Studied by 63 peoplenonrenewable resource
resources that are in limited supply and when consumed like a certain rate will be used up.
renewable resource
resources that are replenished naturally over a relatively short period of time.
Why is soil a renewable yet exhaustible resource
Soil forms slower than it is being used/eroded
what are the four components of soil
minerals, air, water, organic matter
saturation
all pore space is filled with water
what is field capacity
the amount of water soil can hold against the force of gravity
what is permeability?
how well water travels through pores
What are the five soil formation factors
parent material, time, topography, climate, organisms
what is residual parent material?
soil that forms from the residue left by weathering if local bedrock
what is transported parent material?
soil that forms from the material deposited by wind, water, or glacier ice
what are the four soil formation processes?
addition, transportation, depletion, and translocation
What is the process of soil formation that is called addition?
gains made by soil when organic matter is added
what is the soil formation process that is called Transportation?
the weathering of rocks and minerals and decomposition of organic material in soil
What is the soil formation process that is called Depletion?
the loss of dissolved components as they are carried downward by water
What is the soil formation process that is called translocation?
movement of dissolved and suspended particles from one depth to another within the soil
Loam
Using the soil texture triangle, what is 50% sand, 20% clay, and 30% silt?
using the soil textures triangle, what is 30% sand, 60% clay, and 10% sit?
Clay
What is the A horizon?
the top layer of soil that is darkened by organic material
What is the B horizon?
the middle layer of soil that recieved dissolved particles from the above layer
What is the C horizon?
the bottom layer of soil where weathering has only minor effects.
What are the four soil structures
Platy, Blocky, Prismatic, Granular
what dies a platy soil structure look like?
thin plates stacked horizontally
What does a prismatic soil structure look like?
arranged in vertical columns
What does a blocky soil structure look like an what are its two sub categories?
irregular shape but fit together like Legos, angular (sharp edges) and sub angular (rounded)
What does a granular soil structure look like?
small and nearly rounded (think like sand)
What are the four carbon pools and which is the largest?
the atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere (Earth's crust is the largest), and the oceans
What is happening when carbon goes from the lithosphere/biosphere to the atmosphere?
the burning of fossil fuels, volcanic eruptions, forest fires emissions by organisms
What is happening when carbon goes from the atmosphere to the lithosphere/biosphere?
Photosynthesis (Plants take in CO2 in order to create food for themselves)
What is happening when carbon goes from the atmosphere into the ocean?
the ocean is absorbing and dissolving CO2
What are Earths four internal layers?
the solid inner core, liquid outer core, mantle, and crust
What is Earth's solid core made up of?
dense iron and Nickle which exist in a solid state due to high pressure
What is Earth's liquid outer core made up of?
the same materials as the inner solid core, except they exist in the liquid form due to less pressure
What two categories does the Mantle break into?
lower and upper mantles
What is the lower mantle of Earth?
a layer composed of iron, magnesium, and silicon compunds
How many regions is the upper mantle split into and what are they called?
2, the asthenosphere (lower portion) and the lithosphere (upper portion)
What is the asthenosphere made of?
molten rock
What is found in the crust and what is the range of its thickness?
rocks, 5-40kms
What is the Moho discontinuity and how was it found?
the boundary between the mantle and crust, it indicates the mantle is denser than the crust. It was found because earthquake seismic wave speeds change when moving through the mantle vs the crust since the mantle is denser.
what is continental crust?
lower density, thicker, and made up of felsic rock
What is oceanic crust?
dense, made up of mafic rock
What are elements?
building blocks of minerals (cannot simplify any further)
What are minerals?
naturally occurring inorganic elements or compounds having specific formulas, definite chemical composition, physical properties, and crystalline structure
What are rocks?
crustal material made up of minerals
What are five ways to identify minerals?
chemical composition, hardness, streak, fracture, cleavage
What is the chemical composition of a rock?
its atomic structure
What is the hardness of a rock based off of?
Mohs hardness scale
What is the streak of a rock?
the color of a mineral when made into a fine powder
What is the fracture of a rock?
the way a mineral breaks
What is the cleavage of a rock?
the tendency of a mineral to break along a flat, planar surface based on its structure, a type of fracture
What are the three main rock types?
igneous, metamorphic, sedimentary
What are igneous rocks and hat two groups can they be broken into?
rocks that are more resistant to weathering, intrusive and extrusive
What is an intrusive igneous rock?
a rock resulting from cooled magma
What is an extrusive igneous rock?
a rock resulted from cooled lava
What are sedimentary rocks and what two categories can they be broken into?
rocks resulting from deposition, compaction, and cementation of rock fragments, mineral grains, and dissolved material derived from other rocks, can be broken into clastic and non clastic
What are clastic sedimentary rocks?
made from particles other than rocks (more common)
What are non clastic sedimentary rocks?
form from chemical solutions or organic deposition
what are metamorphic rocks forms from?
form when other rock types are subject to heat and pressure
What is the continental drift theory?
a hypothesis that the continents were slowly drifting around the Earth
What led to the continental drift theory?
