Term
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Definition
- Also known as mass wasting
- gravitationally caused downslope transport of rock, regolith (soil, sediment, and debris), snow, and ice
- initial step in sediment transportation
- significant agent of landscape change
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Definition
- refers to the slow, grdual downslope movement of regolith on a slope
- commonly, creep affects soil
- referred to as "soil creep"
- due to expansion and contraction
- grains are moved perpendicular to slope upon expansion and vertically by gravity upon contraction
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Definition
- slow downhill movement of tundra
- generates hillsides with solifluction lobes
- type of creep in treeless tundra regions
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Definition
- sliding of regolith as coherent blocks
- slippage occurs along spoon shaped "failure surface"-surface on which slimp slips
- head scarp: distinct, curving step at the upslope edge of a slump, where the regoith detaches
- bulging toe: end of slump where the ground elevation rises as the slump rides up and over preexisting land surface
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Definition
- a slurry of water and fine sediment
- speed of mudflow depends on the slope angle and the water content
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- a mudflow with many large rocks as well as water and fine sediment
- speed of debris flow depends on the slope angle and the water content
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- a volcanic mud or debris flow
- contains volcanic ash mixed with water
- water is from heavy rains or melted glacial ice
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Term
Rock slide (type of landslide) |
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Definition
- movement down a non-vertical slope consisting of rock only
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| Ribbons of water that flow down channels or troughs |
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| Water in motion over the land surface, important geologic agent |
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| Rapid erosion lengthens the channel up slope |
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| Dendritic Drainage Pattern |
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Definition
| Branching, "treelike" due to uniform material |
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Definition
| Form a point uplift (mesa, volcano, etc.) |
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| Rectangular Drainage Pattern |
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Definition
| Controlled by jointed rocks, vertical joints that create right angles |
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| Alternating resistant and weak rocks, occurs in parallel valleys and ridges |
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| Land areas that drain into a specific trunk stream, collects water from a broad region |
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| Uplands that separate drainage basins |
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Definition
| Water flows all year, at or below the water table, humid or temperate climates, sufficient rainfall, lower evaporation, seasonal discharge variation, discharge increases in a downstream direction |
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| Do not flow all year, above the water table, dry climates, low rainfall, high evaporation, flow mostly during rare flash floods, discharge decreases in a downstream direction |
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| Dry wash or arroyo or wadi |
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| The amount of water flowing in a channel, the volume of water passing a point per unit time |
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| Running water picks up sediment and moves it |
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| Sediment grains in flow "sandblast" rocks |
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| Mineral matter dissolves in water |
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| The material moved by streams, the total volume of sediment carried by a stream |
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| Ions from mineral weathering |
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| Fine particles in the flow without settling to the floor of the channel |
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| Larger particles roll, slide and bounce along including sand, pebbles or cobbles |
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| Fluvial sediments transported by a stream |
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| The lowest point to which a stream can erode, defined by position of sea level, streams cannot erode below sea level |
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| Steep trough sidewalls form cliffs, form in hard rocks |
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| Gently sloping trough sidewalls define a V-shape |
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| Mark former floodplains, a step like landform |
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| Streams intertwine, form where channels are choked by sediment |
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| A gently sloping apron of sediment which accumulates from water slowing and abruptly dropping the sedimentary load |
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| Deepest channel, marks the natural direction of a watercourse |
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| Wedge shaped deposit where sediment accumulates |
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| High velocity meander flow |
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| Due to high velocity flow, the meander cut-off forms this |
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| Forms when a stream enters standing water, stream divides into a fan of small distributaries, shape due to the interplay of flow, waves, and tides, New Orleans is an example |
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| River overflows a natural levee upstream and begins to flow in a new direction |
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| Process of renewed downcutting by a stream, initiated by base level drop |
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| A stream captures another flow, captured stream flows into the new stream |
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| A stream that forms over horizontal beds that overly folded and faulted rock with varying resistance, stream maintains the geometry developed at an earlier time |
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| Streams which existed before the mountain range uplifted, range's growth can alter the stream's course, will maintain course before uplift of range and cut directly across the range |
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| Shallow (0 to 500m), gently sloping (.3 degrees), underlain by thinning sialic crust |
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Definition
