Term
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Definition
• The circulation of water between the hydrosphere, solid earth, and atmosphere.
• Powered by the sun
• 97% of the Earth’s water is in the ocean |
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Term
| Where is water mainly sourced from? |
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Definition
| Groundwater and surface runoff |
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Term
| What are the two types of base level? |
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Definition
• Ultimate: the ocean
• Local/temporary: waterfall, dam
• Raising base level causes deposition
• Lowering base level causes erosion |
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Term
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Definition
• Maintain the exact velocity required to transport materials and neither erode or deposit.
• A natural state for streams |
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Term
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Definition
| amount of material a stream can carry |
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Definition
| the largest size material that is carried |
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Definition
• Material dissolved in the water
• Supplied mostly by groundwater |
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Definition
• Carries largest amount
• Sand, silt, and clay
• Velocity decides what size material will be carried and what will be deposited |
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Term
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Definition
• Largest material
• Bounces along the bottom
• Only moves when water is forceful |
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Definition
• Generally well sorted
• Velocity separates the particles by size (sorting)
• Bars: sand and gravel deposited in a channel. |
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Term
| Stream sediments are known as |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
• Intermittent streams depositing large amounts of sediment onto a valley floor in the shape of a fan
• Common in deserts |
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Term
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Definition
• Formed when a stream or river enters a body of water with lower energy, and deposit its sediments
• Can produce large volumes of coarse sediment
• Great Oil and Gas Reservoirs
Ex: Gulf of Mexico |
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Term
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Definition
• Valleys that flood from meandering streams
• Consist of silt, sand and gravel
• Large flat areas plains with multiple old stream channels
• Sediment deposited during the formation of floodplains create natural levees |
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Term
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Definition
• Rapid down-cutting in resistant rocks
• Rapids and waterfalls (young features) are common
• Vertical walls
• More vertical erosion |
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Term
| Stream processes: uplift of land |
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Definition
• Increases gradient and stream flow
• Stream starts to erode: both headward and downward to bedrock |
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Term
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Definition
| create new floodplain level |
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Term
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Definition
| erosion into current channel and steals its flow. |
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Term
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Definition
• One of the most valuable resources
• About 1% of freshwater is underground
• Largest supply of freshwater |
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Term
| Where does groundwater generally accumulate? |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
• Area above the water table
• Lots of water, but hard to collect because of how it attaches to rocks and soil |
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Term
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Definition
• Below top of water table
• Completely saturated
• Varies seasonally due the quantity, distribution, and timing of precipitation
• Streams interact with the groundwater system |
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Term
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Definition
| • Streams that gain water from groundwater |
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Term
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Definition
| • Streams that lose water to groundwater |
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Term
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Definition
• Percentage of void space in rock and sediment
• Stores fluid |
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Term
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Definition
| • The ability to transmit water through the pores of sediment or material |
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Term
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Definition
| • The layers of material that prevent water flow |
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Definition
| • Sediments or material that transmits water freely |
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Term
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Definition
| • Where the water table meets the Earth’s surface |
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Definition
• Most common way of retrieving GW
• Used for agriculture, and drinking water
• Wells must break through the water table |
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Term
| What results in a cone of depression? |
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Definition
| • When the water table is lowered away from the well, its called drawdown |
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Term
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Definition
• Wells that flow to the surface
• Water rises above the top of the aquifer
• An aquitard must both be present |
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Term
| Problems associates with GW withdrawl |
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Definition
• Water table height is effected by amount of water going into and coming out of aquifer
• Severe droughts and over usage of wells can cause long term decreases in water table height |
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Term
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Definition
| GW removed more that replaced, it can cause the ground to sink |
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Term
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Definition
• Form when more water is frozen than melts each year
• 2% of the earth’s water is in glaciers
• If all glaciers melted, sea level would dramatically rise
• Glaciers are a strong erosional force, like a bulldozer |
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Term
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Definition
• Slow moving glaciers located in old stream valleys
• Ice bound by rock walls that flow from an upward point
• These form many features of classic glacier landforms |
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Term
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Definition
• Much larger than valley glaciers
• Two currently exist N. Pole/Greenland and Antartica
• Flow into ice shelves: flat masses of ice that extend toward the sea |
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Term
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Definition
| • Small ice sheet glaciers, that cover upland and plateaus and bury landscape |
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Term
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Definition
| • Flow from ice caps and ice sheets outward through mountains toward the sea. Like localized valley glaciers dumping into sea |
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Term
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Definition
| • When valley glaciers merge at base of large mountains |
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Definition
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Term
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Definition
• Mass of ice slips along ground
• Melted water causes ice to move over rock
• Caused by heat from in the earth |
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Term
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Definition
• Does not flow, is brittle and cracks
• Forms crevasses from glacier moving over rough terrain |
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Term
| Rates of glacier movement |
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Definition
• Some glaciers move at unnoticeable rates (cm/day), while others move up to several meters a day
• Quick movements by glaciers are called surges |
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Term
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Definition
• Area defined above the snowline
• Where ice and snow collect and form |
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Term
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Definition
• Located generally below snowline
• Where glaciers lose ice and snow due to melting
• Ice can break off in a process called calving which produces icebergs |
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Term
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Definition
• Water flows into cracks of rocks and freezes
• Glacier lifts, picks up and moves rocks
• Can move very large rocks |
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Term
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Definition
• Caused by rock movement sliding over rock, “sanding” it down
• Produces rock flour and glacial striations |
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Term
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Definition
| The sediments deposited by glaciers. |
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Term
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Definition
| Till and Stratified drift |
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Term
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Definition
• Sediment deposited when ice melts.
• Melting ice can’t sort sediments.
• Characterized by very poorly sorted, polished and scratched sediments. |
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Term
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Definition
• Sorted from glacial melt water according to shape and size
• Layered and better sorted than till
• Consists mostly of sand and gravel |
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Term
| Glacial theory and the ice age |
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Definition
• Last ice age was about 18,000 years ago
• Climate changes come from variations in the earth’s orbit and tilt of the axis |
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