Geology Lab Exam 2

Winds of Hurricanes: (MPH)

- <38 : Tropical depressions - 38 - 74 : Tropical storm - >74 : Hurricanes

Two categories of glaciers:

- Alpine glaciers - Continental glaciers

Types of sand dunes:

- Barchan dunes - Transverse dunes - Bachanoid ridge dunes - Parabolic dunes - Longitudinal (linear) dunes

Beach Composition:

- Berms - Beach Face - Makeup of beaches

Erosional features of a glacial region:

- Cirque - Arete - Col - Horn - Headwall - Glacial trough - Hanging valley - Roche Mountonnee - Glacial striations and grooves - Glacial polish

Mountain glaciers are characterized by:

- Cirque glaciers - Valley glaciers - Piedmont glaciers - ice caps

5 main kinds of glaciers:

- Cirque glaciers - Valley glaciers - piedmont glaciers - Ice sheets - Ice caps

What three methods can be used to determine what type of quadrangle a map is (EX: 7.5 minute quadrangle)

- Look at the title - scale - subtract the longitude printed in the upper left corner from the longitude printed in the upper right corner.

Depositional features of glaciated regions:

- Moraines - Drumlin - Kame -Esker - Erratic - Boulder train - Outwash - Outwash plain - Valley train - Beach Line - Glacial-lake deposits - Loess

Destruction of Hurricanes:

- Storm surge - Wind Damage - Heavy rains and inland flooding

Types of channels:

- Straight - Meandering - Braided

Water bodies o glaciated region:

- Tarn - Ice dammed lake - Paternoster lakes - Finger lake - Kettle lake (kettle hole) - Swale - Marginal glacial lake - Meltwater stream - Misfit stream - marsh or swamp

Shoreline Processes:

- Wave Erosion (abrasion) - Sand Movement on Beaches - Movement Perpendicular to shoreline - Wave Refraction - Longshore transportation (beach drift, longshore current) - Rip Currents

Tow principal types of stream erosion:

- downcutting - lateral erosion

Erosion in arid regions is different from erosion in humid regions due to:

- little precipitation - sparse vegetation - lack of abundant soil cover - local byt intense storms (flash floods)

Rules for contouring:

- must e closed (but may run off the map) - can never cross one another - moving from one line to another indicates a change in elevation - closer together means steeper slope - circle represents hills or closed depression (hachured marks) - crossed streams valley with a V shape; points in direction of stream flow.

Human modification of shorelines: (geoengineering techniques)

- sea wall - Breakwater - Groin - Jetties

Types of drainage patterns:

-Dendritic - Trellis - Radial - Rectangular

Types of landforms associated with deserts:

-Inselberg - sand dunes - bajada - playa - alluvial fans - saltflat - Block faulting

What type of map shows a larger map area a 30', 15' or 7.5' map?

30'

The sawing and grinding action of the water armed with rock fragments.

Abrasion

(Pacific ocean) Relatively narrow beaches that are backed by steep cliffs and mountain ranges. High relief, less sand on coastline, has cliffs, represents a tectonically active.

Active margin

A large wedge of sediment that is deposited at the base of a mountain. this is due because of a stream flowing from a steep mountain into a flat valley experiences an abrupt drop in speed due t the decrease in gradient and cannot transport the same sediment load.

Alluvial Fan

Fan shaped, delta like deposits of sediment that develop where the flash floods and mudflows empty into the valley.

Alluvial Fans

Form in mountain ranges where snow is abundant at high altitudes

Alpine Glaciers

Geologic materials which have both high porosity and permeability (sand, sandstone, gravel and limestone)

Aquifer

Sharp, jagged, knife-edge ridge between two cirques or glaciated valleys

Arete

Relatively flat and slope gently seaward with barrier islands which absorb energy of waves during a storm. PASSIVE continental margin

Atlantic

Form when barchans dunes are numerous and the horns of adjacent barchans dunes merge into transverse ridges. these are chains of the short crescent shaped segments that are the crests of individual barchans dunes.