| Descends from 500 m to 4 km at approximately 2 degrees |
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| Transition Zone from 4 to 4.5 km |
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| Flat, low relief bottom below 4.5 km, underlain by mafic oceanic crust |
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| Passive Continental Margin |
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Definition
| Located far from a tectonic plate boundary, develops a broad shelf of sediment overlying sialic crust |
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| Active Continental Margin |
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Definition
| Immediately adjacent to a tectonic plate boundary, characterized by a thin, narrow continental shelf |
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| Relatively narrow and deep valleys, crosscut continental shelves, associated with large rivers, results from flow of turbidity currents and avalanches of sediment mixed with water |
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| The form and topography of the ocean floor |
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| Remnants of hot spot volcanoes that are inactive act as a surface for presently active hot spot volcanoes, the Galapagos or the Hawaiian Islands |
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| 3.5%, reflects dissolved ions which are derived from chemical weathering of rocks |
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| Occurs due to evaporation and formation of sea ice |
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| Occurs from rainfall, glacial melt, and river input |
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| Surface waters are drawn upward, onshore water piles up along coast |
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| Deep waters are pushed upward, occurs offshore |
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| The range between high and low tides |
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| Caused by gravitational pull of the moon and the sun, centrifugal forces from the rotation of the earth, moon and sun, orbiting moon creates the strongest tidal effects |
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| Distance between wave crests |
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| Waves that crash onto the beach |
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| Waves bend as they approach the shore, wave energy focuses on headlands and is weaker in embayments |
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| Flows parallel to the shore, oblique waves push sediment sideways up the beach |
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| Develop when wave attack is straight on, develops perpendicular to the beach, dissipate away from the surf zone |
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| Steep, concave zone formed by wave smash |
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| Upper part of the beach, beyond the reach of normal high tides, often exhibit berms |
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| Elongate, linear sandbars, create a lagoon |
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| Form in intertidal zones lacking strong waves, common behind barrier islands or in estuaries, contain laminated sand and mud, confined ancient fossils found |
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| Vegetated by trees, grasses or mosses |
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| Grow in tropical marine settings, create large structures of cemented skeletons, rapid response to sea level change, hypersaline, form lagoons, precipitate salts, modify sediment accumulation, alter wave and current energy |
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| Reefs formed on subsiding volcanoes |
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| River valleys filled by marine water, characterized by mixing fresh and salt water known as brackish water, Chesapeake Bay |
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| Flooded U-shaped valleys carved by glaciers, Ex. Norway, British Columbia, and New Zealand |
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| Experience relative sea-level fall, uplift due to tectonic processes, eustatic sea-level drop, river incision, cliffs, wave-cut notches, and platforms |
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| Experience relative sea-level rise, subsidence of a passive margin, eustatic sea-level rise, flooded river or glacial valleys create estuaries and fjords |
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| Net sediment accumulation |
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| Sediment removed faster than supplied |
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| Large boulders that are displaced geologically |
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| Louis Agassiz, glaciers could explain erratics, ice age froze Europe and North America |
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| Fill mountain-top bowls, snow falls off steep part of mountain and accumulates |
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| Flow like rivers down valleys |
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| Spread out at the end of a valley |
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| Vast ice sheets covering large land areas, ice flows outward from thickest part of sheet, two remain: Greenland and Antarctica |
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Definition
| Ice is at or near melting temperature, flows rapidly and moves well |
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Definition
| Ice is well below melting temperature, doesn't flow |
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| Water flows along base of glacier |
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| Ice slips over a meltwater/sediment slurry |
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Definition
| Cold base is frozen to substrate, movement is by internal plastic deformation of ice |
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Definition
| Uppermost 60 meters, tensions initiates cracking of the ice, crevasses may open and close with movement |
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| Lower than 60 meters, ductile flow occurs in deeper ice, ice flow heals cracks |
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| Area of net snow addition, colder temperatures prevent melting, snow remains across the summer months |
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| The leading edge of a glacier |
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Term
Toe Position
Accumulation=Ablation |
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Definition
| Glacial toe always stays in the same place |
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Term
Toe Position
Accumulation>ablation |
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Definition
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| Toe Position
Accumulation |
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Definition
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| Valley glaciers entering the sea |