Closely related fossil plants and animals that seemed likely to have evolved in the same geographic region were scattered across South Africa, South America, India, Australia, and even Antarctica
What is seafloor spreading?
Locations where hot rock continually rises from deep in the mantle, melting and then solidifying. Through this process, new igneous rock forms and is quickly pushed away horizontally by still-newer rock forcing its way up from below all along a mid-oceanic ridge
What is continental drift?
the theory about continents being connected
What are plate tectonics?
the theory discussing how plates move
what are the three plate boundaries?
divergent, convergent, and transform
What is a divergent plate boundary and what is an example?
two plates moving away from each other, seafloor spreading
What types of convergent boundaries are there?
continental-continental, oceanic-continental, oceanic- oceanic
What is the result of a continental-continental convergent boundary?
huge mountain ranges
What is the result of an oceanic-continental convergent boundary?
subduction, oceanic trench and continental mountains, continental volcano
What is the result of an oceanic-oceanic convergent boundary?
subduction resulting in an underseas trench, island arc
What is a convergent boundary?
a boundary where two or more lithospheric plates collide
What is a transform boundary?
two boundaries slip past each other laterally, neither creates nor destroys crust, commonly produce shallow quakes
What is an earthquake?
Shaking and trembling of the Earth's surface
What is the focus of an Earthquake?
the point in which the fault begins to rupture, which may be deep below ground
What is the epicenter of an earthquake?
the point at Earth’s surface vertically above the point of focus of an earthquake
attenuation
the ground shaking becomes weaker with increasing distance from the focus
amplification
soft ground can result in stringer shaking with increasing distance
What is the magnitude of an earthquake and what scale does it use?
the energy released as the fault ruptures, the Richter scale
What is the intensity of an earthquake and what scale does it use?
refers to the severity of the shaking at a particular location and it uses the Mercalli scale
why do tsunamis occur?
Ocean water is suddenly displaced by the movement of the crust in an earthquake or by a large landslide
what are the two types of lava?
Aa and Pohoehoe
What is Aa lava?
most abundant type of lava: rough/jagged surface, thick
what is pahoehoe lava?
smooth, billowy, or ropy surface; relatively
What are the three types of volcanoes and which one is the most destructive?
shield, cinder cone, composite/stratovolcano (most aggressive)
What is a shield volcano?
layer upon layer of solidified lava flows; large volcanoes but not steep. Large craters at their summits
What is a cinder cone volcano?
small volcanoes built from pyroclastic. They have very steep sides, and usually have a small crater
What is a composite volcano
these volcanoes are typically tens of miles across and ten thousand or more feet in height. They have moderately steep sides; Most destructive. Known as stratovolcanoes because of their layering of young ad older lava flows
What is a landform
a feature of Earth’s topography that can be distinguished and studied as a single unit.
what is a landscape
an aggregation of landforms
What is weathering
the breaking down or decomposition of rocks and other material on the Earth’s surface
what is mechanical weathering and what are two types
Destruction of rocks through force/stress, wedging and thermal expansion
What is wedging?
rocks break apart due to accumulation of sand/ice expanding in cracks
What is thermal expansion?
When a rock is warm, it expands, when a rock is cool, it contracts
What is chemical weathering
breaking down of rocks from some type of chemical reaction; changes the materials that make up the rock
What is biological weathering
weathering due to plants or animals such as burrowing animals or tree roots
What is mass movement
material that falls under the influence of gravity with little or no transporting agent
What are the four types of mass movement?
creep, slide, fall, flow
What is creep?
upper layer of soil moves faster than the layers below, which tilts vertical objects downslope
What is slide?
starts with a slope failure in which a block of rock or soil breaks loose and slide over a distinct surface
What is flow and what two types are there?
a relatively fluid downhill movement of weathered rock, loose sediments and soil, earth flow and debris flow
What is earth flow?
slow-moving flows often involving fine-grained and clay-rich soil
What is debris flow?
a fluid, fast moving slurry of sediment and water
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