Bachanoid ridge dunes

When alluvial fans coalesce.

Bajada

Printed in the lower margins of the graph. they are rulers for measuring distances on the map (miles, feet, kilometers and meters)

Bar scales

crescent shape dunes whose tips point downwind that occur where sand supply is limited and wind direction is fairly constant.

Barchan dunes

A long, narrow island that parallels the mainland coastline and is separated from mainland by a lagoon, tidal flat or salt marsh.

Barrier island

Which is the wet sloping surface that extends from the berm to the shoreline.

Beach Face

The zigzag pattern of water movement used to transport sediment along the beach.

Beach drift

Landward edge of a shoreline of a lake formed from damming of glacial meltwater or temporary ponding of glacial meltwater in a topographic depression

Beach line

a gently sloping deposit of sand or gravel along the edge of a shoreline.

Beaches

Sediment that is transported through longshore current is transported and may be deposited in sheltered areas to form _____, _____ and ______

Beaches, barrier islands and spits

Is the compass direction along a line from one point to another.

Bearing (compass bearing)

If the bottom of the sinkhole is _______ the water table, a lake will form.

Below

A permanent marker (usually a metal plate) which has the notations "X" and shows the exact elevation at a certain point that has been tested.

Bench mark

The highest part of a beach, it separates the foreshore (seaward part of the shoreline) from the backshore (landward part of the shoreline).

Berm crest

relatively flat platforms often composed of sand that are adjacent to coastal dunes or cliffs and marked by a change in slope at the seaward edge.

Berms

a type of regional rock deformation where earths crust is broken into fault bounded blocks of different elevations.

Block faulting

A line or band of boulders and smaller rock clasts transported by a glacier and extending from the bedrock source where they originated to the place where the glacier carried them.

Boulder train

consist of numerous channels divided by sediment bars which occur in areas with large amounts of sediment which the stream does not have the capacity to transport.

Braided streams

An offshore wall constructed parallel to a shoreline to break waves. the longshore current is halted behind such walls, so the sand accumulates there and the beach widens. Where the ______ is used to protect a harbor from currents and waves, sand often collects behind the ____ and may have to dredged.

Breakwater

Calculating stream gradient:

Change in elevation/ distance

Bowl-shaped depression on a high mountain slope, formed by a cirque glacier

Cirque

Horns form from ______

Cirque glaciers

Small, semicircular to triangular glaciers that form on the sides of mountains. If they form at the head of a valley and grow large enough then they evolve into valley glaciers.

Cirque glaciers

Type of alpine glacier the is small and forms near the peaks of mountains

Cirque glaciers

are one of the most dynamic areas on the earths surface where erosion and deposition occur continuously as energy from waves and coastal currents work to modify the coastline.

Coast

landward limit of highest storm wave

Coastline

Mountain pass formed by the headward erosion of cirques

Col

are much larger often covering large parts of a continent

Continental Glaciers

Is specified at the center of the bottom margin of the map. this indicates the elevation change between each contour line. (Five countour lines for every 200ft = 40 ft _______)

Contour Intervals

connects all points on the map that have the same elevation above sea level.

Contour lines

Open fissures that form when the velocity of ice flow is variable

Crevasses

the outer bank on the outside of a meander channel. this is where water velocity and turbulence are greater causing erosion.

Cut Bank

The trident shaped symbol on the bottom margin of topographic maps which shows the difference in degrees between compass north (MN)(Magnetic North) and true north (star symbol)

Declination (magnetic declination)

a sediment deposit at the mouth of a river where it enters an ocean or lake.

Delta

The pattern that tends to resemble a branching tree. Occurs if the rock is homogeneous.

Dendritic

are characterized by having a lack of moisture which leads to a restriction on the number of living things that can exist there. Wind directly affects the land surface by removing soil and sediment at the Earths surface along with running water.

