Physical Geography - Exam 3 (Stephen Wooten MSU)

nonrenewable resource

resources that are in limited supply and when consumed like a certain rate will be used up.

renewable resource

resources that are replenished naturally over a relatively short period of time.

Why is soil a renewable yet exhaustible resource

Soil forms slower than it is being used/eroded

what are the four components of soil

minerals, air, water, organic matter

saturation

all pore space is filled with water

what is field capacity

the amount of water soil can hold against the force of gravity

what is permeability?

how well water travels through pores

What are the five soil formation factors

parent material, time, topography, climate, organisms

what is residual parent material?

soil that forms from the residue left by weathering if local bedrock

what is transported parent material?

soil that forms from the material deposited by wind, water, or glacier ice

what are the four soil formation processes?

addition, transportation, depletion, and translocation

What is the process of soil formation that is called addition?

gains made by soil when organic matter is added

what is the soil formation process that is called Transportation?

the weathering of rocks and minerals and decomposition of organic material in soil

What is the soil formation process that is called Depletion?

the loss of dissolved components as they are carried downward by water

What is the soil formation process that is called translocation?

movement of dissolved and suspended particles from one depth to another within the soil

Loam

Using the soil texture triangle, what is 50% sand, 20% clay, and 30% silt?

using the soil textures triangle, what is 30% sand, 60% clay, and 10% sit?

Clay

What is the A horizon?

the top layer of soil that is darkened by organic material

What is the B horizon?

the middle layer of soil that recieved dissolved particles from the above layer

What is the C horizon?

the bottom layer of soil where weathering has only minor effects.

What are the four soil structures

Platy, Blocky, Prismatic, Granular

what dies a platy soil structure look like?

thin plates stacked horizontally

What does a prismatic soil structure look like?

arranged in vertical columns

What does a blocky soil structure look like an what are its two sub categories?

irregular shape but fit together like Legos, angular (sharp edges) and sub angular (rounded)

What does a granular soil structure look like?

small and nearly rounded (think like sand)

What are the four carbon pools and which is the largest?

the atmosphere, biosphere, lithosphere (Earth's crust is the largest), and the oceans

What is happening when carbon goes from the lithosphere/biosphere to the atmosphere?

the burning of fossil fuels, volcanic eruptions, forest fires emissions by organisms

What is happening when carbon goes from the atmosphere to the lithosphere/biosphere?

Photosynthesis (Plants take in CO2 in order to create food for themselves)

What is happening when carbon goes from the atmosphere into the ocean?

the ocean is absorbing and dissolving CO2

What are Earths four internal layers?

the solid inner core, liquid outer core, mantle, and crust

What is Earth's solid core made up of?

dense iron and Nickle which exist in a solid state due to high pressure

What is Earth's liquid outer core made up of?

the same materials as the inner solid core, except they exist in the liquid form due to less pressure

What two categories does the Mantle break into?

lower and upper mantles

What is the lower mantle of Earth?

a layer composed of iron, magnesium, and silicon compunds

How many regions is the upper mantle split into and what are they called?

2, the asthenosphere (lower portion) and the lithosphere (upper portion)

What is the asthenosphere made of?

molten rock

What is found in the crust and what is the range of its thickness?

rocks, 5-40kms

What is the Moho discontinuity and how was it found?

the boundary between the mantle and crust, it indicates the mantle is denser than the crust. It was found because earthquake seismic wave speeds change when moving through the mantle vs the crust since the mantle is denser.

what is continental crust?

lower density, thicker, and made up of felsic rock

What is oceanic crust?

dense, made up of mafic rock

What are elements?

building blocks of minerals (cannot simplify any further)

What are minerals?

naturally occurring inorganic elements or compounds having specific formulas, definite chemical composition, physical properties, and crystalline structure

What are rocks?

crustal material made up of minerals

What are five ways to identify minerals?

chemical composition, hardness, streak, fracture, cleavage

What is the chemical composition of a rock?

its atomic structure

What is the hardness of a rock based off of?

Mohs hardness scale

What is the streak of a rock?

the color of a mineral when made into a fine powder

What is the fracture of a rock?

the way a mineral breaks

What is the cleavage of a rock?

the tendency of a mineral to break along a flat, planar surface based on its structure, a type of fracture

What are the three main rock types?

igneous, metamorphic, sedimentary

What are igneous rocks and hat two groups can they be broken into?

rocks that are more resistant to weathering, intrusive and extrusive

What is an intrusive igneous rock?

a rock resulting from cooled magma

What is an extrusive igneous rock?

a rock resulted from cooled lava

What are sedimentary rocks and what two categories can they be broken into?

rocks resulting from deposition, compaction, and cementation of rock fragments, mineral grains, and dissolved material derived from other rocks, can be broken into clastic and non clastic

What are clastic sedimentary rocks?

made from particles other than rocks (more common)

What are non clastic sedimentary rocks?

form from chemical solutions or organic deposition

what are metamorphic rocks forms from?

form when other rock types are subject to heat and pressure

What is the continental drift theory?

a hypothesis that the continents were slowly drifting around the Earth

What led to the continental drift theory?

Closely related fossil plants and animals that seemed likely to have evolved in the same geographic region were scattered across South Africa, South America, India, Australia, and even Antarctica

What is seafloor spreading?

