Earth Space Science Fall Final 2/2

What is the process of lithification?

A physical and chemical process that transform sediments into sedimentary rocks

How does lithification occur during the formation of sedimentary rock?

Compaction- sediments are forced together by the weight of the sediments above

Cementation- minerals glue sediment grains together to form a solid rock

What is the process of metamorphism in rocks and what two conditions are needed to start the metamorphic process?

Heat and pressure is applied to the rocks and causes the molecules and atoms to rearrange, but not melt the rock

What is foliation and how does it correlate to the two different types of metamorphic rock?

Foliated- banded or layered appearance

Nonfoliated- no banded texture

What is the rock cycle?

Shows the interrelationships among the three rock types

What is the difference between mechanical weathering and chemical weathering?

Mechanical- occurs when physical forces break rock into smaller pieces without changing its composition

Chemical- transformation of rock into one or more new compounds

What is the most important agent of chemical weathering?

Water

What are the four major components of soil?

Mineral matter, humus, water, and air

What are the five important factors in soil formation? Describe them

Parent material- bedrock in residual soil

Time- the longer a soil has been forming, the thicker it is

Climate- greatest effect on soil formation

Organisms- influence soil’s physical and chemical properties

Slope- steep slopes lead to bad soil, orientation (direction slope faces) influences soil formation

What are the two types of soil erosion?

Water and wind erosion

What are the differences between base level and local level? Where are they located?

Base level- lowest point to which a stream can erode (the level at which the mouth of a stream enters an ocean, lake, or another stream)

Local level- where a stream enters another body of water (lake, river, or stream)

What is a drainage basin and what is it used for?

Land area that contributes water to a stream

What are the various mass movements?

Rockfalls, slides, slumps, flows, and creeps

When do rockfalls occur and how are they caused?

When slopes are too steep for materials to remain on the surface, often caused by frost wedging

What is a slide and where do they often occur?

A block of material that moves suddenly along a flat, inclined surface, often occur in mountainous areas

What is a slump?

The downward movement of a block of material along a curved surface

What is a flow?

Mass movements of material containing a large amount of water

(mudflow and earthflow)

What is a creep?

The slow, downhill movement of soil and regolith

What is the difference between stalactite and stalagmites?

Stalactites hang from the ceiling, stalagmites grow from the floor

How does the water cycle work and how does it stay balanced?

Precipitation, evaporation, infiltration, condensation, runoff, transpiration

Stays balances by the average annual precipitation = amount of evaporation water

What is an aquifer and how does it maintain water?

Permeable rock layers or sediments that transmit groundwater freely

Where is the zone of saturation?

Area where water fills all of the open spaces in sediment and rock

Where is the zone of aeration?

Area above the water table where the pore space is filled with air

What are the two types of glaciers?

Valley glaciers and ice sheets

What are valley glaciers?

Ice masses that slowly go down mountain valleys originally occupied by streams

What are ice sheets?

Big ice masses that flow in all directions, they don’t cover the highest land

What term is used when large pieces of ice break off a glacier? What is the result?

Calving→makes icebergs

What are the two types of glacial erosion?

Plucking and abrasion

What is plucking?

Lifting of rock blocks

What is abrasion?

Occurs when the glacier with rock fragments slide across bedrock

What is a glacial trough?

U-shaped valley that was once V-shaped but was deepened by a glacier

What is a hanging valley?

A former tributary glacier valley that is cut into the upper part of a U-shaped glacier valley

What is a cirque?

Bowl-shaped depression at the head of a glacial valley

What is an arêtes?

Snaking, sharp-edged ridged

What is a horn?

Sharp pyramid-like peaks that project above mountain landscapes

What are the two types of glacial drift?

Till and stratified drift

What is a till?

Material deposited directly by the glacier

What is a stratified drift?

Sediment laid down by glacial meltwater

What are the three different types of faults?

Normal, reverse, and strike-slip

How do normal faults occur?

When the hanging wall block moves down relative to the footwall block

How do reverse faults occur?

The hanging wall block moves up relative to the footwall block

How do strike-slip faults occur?

The movement is horizontal and parallel to the trend or strike of the fault surface

What is the difference between the focus and epicenter of an earthquake?

Focus- the point within Earth where the earthquake starts

Epicenter- the location on the surface directly above the focus

What are the three different types of seismic waves?

P waves, S waves, and Surface waves

What are P waves characteristics?

They travel fastest, are push-pull waves, and travel through solids, liquids, and gases

What are S waves characteristics?

They are slower than P waves, shake particles at right angles to the direction they travel, they travel along Earth’s outer layer

What are surface waves characteristics?

The slowest type of waves, moves group up/down and side to side, are the most destructive

What is a tsunami and how do they form?

Big waves;

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One triggered by an earthquake occurs where a slab of the ocean floor is displaced vertically along a fault

Can also occur when the vibration of a quake sets an underwater landslide into motion

What is the process of liquefaction and how does it occur?

Occurs in areas where soil and rocks are captured with water

\-the ground cannot support structure and soil acts as liquid