Deserts

surface water may appear as natural springs that flow as streams for some distance and then reenter the ground through a fracture or sinkhole.

Disappearing streams

Makeup of Beaches

Dominantly quartz grains and other miners abundant in the area. Can be made up of shell fragments and remains of organisms. Volcanic islands are made of weathered grains and basaltic lava

deepens the alley toward the base level

Downcutting

An elongated mound or ridge of glacial till that accumulated under a glacier and was elongated and streamlined by movement (flow) of the glacier.

Drumlin

coordinates that are the west to east distance in meters within the UTM zone where the central meridian is assigned a false easting of 500,000 meters.

Easting

Is one that is advancing (moving out into the water: prograding) this can occur when sediment and reefs build up to sea level and then build seaward. It can also occur when sea level actually falls globally or when the seafloor rises (uplift which can occur because the region is tectonically active). It can also occur where the crust and mantle are rebounding upward after an ice sheet melts from atop them.

Emergent coastline

Coasts where sea level has dropped. this results in exposure of previously submerged features such as reefs and characterized by rock with steep slopes

Emergent coastlines

Boulder or smaller fragment of rock resting far from its source on bedrock of a different type.

Erratic

Long, narrow, sinuous ridge of stratified drift deposited by meltwater stream flowing under glacial ice or in tunnels within the glacial ice.

Esker

a river valley flooded by a rise in the level of an ocean or lake.

Estuary

Long narrow lake in a glacial trough that was cut into bedrock by the scouring action of glacial ice and usually dammed by a deposit of glacial gravel.

Finger lake

After flood water spill over the banks, they spread across flat planar areas know as _______ adjacent to the channels

Floodplains

In their upper reaches streams have steep V shaped valleys, while downstream the valleys decrease in steepness, become wider and _______ are deposited

Floodplains

Another way of expressing the ratio scale which indicates how much smaller something is than its actual size on the ground. (1/24,000)

Fractional Scale

How do Tarn lakes form?

From Cirque glaciers

_________ causes a U Shape.

Glacial erosion

When more snow accumulates during the winter months than melts during the summer months, snowflakes are compacted over time and recrystallize under pressure to form ______

Glacial ice

Layers of sediment in the lake bed, deltas or beaches of a glacial lake

Glacial lake deposits

Smooth bedrock surfaces caused by glacial abrasion (sanding action of glaciers analogous to sanding of wood with sandpaper)

Glacial polish

Parallel linear scratches and groves in bedrock surfaces, resulting from glacial scouring.

Glacial striations and grooves

U-shaped, steep-walled, glaciated valley formed by the scouring action of a valley glacier.

Glacial trough

a body of moving ice

Glacier

is a measure of the steepness of a slope. (relief/distance from A to B)

Gradient

A short wall constructed perpendicular to shoreline to order to trap sand and make or build up a beach. sand accumulates on the up current side of the ____ In relation to the longshore current

Groin

Sheetlike layer (blanket) of till left on the landscape by a receding (wasting) glacier

Ground moraine

Glacial trough of a tributary glacier, elevated above the main trough

Hanging wall

Projection of land that extends into an ocean or lake and generally has cliffs along its water boundary

Headland with cliffs

Steep slope or rock cliff at the upslope end of a glaciated valley or cirque

Headwall

Steep-sided, pyramid-shaped peak produced by headward erosion of several cirques

Horn

Form in all tropical waters (warm and moist air) (except: South Atlantic and Eastern South Pacific)which involve heavy winds due to fueled energy liberated when huge quantities of water vapor condense. Diminish in intensity whenever they move across cooler ocean water or move across land.

Hurricanes

a vast, pancake-shaped ice mound that covers a large portion of a continent and flows independent of the topographic features beneath it and covers an area greater than 50,000km. The Antarctic _____ covers the entire continent of Antarctica and the Greenland _____ which covers Greenland.