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| Continental glaciers entering the sea |
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| Non-glacial ice formed of frozen seawater |
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| Ice debris calves off the edge off of marine glaciers |
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| Rock is surrounded and carried off by glacial erosion |
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| Ice breaks off and removes bedrock fragments |
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| A "sandpaper" effect on substrate, polishes bedrock, large rocks dragged across bedrock gouge striations |
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| Bowl shaped basin high on a mountain, form at the uppermost portion of a glacial valley, after ice melts often filled with a tarn lake |
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| A "knife edge" ridge, formed by two cirques that eroded toward one another |
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| A pointed mountain peak, formed by three or more cirques that coalesce |
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| Glacial erosion creates a distinctive trough, different than v-shaped fluvial valleys |
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| The intersection of a tributary glacier with a trunk glacier, a waterfall results |
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| U-shaped glacial troughs flooded by the sea |
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| Refers to every kind of unsorted grain sizes |
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| Sediment dropped by glacial ice, consists of all grain sizes |
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| Glaciers that reach the sea |
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| Sediment transported in meltwater, mud removed, sizes are stratified, grains are rounded |
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| Wind transported silt, tend to accumulate in downwind movement |
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| Unsorted debris dumped by a glacier |
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| Forms along the flank of a valley glacier |
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| Mid-ice moraine from merging lateral moraines |
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| Form at the stable toe of a glacier |
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| Form at the farthest edge of flow |
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| Form as retreating ice stalls |
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| Long, aligned hills of molded lodgement till, asymmetric form, common as swarms aligned parallel to ice flow direction |
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| Long, sinuous ridges of sand and gravel, form as meltwater channels within or below ice, channel sediment released when ice melts |
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| Characterized by year round frozen ground (permafrost) |
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| Low latitudes, low elevations, far from oceans |
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| High Latitudes, high elevations, near cold ocean currents |
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| Largest amount found on earth, equator, subtropics 20-30 degrees N. to S., Sahara, Arabian, Kalahari |
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| Moist ocean winds are driven over mounts, dry area on the backside of back side of a mountainous region |
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| Cool air over cold ocean water holds little moisture, air absorbs moisture when interacting with land, Atacama (Peru) Desert, lots of fog with little rainfall |
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| Air loses moisture as it crosses continents, land far from ocean can be arid, Gobi Desert in Mongolia |
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| Above 66 degrees N. and S. there is little moisture, air circulation carries dry air to polar regions |
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| Dark surface coating of iron and manganese oxides, forms very slowly by bacterial activity, dust, and water |
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| Thin, with poorly defined horizons, usually colored by bedrock nearby and trace elements |
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| Grains moved in contact with land surface, coarser sand sized particles |
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| Sand skipped and bounced by grain impact |
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| Sediment carried in the air, finger grained silt sized "dust" |
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| A surface layer of stones, resistant to erosion, often coated with desert varnish |
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| Rocks that have been abraded, pitted, etched, grooved, or polished by wind-driven sand or ice crystals |
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| A streamlined hill carved from bedrock or any consolidated or semi consolidated material by the dual action of wind abrasion, dust and sand, and deflation |
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| Lowering the land surface via erosion |
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| Desert lakes that have no outlet streams, internal drainage collects water from flash floods, dissolved solids crystallize out as water evaporates |
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| Steep joint controlled cliff, less steep dip slope |
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| Steeply dipping beds create a symmetric ridge |
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| Eroded remnant of almost complete cliff retreat |
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| Sloping, gravelly alluvial plains, large boulder accumulation on plains |
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| Ramp-like surfaces that slope up toward a mountain front, bed rock sticking up |
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| Windblown accumulations of sand, generate enormous cross beds |
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| Stead 1 direction, scare sand |
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| Steady changing direction, scare sand |
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| Steady, moderate 1 direction, plentiful sand |
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| Steady, strong 1 direction, plentiful sand |
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| Steady, strong 1 direction, abundant sand |
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| Gigantic oceans of sands which develop in some deserts, Arabian Peninsula and Namibia, existed in the past in Permian and Jurassic Periods |
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| Aridification of non-desert areas, overpopulation, overgrazing, careless agriculture, diversion of water supplies, leads to famine |
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