Koch Geoscience Sedimentology
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24 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 erosion | The process by which wind, water, ice, or gravity transports soil and sediment from one location to another |
| frost wedging | the mechanical breakup of rock caused by the expansion of freezing water in cracks and crevices |
| exfoliation dome | large, dome-shaped structure, usually composed of granite, formed by sheeting |
| slump | occurs when a mass of rock or sediment moves downhill along a curved surface |
| weathering | the decompocition and disintegration of rocks and minerals at the earth's surface by a mechanical and chemical process |
| permafrost | ground that is permanently frozen |
| secondary enrichment | the concentration of minor amounts of metals that are scattered through unweathered rock into economically valuable concentrations by weathering processes |
| solifluction | Slow, downslope flow of water-saturated materials common to permafrost areas. |
| mechanical weathering | The type of weathering in which rock is physically broken into smaller pieces |
| spheroidal weathering | any weathering process that tends to produce a spherical shape from an initially blocky shape |
| rockslide | the rapid slide of a mass of rock downslope along planes of weakness |
| chemical weathering | process in which the chemical composition of rocks is changed by agents such as natural acids and oxygen |
| lahar | mudflows on the slopes of volcanoes that result when unstable layers of ash and debris become saturated and flow downslop, usually following stream channels |
| mass wasting | The movement of land downhill powered by gravity |
| differential weathering | Varying rates of weathering resulting from some rocks in an area being more resistant to weathering than others. |
| sheeting | a mechanical weathering process characterized by the splitting off of slablike sheets of rock |
| creep | the slow downhill movement of weathered rock material |
| talus slope | an accumulation of rock debris at the base of a cliff |
| angle of repose | the steepest angle at which loose material remains stationary without sliding downslope |
| salt wedging | Salt crystals grow in the cracks (similar to ice crystals); a process found in arid environment where salt crystals grow after water that has gotten on the rock evaportes |
| graded bedding | depositional feature of sedimentary rock in which particles are progressively heavier and coarser toward the bottom layers of bedding |
| cross bedding | depositional feature of sedimentary rock that forms as inclined layers of sediment are carried forward across a horizontal surface |
| ripple marks | small parallel ridges and toughs formed in sediment by wind or water currents and waves, They may then be preserved when the sediment is lithified |
| flute casts | primary structure formed in sedimentary rock when a log is dragged along the bottom of a river, or rock and sediment in turbidity currents, leaving a u-shaped dent in the river bed or ocean basin |
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