Ice Sheet

A dome shaped mass of ice and snow that covers a flat plateau, island or peaks at the summit of a mountain range and los outward in all directions from the thickest part of the cap. It is much smaller than an ice sheet.

Ice cap

Lake formed behind a mass of ice sheet and blocks that have wedged together and blocked the flow of water from a melting glacier and/or river.

Ice dammed lake

Alpine glaciers that cover one or more peaks

Icecaps

The heavy brow contour lines that have elevations printed on them. These are the starting point when reading elevations on a topographic map.

Index contour

island mountains in the desert that form when alluvial fans surround outlying portions of the mountain fronts. (little mound that points out of the alluvial fan)

Inselberg

Long walls extending from shore at the mouths of harbors and used to protect the harbor entrance from filling with sand or being eroded by waves and currents. They are usually constructed of boulders and in pairs.

Jetties

A low mound, knob or short irregular ridge of stratified drift sorted by the deposited from meltwater flowing a short distance beneath, within or on top of a glacier.

Kame

the landscape that produces due to soluble rock.

Karst topography

Small lake or water saturated depression in glacial drift, formed by melting of an isolated, detached block of ice left behind by a glacial in retreat or by the collapse of an ice dammed lake.

Kettle lake (kettle hole)

What type of erosion is associated with a wide floodplain?

Lateral Erosion

What is the primary type of erosion associated with meandering streams?

Lateral erosion

which widens the valley walls

Lateral erosion

A body of rock (till) fragments at or within the side of a valley glacier where it touches bedrock and scours the rock fragments from the side of the valley.

Lateral moraine

Unstratified sheets of clayey silt and silty clay transported beyond the margins of a glacier by wind and or braided streams.

Loess

Dunes that form where sand is abundant and crosswinds merge to form these high, elongated dunes. they can be quite large.

Longitudinal (linear) dunes

Waves usually approach the coast at an angle and some of their energy generates a current called a ______ which flows parallel to the shore.

Longshore current

is a flat representation of part of Earths surgace as viewed from above and reduced in size to fit a sheet of paper or computer screen.

Map

Lake formed at the edge of a glacier as a result of accumulating meltwater.

Marginal glacial lake

a elevated wave cut platform that is bounded on its seaward side by a cliff or steep slope. (emergent coastline)

Marine terrace

Saturated, poorly drained areas that are permanently or intermittently covered with water and have grassy vegetation (marsh) or shrubs and trees (swamp)

Marsh or swamp

When meanders become so sinuous that the thin area of land between two meanders is cut through _______ is formed.

Meander cut off

What channel type usually forms where streams that have a flatter gradient?

Meandering

A long narrow body of rock fragment (till) carried in or upon the middle of a valley glacier and parallel to its sides, Usually formed by the merging of lateral moraines from two or more merging valley glaciers.

Medial Moraine

Stream of water derived from melting glacial ice, that flows under the ice, on the ice, along the margins of the ice or beyond the margins of the ices.

Meltwater stream

How do medial moraines form?

Merging of lateral moraines

Streams that is not large enough and powerful enough to have cut the valley it occupies.

Misfit stream

parallel hills that form as a result of repeated river flooding.

Natural Levees

Stratified drift transported, sorted and deposited by meltwater streams flowing in front of the terminus of the melting glacier.

Outwash

Plain formed by blanket like deposition of outwash formed by the coalescence of many braided streams having their origins along a common glacial terminus.

Outwash plain

The cut off meander forms a crescent shape lake which may eventually be filled with fine grained sediment and organic matter.

Oxbow Lake

a way to divide public land of the western frontier into small parcels that could be transferred to ownership by private citizens. It is a square grid system centered on any one of dozens of principal meridians and base lines. Each grid is 6 miles by 6 miles.

