Townsend Geo 2410 Final Review

Periglacial Environment (Features)

"On the perimeter of glaciation";Proglacial Lakes, Almost all are in the Northern Hemisphere.

Stream Patterns

(in North America) Watershed, area from which all precipitation flows to a single stream or set of streams.

Ephemeral Stream

(intermittent) Not constantly flowing Run-off dominated

Perennial

(permanent) Needs a constant source of water

6 types of Volcanic Landforms

-least explosive to most explosive- lava flows (surface flows) shield volcanoes cinder cones composite cones plug domes calderas

Sea Level

a measure of the average height of the ocean's surface; The position above or below which other elevations are measured.

Fluvial Geomorphology

a science devoted to understanding rivers, both in their natural setting as well as how they respond to human-induced changes in a watershed.

Effectiveness and Variability in Weathering

Climate, Type of rock, Nature and number of fractures in a rock, Rock Type, Structural Weakness.

Glaciofluvial features

Composed mainly of gravel, sand, and silt because glacial meltwateris rarely capable of moving larger material.

Geothermal Features

Geyser, hot springs, and fumaroles.

Pleistocene

Glaciation that began 2.4 myaand ended 10,000 years ago.

Hydrothermal Features

Hot water and steam comes to the surface through natural openings.

Glacial Movement

Internal plastic deformation and basal sliding.

Dams

A barrier that impounds water.

Faults

A crack in the earth's crust resulting from the displacement of one side with respect to the other; "they built it right over a geological fault"; "he studied the faulting of the earth's crust"

Continental Divide

A divide separating river systems that flow to opposite sides of a continent.

Ice Sheets

A permanent layer of ice covering an extensive tract of land, especially a polar region.

Deltas

A stream flowing into a large body of water.

Lava Flows

A stream or sheet of molten or solidified lava.

Gradation

Accomplished through weathering.

Relief

Difference in elevation between the highest and lowesst points within a specified area or an particular surface feature. With no variations in relief on earth we would be smooth.

Different Types of Streams

Ephemeral (intermittent) Perennial (permanent) Sheet Wash Flood

Volcanic Landforms depend on...

Explosiveness

Volcanism

Extrusion of rock matter from earth's subsurface to the exterior and the creation of surface terrain features as the result. volcanoes are mountains or hills constructed this way.

Types of Chemical Weathering

Oxidation, Carbonation, and Solution.

Deposition

Process in which sediments, soil, and rocks are added to a landform or land mass.

Sediment

Process of deposition of a solid material from a state of suspension or solution in a fluid (usually air or water).

Pyroclastics

Relating to, consisting of, or denoting fragments of rock erupted by a volcano.

Karst Landforms

Sinkholes, disappearing streams, caverns.

Tsunamis

The "pushing up" of water by sudden displacement in the ocean floor generates a ______.

Wave Refraction

The bending of waves as they approach the shore.

Losing Streams

The channel lies above the water table and loses water into the unsaturated zone.

Gaining Streams

The channels are usually at or below the level of the water table. Bodies of water and marshes form when the water table intersects the land surface over a broad, fairly flat area.

Tectonic Forces

The convection currents happening in the asthenoshpere of the earth crust. They make the plates diverge, converge and subduct.

Plutonism

The formation of intrusive igneous rock by solidification of magma beneath the earth's surface.

Erosion

The movement of weathered material by rivers, wind, glaciers, waves or gravity.

Denudation

The process of lowering the surface of the Earth (removal of a covering).

Fluvial Erosion

The removal of rock/soil by flowing water.

Geomorphology

The study of landforms and how they change over time.

Discharge

The volume of water moving in a stream during a given time interval.

Punctuated Equilibrium

Theory in biology that species act in a characteristic pattern of relative stability for a long period of time interspersed with short period of time which many species become extinct and many emerge.

Types of Physical Weathering

Thermal Expansion and Contraction, Unloading, Salt Crystallization.

Floods

When a streams expands out of its channel.

Aquifers

porous, permeable, saturated formations of rock or soil that transmit groundwater.

Exogenic Processes

originate at earth's surface and result in a decrease in relief EX: weathering, erosion, transportation

Endogenic Processes

originate within the earth and result in an increase in surface relief EX: tectonic uplift, folding, volcanism

Water

the "universal solvent", making it an effective shaper of a landscape.

Mass Wasting

the geomorphic process by which soil, sand, regolith, and rock move downslope typically as a mass, largely under the force of gravity, but frequently affected by water and water content as in submarine environments and mudslides.

Folds

when one or a stack of originally flat and planar surfaces, such as sedimentary strata, are bent or curved as a result of permanent deformation.

Geomorphic Agents

wind, water, glaciers, gravity