Exam Review Engineering Geoscience

These flashcards cover key vocabulary and concepts from Engineering Geoscience, focusing on weathering, erosion, soil formation, and groundwater.

Weathering

The physical disintegration and chemical decomposition of rock into fragments.

Erosion

The detachment and transport of rock fragments by the action of water, wind, or gravity.

Mechanical Weathering

The breakdown of rocks into smaller fragments without changing their chemical composition.

Frost Action

Mechanical disintegration of a rock due to the pressure exerted by the freezing of water contained in its pores.

Exfoliation

The process of stripping away layers of rock from the surface of a larger rock mass.

Chemical Weathering

The breakdown of rocks and minerals into new chemical combinations that are stable under surface conditions.

Dissolution

A chemical weathering process by which minerals pass into solution, often aided by small amounts of acid water.

Hydrolysis

A reaction of any substance with water, resulting in the replacement of positive ions in a mineral by hydrogen ions.

Kaolinite

A clay mineral formed from the hydrolysis of feldspar.

Leaching

The process by which soluble material in soil is washed into a lower layer or carried away by water.

Bedrock

The relatively hard, solid rock that underlies altered rock, sediment, or soil.

Porosity

The measure of void spaces in a material, represented as a ratio of the volume of voids to the total volume.

Aquifer

A saturated body of rock or soil that transmits significant quantities of groundwater.

Permafrost

Ground (soil or rock) that remains at a temperature of 0°C or lower for at least two consecutive years.

Mass Movement

The downslope movement of earth materials under the direct influence of gravity.

Hydraulic Conductivity

A property that describes the ease with which a fluid can move through pore spaces or fractures.

Soil Profile

A vertical section of the soil that depicts all of its horizons.

Pedocal

Soil enriched in calcium, typically associated with dry grasslands.

Pedalfer

Soil found in moist temperate regions that is enriched in aluminum and iron.

Talus Slopes

Accumulations of rock fragments that have moved down a slope due to weathering.

Gelifluction

Mass movement linked to the thawing of the active layer of permafrost.