PLSS (public land survey system)

Relatively narrow beaches that are backed by steep cliffs and mountain ranges ACTIVE continental margin

Pacific

Somewhat resemble barchans but the horns point in the opposite direction upwind. form adjacent to blowouts, oval depressions from which come the sandy sediments that form the parabolic dunes

Parabolic dunes

(Atlantic coastline) relatively flat and slope gently seaward with barrier islands which absorbs energy of waves during a storm. greater amount of sand on coastline, barrier islands, more vulnerable to a rise in sea level, more affected by tides.

Passive Margin

Chain of small lakes in a glacial trough

Paternoster lake

The ability of a formation to transmit water. The ease in which water can flow through.

Permeability

Mergers of two or more valley glaciers at the foot (break in slope) of a mountain range.

Piedmont glaciers

is a flat representation of earths surface that shows horizontal (two dimensional) positions of features like streams, landmarks, roads and political boundaries.

Planimetric map

Ephermeral bodies of water where water meets at the base of the valley. This is where chemicals become more and more abundant as the water evaporates from it. (temporary lakes because of infrequent rain)

Playa

Are along the inside of a meander where water velocity is less and allos for sand or gravel to be deposited

Point bar deposits

The percent volume of open space in a geologic formation

Porosity

is a relatively rectangular area of Earths surface bouded by lines of latitude at the top and bottom and by lines of longitude on the left and right.

Quadrangle

is a section of the Earths surface that is bounded by lines of latitude at the top and bottom and by lines of longitude on the left.

Quadrangle

Drainage patterns in which streams may radiate away from a central point.

Radial

Commonly expressed above the bar scales in the bottom margins of topographic maps and express the ratio of a linear dimension on the map to the actual dimension of the same feature on the ground (in real life) (1:24,000)

Ratio scales

Ridge of till that forms at terminus of a glacier, behind and generally parallel to the terminal moraine; formed during a temporary halt in recession of a wasting glacier.

Recessional moraine

Drainage patterns in which streams follow channels through fractured rock.

Rectangular

is the difference in elevation between landforms, specific points or other features on a landscape or map

Relief

concentrated movements of water that flow in the opposite direction of breaking waves (rip tides)

Rip Current

Asymmetrical knoll or small hill of bedrock, formed by glacial abrasion on the smooth stoss side (side from which the glacier came) and by plucking (prying and pulling by glacial ice) on the less smooth lee side (down-glacier side)

Roche Mountain

________ is the primary geologic erosional agent in the deserts which is the primarily responsible for molding desert landscapes.

Running water

a white, soggy or dry level patch of land that is encrusted with salt that forms when a playa evaporates

Salt flat

a marsh that is flooded by ocean water at high tide. (emergent coastlines)

Saltmarsh

an embankment of boulders, reinforced concrete or other material constructed against a shoreline to prevent erosion by waves and currents

Sea wall

Each township square is also divided into 36 small squares with each having an area of 1 square mile (640 acres). These square mile subdivisions of land are called ____ (1 begins in upper right corner of township)

Sections

line that marks contact between land and sea

Shoreline

If the cave is near the surface a _______ develops if the ceiling of the cave collapses (this appears on a topographic map as a nearly circular depression)

Sinkhole

Is the elevation above which there is permanent snow cover

Snowline

a sand bar extending from the end of a beach into the mouth of an adjacent bay.

Spit

an isolated rocky island near a headland cliff (submergent coastlines

Stack

Is a dome of water 65 to 80 kilometers wide that sweeps across the coast near the point where the eye makes landfall.

Storm Surge

Is an abnormal rise of water pushed landward by high winds and/or low atmospheric pressure associated with storms.

Storm surges

the water level height caused by a combination of the normal tide level and the storm surge.

Storm tide.

_______ channel streams usually have steep valley walls.

Straight

channel streams occur in steep areas and erode their channels mostly by downcutting

Straight channels

Is one that is being flooded, eroded back or is otherwise receding (moving landward) This can occur on short timescales due to erosion by waves but it also occurs over longer periods of time due to sea level rise.

