| Term | Definition |
|---|
| As a river winds from side to side, it tends to what? | erode the outer bank and deposit sediment on the inner bank of a bend |
| What are the two kinds of energy? | potential energy and kinetic energy |
| What happens when energy does work? | the energy is transferred from one object to another |
| What is a river always doing? | moving sediment from the mountains to the sea and eroding its banks and valley |
| What causes the movement of water across Earth's surface? | gravity |
| What happens in the process of water erosion? | water picks up and moves sediment |
| How does sediment enter rivers and streams? | it washes or falls into the river as a result of mass movement and runoff, erodes from the bottom or sides of the river, wind drops it, and abrasion |
| When does abrasion in a river occur? | when particles of sediment in flowing water bump into the streambed again and again |
| What causes a river's load to move downstream? | gravity and the force of the moving water |
| How does water carry sediment? | large particles are pushed or rolled, smaller particles bounce (are picked up in fast water) |
| What are the factors that the power of a river to cause erosion and carry sediment depend on? | a river's slope, volume of flow, and shape of streambed |
| What happens when a river slows down? | the load is dropped (large particles first) |
| What happens if a river's slope increases? | the water's speed also increases |
| What is a river's slope? | the amount the river drops toward sea level over a given distance |
| What is a river's flow? | the volume of water that moves past a point on the river in a given time |
| What happens when a river floods? | its power to erode may increase by a lot |
| What does a streambed's shape affect? | the amount of friction between the water and the streambed |
| Which is faster: a shallow river or a deep river? (Why?) | deep (less friction) |
| What is the cause of turbulence? | boulders in a streambed |
| What is the flow like in a curvy river? | water fastest along outside curve, deposition on the inside curve |
| What is the flow like in a straight river? | water fastest in center, deposition along the sides |
| What are the two kinds of glaciers? | continental and valley |
| What percent of land do continental glaciers cover? | 10% |
| What keeps valley glaciers from spreading out in all directions? | sides of mountains |
| Where are valley glaciers found? | high mountains |
| Which is larger: continental or valley glacier? | continental |
| How do valley glaciers form and move? | snow builds up year after year, the weight of the snow compacts the snow on bottom into ice, once the depth of the snow/ice reached more than 30 meters, gravity pulls the glacier downhill |
| What is the only area where glaicers can form? | where more snow falls than melts |
| What is it called when a valley glacier slides down more quickly than a few cm per day? | a surge |
| What are the two processes by which glaciers erode the land? | plucking and abrasion |
| What is the process of plucking? | a glacier flows over the land and picks up rocks, the weight of the ice breaks rocks, the rock particles freeze to the bottom of the glacier |
| What happens when a glacier melts? | it deposits sediment it eroded from the land, creating landforms |
| What is till made up of? | clay, silt, sand, gravel, and boulders |
| What forms when kettles fill with water? | ponds or lakes (kettle lakes) |
| Where does the energy in waves come from? | wind that blows across the water's surface |
| What shapes the coast through erosion by breaking down rock and transporting sand and other sediment? | waves |
| What processes do waves erode through? | impact and abrasion |
| How do waves form? | wind makes contact w/the water and some of the wind's energy is tranferred to the water, the energy that it picks up causes the water particles to move up and down as the wave goes by, but they don't move forward themselves, the wave begins to drag on the bottom as its approahes shallows water, the friction cause it the slow down, now the water does move forward with the wave |
| What is the process in which waves erode the land by impact? | large waves hit rocks along the shore, the energy in the waves breaks apart rocks, causing peices of rock to break off |
| What is the process in which waves erode the land by abrasion? | a wave picks up sediment and carries it forward, the wave hits land and wears away rock |
| Why do headlands stick out from the coast? | made of harder rock that resists erosion by the waves |
| What is the process of headland erosion? | waves coming to shore change direction when parts of them begin to drag on the bottom, the energy in the waves is focused on headlands, over time the waves erode the headlands and even out the shore |
| Over a long period of time, what effect do waves have on a steep, rocky coast? | they erode the base of the land along the coast and the hollow area in the rock called a sea cave (erode faster where softer rock) |
| What are the landforms created by wave erosion? | headlands, sea caves, sea arches, sea stacks, and wave-cut cliffs |
| What are the landforms created by wave deposition? | beaches, spits, and sandbars |
| Where do spits occur? | where a headland or other obstacle interuppts longshore drift or where the coast turns abrubtly |
| When does wave deposition occur? | when they slow down and drop their sediment |
| Where does most sand on beaches come from? | rivers that carry eroded rocks into the ocean |
| What can beaches be made of? | sand, coral, or shells |
| What causes the sediment on a beach to move down the beach? | waves that hit the beach at an angle that create a current parallel to the coast |
| When does a barrier beach form? | when storm waves pile up sand above sea level |
| What is the process of wind erosion (how wind carries sediment)? | wind picks up the smallest sediments, fine particles are carried through the air, medium-sized particles skip or bounce then fall back down, strong winds roll large sediment particles over the ground |
| What is the weakest agent of erosion? | wind |
| Why is wind effective in causing erosion in deserts? | few plants grow there, so it can easily move grains of sand |
| What is the main way wind causes erosion? | deflation |
| What can deflation create? | blowouts and desert pavement |
| When does wind-carried sediment fall to the ground? | when the wind slows down or where an obstacle (boulder or clump of grass) traps the sediment |
| What are the two types of deposits formed by wind erosion and deposition? | sand dunes and loess |
| What type of sediment can be found far from its source? | sediment that is finer than sand (clay and silt) deposited in layers called loess |
| How are sediment in loess deposits different from the sediments in a sand dune? | loess-finer than sand, sand dune-coarser |
| What is desert pavement? How does it form? | an area of rock fragments formed by deflation, where the wind blows away smaller sediment so all the remains are rocks that are too heavy to be moved |
| What is a blowout? Where are they formed? | a bowl-shaped hollow produced by deflation, where there is already a slight depression in the ground |
| What helps to anchor sand dunes in place? | plant roots |
| How do sand dunes move over time? | the sand shifts with the wind from one side of the dune to the other |
| What helps to form fertile soil? | loess |
| What are most desert landforms a result of? | weathering and water erosion |
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