Earth Science Lab Quiz 2

Hydrologic Cycle

The continuous, solar-powered movement of water between the Earth's surface, atmosphere, and underground

Runoff

Precipitation that does not soak into the soil but instead moves on the Earth’s surface towards steams

Infiltration

Precipitation that soaks into the soil

Groundwater

Water found underground in the cracks and spaces in soil, sand, and rock

Evaporation

Water that changes from a liquid to a gas and moves from the Earth’s surface back into the atmosphere

Precipitation

Water that falls from the atmosphere to the Earth’s surface

Reservoir

Storage of water that occurs on the land surface

Where does storage of water occur?

Oceans, lakes, reservoirs, and glaciers

What direction do rivers flow?

Downhill

What direction are the shapes of the contours pointing?

Uphill (shaped like a V like its being poured out of a a triangle paper cup)

Gradient

Slope of a stream bed along its course (ex. a gradient of 5ft/mi has a vertical drop of 5 feet for every 1 horizontal mile)

Headwaters

Streams typically begin in the mountains

Mouth

End of a stream where it typically enters the sea, lake, or larger stream

Floodplain

A broad, flat area adjacent to river; flat area of sediment deposited by the stream, risk of flooding depending on river level

Stream channel

A long, narrow depression, shaped and filled by a stream

Stream banks

Sides of the channel

Stream bed

Bottom of the channel

Drainage system

A stream and its tributaries

Drainage basin

Each drainage system occupies a basin

Drainage divide

Imaginary line connecting points of highest elevation between two basins

Erosive power

A streams’s stream gradient and stream discharge, which is its rate of flow in units volume per tie

More erosion is caused by

Hgher gradients + higher discharde

Areas and divide of adjacent basins will stay constant if?

They have the same gradient and discharge

If gradients and discharge are different, the basins will:

shift toward the system with the lower gradient/discharge

Sinuous

How bendy a stream is (a straighter stream is less _____)

Cutbank

Where the stream flows fastest around a band and erodes away sediment

Point bar

Where the stream flows slowest around a bend and deposits sediment

Oxbow Lake

Cut off meander when stream pinches off due to erosion

Meander Scar

Remnants of a meander; an oxbow lake filled with sediment

How does groundwater flow?

Downhill

Water table contours

Show the elevation of the water table underground

Flow lines

Show the direction of groundwater flow, drawn directly across water table contours at 90 degrees

Glacier

Body of ice and snow formed on land that shows downslope or outward movement under the influence of gravity.

How do glaciers flow?

Downhill

Moraines

Accumulation of glacial debris (till) pushed along by ice flows

Lateral moraines

At the side of the glacier

Median moraine

In the middle of a glacier formed when two lateral moraines meet

Terminal moraine

A moraine at the furthest extent of the glacier

Arête

Narrow divide between two valleys: a ridgeline extending off a horn; smaller than a serrate divide

Horn

Pyramid shaped mountain peak at the head of a glacial valley: appears like a triangle on topographic maps

Serrate Divide

Large divide between headward regions of oppostelly sloping glacial vallets

Cirque

A bowl-like feature sitting in the crook of an arête

Tarn

A lake occupying a cirque

U-shaped valley

Glacially eroded valley

Hanging valley

Valley sitting upstream of a cliff

Outwash plain

Streams flowing from the terminus deposited sand and gravel beyond the front of the glacier

Drumlin

Elongate/steamlined hill parallel to direction of ice movement

Kettle

Ice block pit in an end moraine- can also fill with water to form ______ lakes

Esker

Long, sinuous ridge of water-deposited sediment

Glacial Drift

All rock material transported by a glacier and deposited directly from the ice (till) or by meltwater from the glacier (outwash)

Kame

Steep-sided hill made when outwash collects in stagnant glacial ice

Where is the Zone of aeration, water table, and zone of saturation?

Zone of aeration is above water table and zone of saturation is below water table

Earthquake

A violent and abrupt shaking of the ground, caused by movement between tectonic plates along a fault line in the earth’s crust

Plate tectonics

Rigid plates that make up the casing of the eath, and teir movement with respect to one another

What do plate tectonics explain?

The origin and distribution of volcanoes and earthquakes, topography of the seafloor, and other geologic features

Crust/lithosphere

Solid, thin layer of rock on earth’s surface, where we live

Mantle

Solid (not liquid, but “flows” slowly), thickest layer of the earth, interaction with crust causes plate movement

Outer core

Liquid, iron-nickel layer, works with inner core to generate an electromagnetic field (which allows us to have an atmosphere)

Inner core

Solid, iron-nickel sphere, works with the outer core to generate an electromagnetic field

Divergent plate

Two plates moving away from eachother

Subduction/Convergent

Two plates are moving towards each other. One plate sinks into the mantle (subducting plate) while the other overrides

Transform

Two plates sliding past each other

1

Eurasian plate

2

Philippine plate

3

4

Pacific plate

5

Juan de Fuca

6

Cocos plate

7

Nazca plate

8

Antarctic plate

9

North American plate

10

Caribbean plate

11

South American Plate

12

African plate

13

Arabian Plate

14

Australian-Indian plate

15

Eurasian plate

16 (actually unlabeled)

Scotia plate

Divergent plate

Transform

Convergent

Draw the subduction zone

1st step to calculate the rate of seafloor spreading

Measure from a spot at which the plate is spreading outward to a spot with a known age point

2nd step to calculate the rate of seafloor spreading

Use the map’s scale to convert the measurement into actual inches of spreading over that time period

3rd step to calculate the rate of seafloor spreading

Divide the distance the sea floor spread by the time it took the spread that far, to find the rate of spreading per year = the distance the sea floor moves / length of time

What is the spreading rate between two plates using magnetic anomalies

1 km/mya divided by 10 = 0.1 cm/yr

Physical layers of the earth from outside to inside

Lithosphere (Crust + brittle mantle), Asthenosphere, Mesosphere, Outer Core, Inner Core

What is the crust made of?

Oceanic : Basalt, Continental : Granite

What is the mantle made of?

Peridotite

What is the core made of?

Iron and nickel alloy

Which body wave of an earthquake moves faster?

P waves

Which body wave of an earthquake moves slower?

S waves

What way do P-waves vibrate?

Parallel

What way do S waves vibrate?

Perpendicular

Which body wave has a higher amplitude?

P waves

The velocity of P waves and S waves ___ with increased depth in the lithosphere.

Increase

Does the velocity of P waves and S waves increase or decrease immediately below the lithosphere?

Decrease

Does the change in velocity of seismic waves as they enter the asthenosphere indicate that the asthenosphere is more or less rigid than the lithosphere?

The asthenosphere is  ______ rigid than the lithosphere.

Less

How does the velocity of seismic waves change with increasing depth in the lower mantle?

Slowly increases

Does the change in velocity of seismic waves with increasing depth in the lower mantle indicate that the rock in the mantle becomes more or less rigid with depth?

The rock in the mantle becomes  ____  rigid with depth.

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