Submergent coastline

Coast which have undergone sea level rise which have features such as drowned river valleys and depositional landforms such as beaches and barrier islands.

Submergent coastlines

Narrow marsh, swamp or very shallow lake in a long shallow depression between two moraines

Swale

Small lake in a cirque.

Tarn

Ridge of till that formed along the leading edge of the farthest advance of a glacier.

Terminal moraine

Why are some sinkholes dry?

They are above the water table

Muddy or sandy areas that is covered with water at high tide and exposed at low tide (emergent coastlines)

Tidal flat

An island connected to the mainland or another island by a tombolo. (submergent coastline)

Tied island

a sand bar that connects an island with the mainland or another island (submergent coastlines)

Tombolo

Why are there few sinkholes in a part of a topographic map that have little or no sinkholes?

Too high of elevation

is a cross section that shows the elevations and slopes along a given line. (elevation on Y axis and distance on X axis)

Topographic profile

refers to the surface features on an area of land

Topography

The north-south squares of the grid in PLSS (T1S: _____ 1 South)

Townships

dunes that occur where sand supply is greater. they form as long ridges perpendicular to the prevailing wind direction.

Transverse dunes

Drainage patterns in an area of linear ridges and valleys, streams mostly follow the valleys but larger streams may cut through the ridges.

Trellis

A rectangular grid that measures in decimal based metric units (meters and Km)

UTM (universal Transverse Mercator system)

As cirque glaciers grow larger they become ______ as they flow downslope, usually in stream valleys.

Valley glaciers

Long glaciers that originate at cirques and flow down stream valleys in the mountains.

Valley glaciers

Long, narrow sheets of outwash that extends far beyond the terminus of a glacier.

Valley train

stretching of the vertical scale of a topographic profile to make landscape features more obvious. found by dividing vertical fractional scale by horizontal fractional scale)

Vertical exaggeration

a fan shaped deposit of sand or gravel transported and deposited landward of the beach during a washover of the land or island during a storm or very high tide.

Washover fan

a bench or shelf at sea level along a steep shore and formed by wave erosion. (emergent coastlines)

Wave cut platform

The bending of waves

Wave refraction

a seaward facing cliff along a steep shoreline, produced by wave erosion (submergent coastlines)

Wave-cut cliffs

______ beaches are associated with emergent coastlines.

Wide

Tributaries that flow parallel to the main stream channel which are caused my large floodplains

Yazoo streams

Groundwater flowing through natural fractures dissolves the surrounding rock creating a ______

cave

Describe the gradient of a stream that forms oxbow lakes, back swamps and point bars.

flat

How are moraines formed?

glacier deposits sediment

the slope along which a stream descends.

gradient

Water from rain or streams which infiltrates below the surface. May be stored in fractures, pores, caves and other open spaces in geologic materials.

groundwater

Desert landscapes evolve from an area of ______ relief to one of ______ relief

high low

Very detailed but covers a small area

large scale

most widespread example of soluble rock composed of calcite.

limestone

occur in flat areas and exhibit mainly lateral erosion

meandering streams

in the lower reaches of a stream where the gradient is less, a stream will swing from side to side across the valley floor forming hairpin loops known as _______

meanders

______ beaches are associated with submerging coastlines

narrow

Coordinates is the distance from the Equator measured in meters for UTM

northing

The east-west squares of the grid (R2W: _____ 2 West)

ranges

The sea level is _____

rising

Ratio of a distance on the map to the actual distance on the ground. It is the proportion by which you reduce the real area to map size.

scale

not as detailed but covers a large area

small scale

Groundwater will shape the landscape most when _______ rocks (those composed of minerals that readily dissolve in water) are at or near the surface.

soluble

multiple sinkholes may merge to form a larger ________

solution valley

If sea level rises, what would happen:

storm surges and storm tides rise.

Shows the same horizontal information as a planimetric map but also includes contour lines to represent elevations of hills and valleys making it appear 3D.

topographic map