exam 3 ers 103
Continental glaciers and ice sheets currently occupy approximately __________ of land surface.
10%
Which of the following statements about streams is false?
Laminar flows generally carry more sediment than turbulent flows.
Rocks that form the seafloor are dominated by
NOT: basalt
Which of the following has the largest ice mass?
Antarctica
Which of the following statements about streams is false?
As discharge decreases, the velocity of the flow tends to increase.
The diagram below represents a cross section through a coastal mountain range. Which of the following statements is correct?
Region A would receive the most precipitation.
Which of the following statements best describes porosity and permeability?
Rocks with high porosity typically have high permeability.
What is the maximum depth of the world's ocean?
about 10 kilometers deep
Ablation of glacial ice can occur by:
all of the above: melting evaporation calving
Fresh snow typically contains around 90% air. How much air does solid glacial ice contain?
approximately 20%
How thick are the Greenland and Antarctic ice caps?
approximately 3 kilometers thick
Rock formations that transmit groundwater in sufficient quantity to supply wells are called ______.
aquifers
Where do deltas form?
at river mouths
Foraminifera shells are made of _______.
calcium carbonate
Which gas has increased by ~90% since the Industrial Revolution?
carbon dioxide
The hydrosphere, atmosphere and cryosphere are all part of which system?
climate
What type of drainage pattern is depicted in the map below?
dendritic
Which type of Milankovitch cycle has a period of about 100,000 years?
eccentricity
Which of these is powered by solar energy?
evaporation of ocean water
Which of the following depositional settings associated with rivers consists primarily of fine-grained silt and clay?
floodplains
With increasing pressure, firn turns to ________.
glacial ice
Which of the following agents of erosion deposits the most poorly sorted sediment?
glaciers
Besides oceans and seas, which of the following reservoirs stores the most water?
glaciers and polar ice
Glacial flow is driven by ___________.
gravity
The main force that drives glacial flow is ___________.
gravity
Which of the following sets of conditions would favor laminar flow as opposed to turbulent flow?
high fluid viscosity and low flow velocity
Because of human activity, sediment transported by streams has
increased dramatically
Solar energy absorbed by the Earth's surface is reradiated as __________.
infrared radiation
Choose which part of the electromagnetic spectrum has longer wavelengths and lower energies:
infrared waves
Karst terrains with caves and sinkholes develop in regions underlain by what type of bedrock?
limestone
The wave-driven transport of sand particles along a beach is known as ________.
longshore drift
Where is new lithosphere created?
mid-ocean ridges
Perennially frozen soil is called ________.
permafrost
Which of the following is not caused by overpumping groundwater?
raising of the water table
As river erosion undercuts the base of cliffs, waterfalls
retreat upstream
Bed load is the material ___________.
sliding and rolling along the bottom of the stream
Because of structures built along a beach such as groins, jetties, and seawalls, __________.
the beach grows on one side of the structure and greatly shrinks on the other side
Which of the following regions is a broad, relatively flat, shallowly submerged, sand- and mud-covered platform?
the continental shelf
Earth's albedo is defined as
the fraction of solar energy reflected by the Earth's surface
If accumulation exceeds ablation, then __________.
the glacier will grow and the ice front will advance
The transportation of thermal energy from warm equatorial oceans to cool polar oceans is called _________.
thermohaline circulation
Which of the following is a measure of a fluid's resistance to flow?
viscosity
What creates ocean waves?
wind forces