different rivers, basins, or seas.
Desert
an arid (dry) region with less than 25 cm precipitation/year
What is a desert?
an eolian arid (dry) region with less than 25 cm of precipitation a year
Observations
are descriptions of something. High-quality observations are specific, quantitative, and reproducible
As the air rises it _____ and causes ______ (and drying of air)
cools and causes precipitation
Orbital Motion in waves ______ with depth until it is essentially _____ at a depth of ________________________
decreases with depth; gone; half the wave length
Waves are the source of
energy
In deep water ___________ advances with the wave, but the _________ does not
energy advances while water does not
How do subtropical deserts form
formed when air at the equator (called the doldrums) rises and spreads to around 30 N and 30 S latitudes (called the Horse Latitudes). It dries out as it sinks and becomes dry wind bringing no moisture and zapping any from the surface. The cool, dry air sinks near 30 degrees N/S. Little precipitation occurs at these latitudes which creates subtropical deserts
How do deserts form
formed when rain clouds run into wind or mountains and drop rain in one area, leaving the land further away dry. Deserts that form near bodies of water are usually caused by winds. For example, the Sahara desert, near the Mediterranean
What is a stream bank?
generally refers to the land alongside a body of water.
98% if the world's available freshwater is what?
groundwater
What is Dendritic in geology?
having a branched form resembling a tree.
Why do deserts form where they do?
in areas of dense, dry air with high pressure
What is dissolved load?
ions in solution is material, especially ions from chemical weathering, that are carried in solution by a stream.
What is deposition?
is the geological process in which sediments, soil and rocks are added to a landform or land mass. Wind, ice, and water, as well as sediment flowing via gravity, transport previously eroded sediment, which, at the loss of enough kinetic energy in the fluid, is deposited, building up layers of sediment.
Longshore Drift
is the movement of sediment parallel to shore when waves strike the shoreline at an angle
What is a cut bank?
is the outside bank of a water channel (stream), which is continually undergoing erosion.
What is a stream channel?
is the path for water and sediment flowing within the stream banks A stream channel constantly adjusts to changes in streamflow, sediment load, stream slope and vegetation.
Ground water can be young or old depending on
it's flow path
What happens when cool, dry air sinks near 30 degrees N/S of the equator?
little precipitation occurs at these latitudes, which creates subtropical deserts
Dry air is denser than _____ air
moist
Warm air can hold more ____ than _____ air
moisture; cold
Movement of water in waves is in a ___________
nearly circular path (orbit)
What is transpiration?
plants taking in H20
What is precipitation?
rain, snow, sleet, or hail that falls to the ground.
Coast can be _____ or ____
rocky and mountainous or broad gentle plains
What is the time since the last ice age (the Wisconsian) is called what?
the Holocene Epoch
What is condensation?
the conversion of a vapor or gas to a liquid.
Slip Face
the dip
What is run off?
the draining away of water (or substances carried in it) from the surface of an area of land, a building or structure, etc.
What is wavelength?
the horizontal distance between two wave crests or troughs
What is erosion?
the process of eroding or being eroded by wind, water, or other natural agents.
What is stream morphology?
the shape of the stream tells us about behaviors and risks
Glacial Till is typically
unstratified and unsorted
Cold air is denser than ______ air
warm
Recessional Moraine
where glacier retreated
What happens when waves strike coastlines,
wind energy is transferred to the rocks and sediments on beaches -This energy can erode coastlines and transport sediments