Earth's Surface System (Isabel)

Mechanical Weathering

Physically Breaks Rocks into Smaller Pieces

Chemical Weathering

Breaking down rocks through chemical changes

Humus

Dark colored organic material in soil

Principle

Accepted / Proven truth that other conclusions may be based on

Alluvial Fan

A wide sloping deposit of sediment formed where a stream leaves a mountain range

Continental Glacier

A glacier that covers most of a continent or large island

Runoff

Water that flows over the ground surface instead of getting soaked into the ground

Ground water

Water that fills the cracks and spaced underground solid and rock layers

Flood Plain

Flat wide area of land along a river

Stream

A water channel that is continually flowing downhill

Plucking

The process by which a glacier picks up rocks as it flows over the land

Ice Age

A time in history where glaciers covered most of the earth’s surface

Tributary

A stream or river that flows into a larger river

Soil

The loose, weather material on Earth’s surface in which plants can grow

Long shore Drift

Movement of water and sediment down a beach caused by waves coming to shore at an angle

Valley Glacier

A long narrow glacier that Forms in a mountain range

Glacier

A large mass of ice that moves slowly over land

Delta

A landform made of sediment that’s deposited where a river flows into an ocean or lake

Till

The sediments deposited directly by a glacier

Deposition

Process in which Sediment is laid down in new locations

Loess

A wind formed deposit made of clay and silt

Deflation

The process of wind removing surface material

Sediment

Small solid pieces of material that comes from rocks or remains of organisms (AKA Fossils)

Erosion

Water, ice, wind or gravity moving weathered particles of rock and soil

Sand Dune

A deposit of wind-blown sand

Mass Movement

Any one of several processes by which gravity moves sediment downhill

Uniformitarianism

The geologic principle that the same geologic processes that operate today also operated in the past to change the Earth’s surface