Weathering & Landforms (Unit 2)
The process where rocks break down due to physical actions, without changing the rock's chemical makeup.
What is physical weathering?
This movement of soil occurs when rain runs over a garden and washes the soil away from one place to another.
What is erosion?
Air pressure does this as altitude increases because there is less gravitational force acting on air molecules the farther you move from Earth's surface.
What is decrease (or decrease with altitude)?
The gases that make up Earth’s atmosphere are commonly referred to as air, which can be thought of as this.
What is a mixture?
This is the process where a warm wind passes over snow, causing the snow to change directly into water vapor without first becoming liquid water.
What is sublimation?
Alpine glaciers create rugged landscapes, while continental glaciers create flat landscapes.
How are alpine and continental glaciers different?
Rain pulling sediment to Earth and rivers flowing downhill carrying soil are two examples of how these two forces work together to erode materials.
What are water and gravity?
A forest fire affects the biosphere and this other sphere, due to the smoke and gases released into the air.
What is the atmosphere?
Earth's spheres interact by doing this with matter and energy.
What is exchanging (or moving matter and energy)?
The Sun’s energy most directly influences precipitation by driving this global cycle.
What is the water cycle?
This is the breaking down and wearing away of rock material by the mechanical action of other rocks, such as wind blowing sand against a dune.
What is abrasion?
This fan-shaped mass of sediment is deposited when a stream flows into an ocean or a lake.
What is a delta?
This type of local wind occurs during the day when the land heats up faster than the water, causing air to move from the high-pressure area over the sea to the low-pressure area over the land.
What is a sea breeze?
When water in a geyser is warmed from 25°C to 100°C, this property of the water will decrease.
What is density?
Rain, snow, hail, and sleet are the four main types of this weather event.
What is precipitation?
This type of lake in Florida is usually much deeper than other natural lakes, indicating it formed from a plugged, collapsed cave.
What is a sinkhole lake?
Thick deposits of windblown, fine-grained sediment are known by this term.
What is loess?
This narrow band of strong winds typically blows high in the atmosphere and usually stays too far north to affect Florida’s weather.
What is the jet stream?
This process is illustrated by heat from deep within the Earth causing rock in the mantle to push upward past cooler rock, or by warm air rising above a hot road.
What is convection?
The two elements shown at a Florida beach that add water vapor to the atmosphere via evaporation and transpiration.
What are ocean water and palm trees?
Water causes this type of weathering through chemical reactions, such as the formation of acid precipitation.
What is chemical weathering?
This is the general term for the rock material deposited by glaciers as they melt and retreat.
What is glacial drift?
If you fly up through the atmosphere, this is the layer where the temperature increases because the ozone layer absorbs the sun’s UV rays.
What is the stratosphere?
This measure is the ratio of water vapor in the air compared to the amount needed for saturation at a specific temperature.
What is relative humidity?
This phenomenon is most likely to happen near U.S. coastlines, particularly where there is warm ocean water, such as in the Gulf of Mexico/Southeast U.S.
What is a hurricane?