Locations where hot rock continually rises from deep in the mantle, melting and then solidifying. Through this process, new igneous rock forms and is quickly pushed away horizontally by still-newer rock forcing its way up from below all along a mid-oceanic ridge

What is continental drift?

the theory about continents being connected

What are plate tectonics?

the theory discussing how plates move

what are the three plate boundaries?

divergent, convergent, and transform

What is a divergent plate boundary and what is an example?

two plates moving away from each other, seafloor spreading

What types of convergent boundaries are there?

continental-continental, oceanic-continental, oceanic- oceanic

What is the result of a continental-continental convergent boundary?

huge mountain ranges

What is the result of an oceanic-continental convergent boundary?

subduction, oceanic trench and continental mountains, continental volcano

What is the result of an oceanic-oceanic convergent boundary?

subduction resulting in an underseas trench, island arc

What is a convergent boundary?

a boundary where two or more lithospheric plates collide

What is a transform boundary?

two boundaries slip past each other laterally, neither creates nor destroys crust, commonly produce shallow quakes

What is an earthquake?

Shaking and trembling of the Earth's surface

What is the focus of an Earthquake?

the point in which the fault begins to rupture, which may be deep below ground

What is the epicenter of an earthquake?

the point at Earth’s surface vertically above the point of focus of an earthquake

attenuation

the ground shaking becomes weaker with increasing distance from the focus

amplification

soft ground can result in stringer shaking with increasing distance

What is the magnitude of an earthquake and what scale does it use?

the energy released as the fault ruptures, the Richter scale

What is the intensity of an earthquake and what scale does it use?

refers to the severity of the shaking at a particular location and it uses the Mercalli scale

why do tsunamis occur?

Ocean water is suddenly displaced by the movement of the crust in an earthquake or by a large landslide

what are the two types of lava?

Aa and Pohoehoe

What is Aa lava?

most abundant type of lava: rough/jagged surface, thick

what is pahoehoe lava?

smooth, billowy, or ropy surface; relatively

What are the three types of volcanoes and which one is the most destructive?

shield, cinder cone, composite/stratovolcano (most aggressive)

What is a shield volcano?

layer upon layer of solidified lava flows; large volcanoes but not steep. Large craters at their summits

What is a cinder cone volcano?

small volcanoes built from pyroclastic. They have very steep sides, and usually have a small crater

What is a composite volcano

these volcanoes are typically tens of miles across and ten thousand or more feet in height. They have moderately steep sides; Most destructive. Known as stratovolcanoes because of their layering of young ad older lava flows

What is a landform

a feature of Earth’s topography that can be distinguished and studied as a single unit.

what is a landscape

an aggregation of landforms

What is weathering

the breaking down or decomposition of rocks and other material on the Earth’s surface

what is mechanical weathering and what are two types

Destruction of rocks through force/stress, wedging and thermal expansion

What is wedging?

rocks break apart due to accumulation of sand/ice expanding in cracks

What is thermal expansion?

When a rock is warm, it expands, when a rock is cool, it contracts

What is chemical weathering

breaking down of rocks from some type of chemical reaction; changes the materials that make up the rock

What is biological weathering

weathering due to plants or animals such as burrowing animals or tree roots

What is mass movement

material that falls under the influence of gravity with little or no transporting agent

What are the four types of mass movement?

creep, slide, fall, flow

What is creep?

upper layer of soil moves faster than the layers below, which tilts vertical objects downslope

What is slide?

starts with a slope failure in which a block of rock or soil breaks loose and slide over a distinct surface

What is flow and what two types are there?

a relatively fluid downhill movement of weathered rock, loose sediments and soil, earth flow and debris flow

What is earth flow?

slow-moving flows often involving fine-grained and clay-rich soil

What is debris flow?

a fluid, fast moving slurry of sediment and water

What is fall?

Pieces of rock loosened by weathering literally falling through the air

what is erosion?

processes that move material to another place under the influence of transporting agents (mainly wind and water)

What is interception?

Raindrops may never reach the ground because of vegetation and evaporation

permeable vs impermeable surfaces

permeable allows water to easily infiltrate and percolate into the soil while impermeable does not allow water to easily infiltrate and percolate into the soil not allow water to easily infiltrate and percolate into the soil

what are examples of permeable and impermeable soils?

permeable --> sand impermeable --> clay

Why has urbanization made runoff worse?

the material used to make streets is impermeable, therefore it increases runoff.

what is infiltration

refers to the process of water entering a soil surface

What is percolation?

the movement of water within soil

what are the two types of runoff?

infiltration excess and saturation excess

what is infiltration excess

occurs when soil cannot keep up with the high rainfall or snowmelt rates

What is saturation excess?

occurs when the soil becomes saturated and can no longer hold anymore water

What is infiltration rate?

amount of water able to enter the soil in a specified time

What is infiltration capacity?

the maximum rate of infiltration into the soil under a particular set of conditions

What two factors increase slow runoff?

soil characteristics such as slope and roughness, soil moisture (rainfall intensity and amount)

what is river discharge

the volume of water passing a given cross-section in its channel within a certain amount of time

What is groundwater

freshwater hidden beneath the ground and within the lithosphere (1/4th of Earth’s total freshwater supply )

What is groundwater discharge?

the term used to describe the movement of groundwater from the subsurface to the surface

What is groundwater recharge?

water lost from the aquifer through discharge

What does a hydrograph show?

water level information over time. It may display stage, streamflow, and sometimes both

What is an aquifer and what two types are there?

porous and permeable layers that can be (at least partially) saturated, confined and unconfined

what is a confined aquifer

stuck between two rock layers, water comes from elsewhere in the ground

What is an unconfined aquifer?

obtains water directly from infiltration into the soil

What is the water table?

boundary between the unsaturated zone and the saturated zone underground

what is the formula used to calculate river discharge?

discharge = area x velocity